Peer-Reviewed Publications
Tariffs and Corporate Political Activity: A Survey Experiment on U.S. Businesses with Robert M. Kubinec, Daniel L. Nielson, and Jiakun J. Zhang, Business and Politics, FirstView. (2025) [ungated] [Monkey Cage]
Migration and Development Finance: A Survey Experiment on Diaspora Members with Alexandra O. Zeitz, Review of International Organizations 19(2): 185-215. (2024) [ungated]
Low-Skilled Liberalizers: Support for Free Trade in Africa with Helen V. Milner, International Organization 77(4): 848-870. (2023) [ungated]
Mutual Gain or Resource Drain? Attitudes Toward International Financial Assistance During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic with Quynh Nguyen, International Interactions 47(6): 1131-1150. (2021) [gated] [ungated]
The Effects of Rejecting Aid on Recipients’ Reputations: Evidence from Natural Disasters with Allison Carnegie, Review of International Organizations 16: 495-519. (2021) [ungated]
Pleasing the Principal: U.S. Influence in World Bank Policymaking with Richard Clark, American Journal of Political Science 65(1): 36-51. (2021) [gated] [ungated] [AJPS blog]
Rethinking Foreign Aid and Government Legitimacy: Views from Aid Recipients in Kenya, Studies in Comparative International Development 55(2): 143-159. (2020) [ungated]
Global Patterns of Renewable Energy Innovation, 1990 to 2009 with Patrick Bayer and Johannes Urpelainen, Energy for Sustainable Development, 17(3). (2013) [gated]
Under Review and Working Papers
Accountable to Whom? Public Opinion of Aid Conditionality in Recipient Countries with Richard Clark and Alexandra O. Zeitz [paper] (conditionally accepted at International Studies Quarterly)
Bureaucratic Influence in International Politics with Richard Clark and Tyler Jost [paper] (invited for and under review at the Annual Review of Political Science)
Individuals in Institutions: Evidence from the World Bank and IMF with Richard Clark and Kolby Hanson [paper] (under review)
Trade Smarts: How Knowledge Informs Trade Policy Preferences in Sub-Saharan Africa with Richard Clark and Alexandra O. Zeitz [paper] (under review)
The Microfoundations of Geopolitical Influence in International Financial Institutions with Richard Clark [paper]
Legacies of Mexico's Haciendas: Income, Income Inequality, and Institutions with Hannah Landel (Wes ‘22)
In Progress
The Role of Individuals in Global Governance: Evidence from the World Bank with Richard Clark and Catherine Weaver
Client Country Bureaucrats and the World Bank with Cleo O’Brien-Udry
Book Project
Deciding Development: How International Organizations Classify and Create Developing Countries
International organizations change the world not only through money or laws but also through seemingly trivial activities. Using both observational and experimental approaches, this book shows that how international bureaucrats formally classify “developing countries” profoundly shapes how those countries are perceived and treated by influential actors in the global economy. Country classifications shape the aid, credit ratings, and democracy ratings countries receive. Increasingly, these consequences are felt even by domestic actors, who regularly interact directly with international elites. Focusing on the World Bank’s income classification system and the UN’s Least Developed Country category, this book explains why elite global actors rely on these classifications and who wins and loses as a result. Deliberately or inadvertently, for better or for worse, bureaucrats in international organizations exert considerable influence through their day-to-day activities. These findings will be of interest to development practitioners and students of international organizations in an age of measurement and metrics.