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New webpage.

I'm a PhD in Public Policy (Economics Track) at Harvard currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Politics in Princeton University and as a Research Fellow at Harvard's Growth Lab.

My work applies microeconomic models and quantitative methods in spatial analysis, causal inference and machine learning to address questions on the political economy of current development issues (inequality, discrimination, violence, conflict, migration, international trade and economic growth).

In my Job Market Paper "Autocrats in crisis mode: Strategic favoritism during economic shocks" (Short video presentation) I argue that autocrats facing threatening economic crises may favor regime supporters to prevent them from joining opposition protests. I introduce a theoretical model that predicts that economic shocks induce regimes to engage in in-group favoritism to limit the resulting dissent to the opposition. I find evidence consistent with these predictions in the context of the Venezuelan blackouts of 2019 and during droughts in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Feel free to reach out to me at jrm488[at]g.harvard.edu with any questions. You can also find me on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Scholar.