My Research

Future Book Project

In my dissertation, I explore how the pursuit of mixed foreign policy goals drive cooperation problems among Western aid donor governments. This work will become the basis for my first book project, which will center on the uniqueness of the collective action problem at the heart of global development finance. By studying aid allocation through a general equilibrium lens, I am able to explain why certain donor countries come to have outsized responsibility for giving aid to particular countries in the developing world, meanwhile in other developing countries multiple donors are present. I also am able to show why cooperation among donor countries in the allocation of aid remains elusive. I do all this using a mix of game theory, a novel measurement strategy, and machine learning.

Peer Reviewed Publications (Ordered by Publication Date)

[3] “How Reducing Documentation Burdens Impacts Equity in Program Access: The Case of Small Business Covid-19 Relief Funding.” (2023) With Elizabeth Bell and Heather Kappes in Public Administration Review: 1-22.

[2] “Gender in the Pulpit: The Differences in Speaking Style for Men and Women.” (2019) With Ryan Burge in The Journal of Communication and Religion 42(1): 63-82.

[1] “Is Social Media a Digital Pulpit? How Evangelical Leaders Use Twitter to Encourage the Faithful and Publicize Their Work.” (2019) With Ryan Burge in Journal of Religion, Media, and Digital Culture 8(1): 309-339.

Book Chapters (Ordered by Publication Date)

[2] “World Bank.” (2023) With Matthew Winters in Handbook of International Orgnaizations: Theories, Concepts, and Empirical Insights. Eds. Katja Freistein, Julia Leininger, and Silke Weinlich. De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

[1] “Illinois 10th Congressional District: Re-rematch in Chicago Suburbs.” (2018) With Jeffrey Ashley in The Roads to Congress 2016. Eds. Sean D. Foreman and Marcia L. Godwin. Palgrave Macmillan.

Works in Progress (Alphabetical Order)

“Aid for Nonaggression.” [Work in Progress]
“Aid, Migration, and Civil War.” [Work in Progress]
“Connect First, then Suppress: Do Communication Aid Projects Erode Internet Freedom?” With Xinle Jia, Lucie Lu, and Yujeong Yang. [Working paper]
“Do We Have to Use the Power-law to Study War Size? And Does it Matter?” [Working Paper]
“Elusive Collaboration? The Determinants of Lead Donorship in International Development.” [Under Review]
“Foreign Aid and Investment Protection.” With Seung-Uk Huh. [Working Paper]
“Leveraging the Black Box: Regression Adjustment with Super Learners.” With Gustavo Diaz. [Work in Progress]
“Xinhua Coverage of Chinese Foreign Aid Allocations.” With Lucie Lu. [Under Review]

[Note: All working papers are available upon request.]

Software

I have developed a number of software packages for R. You can learn more about them here.

Blogging

I occasionally have contributed to Religion in Public. In my latest contribution, I discuss links between anti-immigrant attitudes among religious conservatives in the U.S. and support for foreign aid spending.

I also have contributed to Democracy Paradox, writing about whether China and the United States can cooperate in foreign aid policy.

I host my own blog here on my site where I semi-regularly post about statistics and programming in R.