Afiq's Personal Page

Afiq bin Oslan

Welcome! I am Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Public Economics, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance. I study political economy, specialising in topics such as border politics, disaster politics, environmentalism, and game theory. I received my doctorate in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis in 2023.

Click here for my CV, and here for my Google Scholar profile. Contact me at afiq.bin-oslan@tax.mpg.de. Please cite my last name as {bin Oslan}.

News

We have a newly published paper at JPIPE, providing a novel argument for how the modern media environment may be ineffective at keeping leaders responsive. Ungated copy here.
For those interested in Historical Political Economy, take a look at my theoretical contribution to the literature available at Rationality and Society.

Publications

Forthcoming, "How to smuggle contraband and influence border policy," in Political Research Quarterly: OnlineFirst. doi.org/10.1177/10659129251366948

2025, "Economic origins of border fortifications," in Journal of Peace Research 62(4): 882-896. doi.org/10.1177/00223433241265006

2025, "Displacement, not obstruction: Why insecure leaders need not fear free media," in Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy 6(2): 135-160 (with İpek Ece Şener). doi.org/10.1561/113.00000120

2024, “Persistent and self-perpetuating political differences between neighbouring communities,” in Rationality and Society 36(4): 502-527. doi.org/10.1177/10434631241232754

2021, “Issue ownership and salience shocks: The electoral impact of Australian bushfires,” in Electoral Studies 74 (with Jordan H. McAllister). doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102389

Working Papers

"Spies in a barrel: When to reel in espionage," (with T. Ryan Johnson). Accepted at Journal of Theoretical Politics.

"Shaking up the vote: The electoral impact of induced earthquakes," (with Jordan H. McAllister). R&R at International Political Science Review.

"When environmental protections backfire at home and abroad."

"Brinkmanship in the public eye," (with Pei-Yu Wei).