Welcome to my website! I am the head of the BMBF-funded research group "BIOPOLISTA" at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where I study the implementation of bioeconomy policies. Previously, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at HU in the project "PolDeRBio" on the politics of considering resilience in bioeconomy policies, and before that as a research associate at the University of Manchester's Effective States and Inclusive Development (ESID) Research Centre. I have a BA in Politics and Administration from the University of Konstanz and an MSc and PhD in Development Studies from the LSE. My research focuses on the political economy of development, with an emphasis on agricultural, industrial and trade policies in the Global South.
In my dissertation, I examined why and when governments in sub-Saharan Africa use commodity export restrictions to promote manufacturing. To test competing explanations, I drew on the quantitative analysis of my novel "African Export Promotion and Taxation Database" and in-depth comparative case studies of several productive sectors in Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania.
At ESID in Manchester, I led a major research project quantifying political settlements and a range of other political economy variables with the help of 126 country experts covering 42 countries in the Global South. The Political Settlements dataset can be found here.
I have also published and worked on topics related to the determinants of civil wars, anti-corruption agencies, exchange rate valuation, and the political economy of green energy transitions. I enjoy triangulating evidence from quantitative quasi-experimental methods and standard regressions with in-depth case study analysis.
In my dissertation, I examined why and when governments in sub-Saharan Africa use commodity export restrictions to promote manufacturing. To test competing explanations, I drew on the quantitative analysis of my novel "African Export Promotion and Taxation Database" and in-depth comparative case studies of several productive sectors in Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania.
At ESID in Manchester, I led a major research project quantifying political settlements and a range of other political economy variables with the help of 126 country experts covering 42 countries in the Global South. The Political Settlements dataset can be found here.
I have also published and worked on topics related to the determinants of civil wars, anti-corruption agencies, exchange rate valuation, and the political economy of green energy transitions. I enjoy triangulating evidence from quantitative quasi-experimental methods and standard regressions with in-depth case study analysis.