Research Agenda
My research examines how organized economic interests and mass publics shape economic policy, and how citizens hold governments accountable for the outcomes. I work primarily with survey and conjoint experiments, often fielded across multiple countries, combined with observational data on firms, elections, and policy.
Business, Interest Groups, and Economic Policymaking — Firms are increasingly mobile, and governments compete to attract and retain them. This line of work asks when that competition pays off politically and when it distorts policy. I study how electric utilities and renewable energy producers lobby across federal systems, how governments design incentives for private investment, and how the domestic political interests of weaker states shape what they concede in trade agreements. A recurring theme is that the political logic of courting business often diverges from its economic returns.
Public Opinion in Global Politics — Foreign economic policy is made under the constraint of public opinion, but citizens rarely encounter trade, aid, or investment in the abstract. Using survey experiments across East Asia, South Asia, and Africa, I study how the identity of a trading partner, the framing of an aid project, or the conduct of a foreign government shapes what people are willing to support. Much of this work examines opinion in aid-receiving and middle-income countries, where the literature has been thinnest.
Political Economy of Environment and Energy — Energy and climate policy distributes costs unevenly and immediately, which makes it a demanding test of democratic accountability. I study whether voters punish governments for disasters and price shocks they did not cause, and why fuel subsidies persist despite their well-documented inefficiency. A parallel strand examines electricity access and power sector reform across developing countries.
Selected Work
Business, Interest Groups, and Economic Policymaking
- “Beyond Coercion: Weaker States' Domestic Political Motivations for Political Clauses in Preferential Trade Agreements.”The World Economy 48(1): 3-26, 2025.
- “Substitutes for Rule of Law? How BITs Deepen But Do Not Broaden US Investment in Developing Countries.”International Interactions 51(6): 1067-1088, 2025.
- “Why Compete for Firms?: Electoral Effects of Corporate Headquarters Relocation.”American Journal of Political Science 68(2): 339-353, 2024.
- “Who Votes for Free Trade and When? Geopolitics as the Sources of Legislative Preferences on Free Trade Agreements.”Review of International Political Economy 30(6): 2257-2284, 2023.
- “Tax Evasion Attitudes of Small Firms in Low- and Middle-income Countries: Evidence from Nigeria.”Development Policy Review 40(6): 1-17, 2022.
- “State Policy and Lobbying in a Federal System: Evidence from the Production Tax Credit for Renewable Energy, 1998-2012.”State Politics and Policy Quarterly 21(1): 1-30, 2021.
- “Policy Reform and the Problem of Private Investment: Evidence from the Power Sector.”Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 36(1): 38-64, 2017.
- “Does Power Sector Deregulation Promote or Discourage Renewable Energy Policy? Evidence from the States, 1991-2012.”Review of Policy Research 33(1): 22-50, 2016.
- “Electric Utilities and American Climate Policy: Lobbying by Expected Winners and Losers.”Journal of Public Policy 36(2): 251-275, 2016.
Public Opinion in Global Politics
- “Partisan Rationalization and Evaluations of (Un)Democratic Behaviors: The Amplifying Role of Affective Polarization.”Political Studies Forthcoming.
- “The Trump Effect in the Asia-Pacific.”International Relations of the Asia-Pacific Forthcoming.
- “Public Support for Environmental Aid: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment in India.”Global Environmental Politics Forthcoming.
- “When Disasters Strike Abroad: How Geopolitics and Empathy Shape Public Support for International Disaster Aid.”Revise and Resubmit, Review of International Organizations.
- “Rewarding Belligerence: Public Opinion and Audience Costs in Trade Conflicts.”Revise and Resubmit, International Interactions.
- “How Language Affects Survey Response: Experimental Evidence from Kenya.”Revise and Resubmit, Public Opinion Quarterly.
- “When Sanctions Trigger Rally Effects.”Revise and Resubmit, Journal of Peace Research.
- “Effect of international organizations' direct engagement with the public: information source credibility and the public's attitudes towards COVID-19-related measures.”Japanese Journal of Political Science 27(1), 2026.
- “Participatory process, anti-elitism, and legitimacy beliefs in local policy-making: evidence from a survey experiment in South Korea.”European Political Science Review 1-18, 2026.
- “What Do Aid Recipients Want? Public Attitudes Toward Foreign Aid in Developing Countries.”World Development 186: 106815, 2025.
