Research Projects
Research Projects
Working papers
This paper examines how immigrants to Argentina shape electoral outcomes following the Age of Mass Migration. I combine census data on European immigration with newly digitised district-level returns from national elections held between 1916 and 1930. Using a shift-share instrument, I find that European immigration shifts votes from right-wing to left-wing parties. Given immigrants’ limited access to the ballot, their political influence likely operates through indirect channels, including local left-wing infrastructure and mutual-aid networks. Estimates of the second-generation electorate also point to vertical transmission. The results are not explained by observable voter characteristics or Latin American immigration. These findings highlight how local organisation and the mobilisation of eligible voters enable disenfranchised immigrants to influence electoral politics.
Can globalization have direct political consequences through the transnational flow of ideas and political agendas? We answer this question by studying the consequences of Hindu Nationalism in India on the political discourse of MPs in the UK. We find that following episodes of violence against Hindus in India, MPs representing constituencies with more Hindus increase anti-Muslim rhetoric. Diaspora engagement with homeland events and domestic political engagement, as well as MPs’ electoral incentives explain these results. Our findings offer novel insights on rising islamophobia and the transmission of political ideologies from the global South.
We study the long-term effect of early state centralization in Medieval Ethiopia. Ethiopia was the only African state that enjoyed sufficient military and fiscal capacity to maintain its independence throughout the Middle Ages and the colonial era, and produced accurate historical accounts on its political history. In a regression discontinuity design (RDD) at the 14th century boundary, we show that longer exposure to centralized institutions translated into higher living standards today, due to earlier structural transformation and more secure property rights. Early state formation also changed the ethnic geography of the country. Treated areas are more ethnically diverse today, as captured by linguistic fractionalization, and are less likely to contain a hard boundary separating ethnic homelands.