Research

Overview

My research lies at the intersection of International and Comparative Political Economy, global governance, and international development. I study how domestic political institutions and public organizations shape development policy, how international development norms are produced and contested, and how the shift from traditional aid toward development finance is transforming relations among governments, firms, international institutions, and citizens. You can find all my publications in my CV. 

The Politics and Performance of Bilateral Development Finance Institutions 

This ongoing research agenda, financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation, examines the growing role of national development finance institutions. DFIs use public capital to provide loans, equity, guarantees, and other forms of finance for private-sector projects in developing and emerging economies. My research asks how political and bureaucratic institutions shape DFI investment strategies; how DFIs cooperate with multilateral development banks, domestic financial institutions, governments, and private investors; and whether these arrangements mobilize additional capital and produce meaningful development outcomes.

Several projects examine the institutional architecture and political consequences of development finance. Research on the European Union’s Global Gateway shows how the expansion of guarantee-based finance has elevated national DFIs within European development cooperation, even as private-capital mobilization remains limited. Other studies investigate how co-financing with regional development actors affects the legitimacy of development institutions among citizens and business leaders, and how firms receiving support from the US International Development Finance Corporation become politically active after entering high-risk markets. Together, this research connects the institutional design of development finance to its political, economic, and developmental consequences.

Domestic Politics of Foreign Aid 

My 2021 book, States, Markets, and Foreign Aid (Cambridge University Press), explains why some donor governments work through recipient governments while others bypass them and channel aid through non-state actors. It shows that donor bureaucratic structures shape aid-delivery choices even under similar international and recipient-country conditions. Donors with more market-oriented public sectors are more likely to bypass recipient governments, while those with stronger public-sector traditions tend to engage them directly. This argument builds on earlier articles in International Organization and International Studies Quarterly and extends to research on multilateral trust funds, political parties’ positions on foreign aid, human-rights shaming, donor branding, and the challenges of conducting experiments with political elites published in IR journals. Here is a podcast In Pursuit of Development on my book and related articles.

The OECD DAC and the Politics of Development Standards

I recently concluded a research program on the OECD DAC, financed by the Swiss National Science Founcation. It examines the OECD Development Assistance Committee as an institution that defines standards, monitors donor behaviour, and shapes the practice of development cooperation. Across publications on populism, aid tying, gender-equality, new DAC donors, and the DAC peer-review system, we study how political pressures and IO bureaucratic politics interact with international rules and monitoring. 

Democracy Promotion, Soft Power, and Aid Effectiveness

In earlier research I also examine how aid-delivery strategies affect democracy promotion, governance, and public opinion. We study how donors’ choices between state-centered and civil-society-oriented aid shape democratic change in Africa. Other projects study judicial autonomy, civic education in Eastern Europe, and the political incentives surrounding the implementation of public-health aid. A related set of experimental studies investigates how foreign aid affects citizens’ perceptions of donors, project quality, and domestic governments. This work shows that information about foreign sponsorship can shape both donor reputations and political legitimacy in Bangladesh, South Africa and Nigeria. Across these projects, my research seeks to explain how political institutions and organizations shape the purposes, instruments, and consequences of international development policy. The overarching goal is to understand how the movement from traditional aid toward more complex forms of development finance is transforming global development governance.