Welcome to my website! I am Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science (Profesor Titular de Ciencia Política) at ITAM in Mexico City and Level I researcher at Mexico’s Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI). During the 2023-2024 academic year, I will be a Senior Visiting Scholar at Vanderbilt University‘s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
I received my PhD. in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis in 2016. My work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, Political Science Research and Methods, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Electoral Studies, the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties and the Journal of Politics in Latin America. I am enthusiastic about the use of quantitative methods to answer substantive political questions, and I hope to transmit this interest to my students.
My research seeks to understand how electorally constrained politicians build political power and develop political careers. My dissertation studied how elections are risky, even in autocracies. I showed how short-term economic conditions affect the electoral challenges faced by authoritarian incumbents across the world, and how subnational elections empowered Mexican opposition parties during the 1990s. Alongside Dawn Brancati, we further showed that pro-democracy protests do not diffuse –though they are much more common following (authoritarian) elections.
Second, I am interested in how electoral institutions shape politicians’ career incentives: why and how so many Argentine governors changed the provincial constitution in order to get reelected; how Argentine politicians exploit the electoral calendar to advance their careers, use the Chamber of Deputies as a «springboard» for jumping to better positions, and strategically resign following their copartisans’ electoral success. I also studied mayoral incumbency effects in Mexico (-) and Argentina (+), as well as the incentives for intra-party cooperation in both settings. Lastly, I have studied the impact of electoral rules in Argentina and Latin America, with a focus on the electoral calendar, the first-place advantage in two-round elections, and the causal effect of district magnitude on electoral outcomes and the election of women.
Instructor: Betsy Sinclair. Fall 2015.
Instructor: Brian F. Crisp. Fall 2014.
Instructor: Sunita Parikh. Spring 2014.
Instructor: Guillermo Rosas. Spring 2013.
Instructor: Jeff Gill. Fall 2012.