- “Citizen Responses to Donor-Centeredness in the US-China Public Diplomacy Competition.”International Interactions 51(1): 121-137, 2025.
- “Anti-Asian Hate Crimes and American Reputation.”British Journal of Political Science 55: e77, 2025.
- “Target, Information, and Trade Preferences: Evidence from Survey Experiment in East Asia.”American Journal of Political Science 67(4): 898-914, 2023.
Political Economy of Environment and Energy
Climate Politics and Electoral Accountability
- “Gasoline in the Voter's Pocketbook: Driving Times to Work and the Electoral Implications of Gasoline Price Fluctuations.”American Politics Research 50(3): 312-319, 2022.
- “Barking Up the Wrong Tree: Retrospective Voting, Natural Disasters, and Electoral Backlash.”Comparative Political Studies 54(7): 1163-1196, 2021.
Subsidies, Taxation, and the Social Contract
- “Political Regime, Institutional Capacity, and Inefficient Policy: Evidence from Gasoline Subsidies.”Review of Policy Research 42(4): 883-904, 2025.
- “Are Credit Rating Agencies Punishing Petrostates for Energy Transition Risks?”Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy 14(1), 2025.
- “The Post-Oil Post-Covid Social Contract: Taxing Informal Workers for Healthcare Insurance in Oil Exporting Developing Economies.”Journal of Public Policy 45(3): 399-427, 2025.
- “Information campaigns and public perceptions of structural reforms: Evidence from a survey experiment on gasoline subsidy reform in Nigeria.”Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 43(2): 509-529, 2024.
- “When Do Petrostates Diversify Their Exports? Urgency, Interests, and Policy Design in Egypt, Kazakhstan, and Malaysia.”Development Policy Review 42(6): e12808, 2024.
- “Fuel Subsidy Reform and the Social Contract in Nigeria: a Micro-economic Analysis.”Energy Policy 156: 112336, 2021.
- “Building Social Contracts: The Determinants of Tax Morale in Nigeria.”Journal of Development Studies 57(2): 226-243, 2021.
Energy Access and Power Sector Reform
- “The Need for Impact Evaluation in Electricity Access Research.”Energy Policy 137: 111099, 2020.
- “Shades of Darkness or Light? A Systematic Review of Geographic Bias in Impact Evaluations of Electricity Access.”Energy Research & Social Science 58: 101236, 2019.
- “Is Coal-Fired Power Generation Associated with Rural Electrification? A Global Analysis.”Energy Research & Social Science 58: 101274, 2019.
- “Global Patterns of Power Sector Reform, 1982-2013.”Energy Strategy Reviews 23: 152-162, 2019.
- “Power Sector Reforms and Technical Performance: Good News from an Instrumental Variable Analysis.”Review of Policy Research 35(1): 120-152, 2018.
- “Light for All? Evaluating Brazil's Rural Electrification Progress, 2000-2010.”Energy Policy 86: 315-327, 2015.
Environment, Trade, and the Low-Carbon Transition
- “Clearing the Air: Public Health Concerns and Support for Natural Gas Restrictions in the United States.”Energy Research & Social Science 108: 103404, 2024.
- “환경 문제에 대한 인식과 원자력 에너지에 대한 태도.”East and West Studies 35(1): 201-239, 2023.
- “Identifying coal plants for early retirement in India: A multidimensional analysis of technical, economic, and environmental factors.”Applied Energy 312: 118644, 2022.
- “Thermoelectric Power Generation and Water Stress in India: A Spatial and Temporal Analysis.”Environmental Science & Technology 55(8): 4314-4323, 2021.
- “Environmental Effects of GATT/WTO Membership: An Empirical Evaluation.”International Interactions 45(5): 917-932, 2019.
- “The Future of India's Coal-Fired Power Generation Capacity.”Journal of Cleaner Production 226: 904-912, 2019.
Other Publications
- “South Korean Newspaper Coverage of Yemeni Refugees: Analysis of Topics and Sentiments using Machine Learning Techniques.”Asian Journal of Communication 34(1): 57-72, 2024.
Working Papers
- “Partisan Responses to the Mobility of Firms: Political Incentives to Retain Firms and Tax Treatment.”
- “Public Support for Judicial Reform: Partisan Bias and Source Effects.”
- “To Stay or to Go? Sources of Domestic Support for Foreign Direct Investment in Kenya.”
- “Public Opinion Toward the Relocation of Multinational Corporations: Evidence from Survey Experiment in South Korea.”