I am a Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. My research interests are in political economy, comparative politics, international relations and historical political economy. My work uses formal theory and quantitative methods, and often employs large historical datasets I collect from archival sources.

I am currently working on a series of articles on the abolition of slavery in the British empire. This work is funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship. My other recent research focuses on two interrelated topics. First, it studies how social groups can challenge those in power, including slave owners, autocrats and elected politicians. Second, it examines the various ways in which institutions can facilitate or hinder these challenges. This work has appeared in journals including the Journal of Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Conflict Resolution and Political Science Research and Methods.

I am on the editorial board of the Journal of Peace Research. I co-lead the Historical Political Economy (HPE) research group at King's.

Before joining King’s, I was the Bevil Mabey Fellow in Economics at St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge. I studied applied mathematics at Harvard (BA) and economics at Oxford (DPhil/PhD). Before my PhD, I was an associate consultant in the New York City offices of Bain & Company.