Hello! Welcome to my website.

I am Caíque Melo, PhD Candidate in Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University, PhD Research Fellow at Clean/BAFFI Research Center, and Research Affiliate at GAPPE. In Spring 2026, I was a visiting student at the University of Oxford. 

My research agenda examines how political institutions, strategies, and representation shape the distribution of resources and the functioning of public organizations. Methodologically, I combine administrative microdata with quasi-experimental designs to provide causal evidence on the personnel foundations of state capacity. My research has been published in the Journal of Development Economics and in Economic Development and Cultural Change.  

Beyond academia, I have collaborated on policy evaluation with institutions including the United Nations, the World Bank, OECD, the International Labour Organization, and Brazil’s Ministry of Education, among others.

I am on the 2026/2027 academic job market. You can find my CV here, my research projects here, and my Job Market Paper here.

Feel free to reach out if you would like to discuss research or policy work.