Biography

I previously worked as a visiting lecturer and teaching fellow at King’s College London and as a postdoctoral fellow at George Mason University. My research stands at the intersection of politics and political economy, with publications on clientelism, dominant party systems and semi-authoritarian regimes. I have published on the concept of democracy and hegemony and I have written extensively on the Greek crisis.My book Clientelism and Economic Policy: Greece and the Crisis develops a theory of clientelism and economic policy. I describe what a clientelist system is and explain why resistance to economic reform is likely to be stronger there in relation to other types of political economy.My work supplements rational choice with qualitative research. Unlike formal analysis,  I pay attention to the context of preference formation before constructing a game-theoretic narrative. I explain the emergence of informal rules as a process in which political actors form and re-evaluate preferences in interaction with one another. This has led to surprising empirical findings that run counter to typical assumptions: political actors may prefer to accommodate the demands of their client groups even at the expense of general voters’ preferences.I have now embarked on studying the epistemic limits of economics and public policy and the value of historical and qualitative research. At the EUI, I will shed light on the macroeconomic management of the Greek crisis in light of this ongoing debate.I worked as a visiting lecturer and teaching fellow in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London between 2013 and 2015. I was a lecturer, module convenor and seminar teacher. I taught undergraduate and postgraduate students, supervised both postgraduate and undergraduate dissertations and helped produce course materials. I also contributed to the design of new modules for the MA in public policy and the MA in political economy.