Research Experience

May - August 2025 - Research project entitled "Resilient Communities Project Program Evaluation" 

(Research assistant to Center for Urban and Regional Affairs)

March - May 2025 - Research project entitled "Minnesota Freight Network Optimization Tool (FNOT)" 

(Research assistant to Institute for Urban and Regional Infrastructure Finance) 

May - September 2023 - Research project entitled "Westgate Commons Park Summer Research Project" 

(Research assistant to Center for Urban and Regional Affairs & Saint Anthony Park Community Council)

January - July 2022 - Research project entitled "Charismatic Leaders and Democratic Backsliding" 

(Research assistant to James Hollyer, Marko Klašnja, Rocío Titiunik)

2018 - 2019 - Research project entitled ”The New Politics of Welfare” (ERC-funded) 

(Principle investigator: Erdem Yoruk, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey)

Dissertation Project

Strangers, Bedfellows, or Strange Bedfellows?: Business-Government Relations Beyond Cronyism

   How do private firms influence public resources and policy? Most research emphasizes the importance of personal connections between business executives/owners and government officials. What is less understood is how some firms manage to remain apolitical and influential, even where connections are critical for the firm’s financial performance. I argue that nonconnected firms with structural power — characterized by their employment, export, R&D capacity, and capital mobility — wield significant political influence, particularly during macroeconomic crises and when they are not in direct competition with politically connected

businesses. To test my theory, I use both quantitative and qualitative evidence. My initial findings confirm that business influence extends beyond connections even in contexts with widespread cronyism.