What have been some of the most challenging aspects of conducting research in this field, and how did you overcome these challenges? 

Early on, one of the major challenges was finding a place with the right kind of support: interested colleagues, staff who could assist with fieldwork, and, especially, a community of graduate students interested in similar questions. That kind of environment takes time to build. Oxford had a very strong community with a lot of support, funding, and students working in this area. When I later returned to Stanford, we hired younger development economists and were able to build a similarly vibrant student community working on different aspects of behavior and development.

How do you see your research influencing policy or contributing to real-world change? 

Mostly through understanding behavior and what lies behind different types of decisions. That’s what matters. In addition, the direct policy impact has largely come through my students. Many have gone into academia, but many others have joined organizations like the World Bank, the IMF, or private companies. One student, for example, helped set up a commodity exchange in Ethiopia, which certainly had policy impact. So my influence on policy has been felt primarily through the work that my students go on to do.
 

How have things changed in your field since you first began your research, and how has this influenced the way you approach your work? 

Research methodologies have evolved significantly over time. In the early days, researchers did not even use surveys. Later, surveys became more rigorous, and the field moved toward panel data to follow households over longer periods. With the introduction of GPS, it became possible to work with spatial data in new and more precise ways. The emergence of randomized controlled trials marked another major shift and shaped development economics for many years, although that influence is now starting to decline. Conceptually, the growing importance of behavioral economics has also been a major change and has become increasingly central to how we study issues in economic development.

What gaps do you feel need to be addressed in your research field, and what do you anticipate you will study more in the future? 

There are always gaps. It never is a finished business. The challenges also change over time. Recently, in a very short period, many things built over our lifetimes have been undone. The question is whether to try to rebuild them or conclude that they did not work and try something else. I do not think many of the solutions being proposed now will last; they are not effective. The erosion of the rule of law is especially disturbing. Even democracies struggle with it, but in this country, it has essentially gone out the window. The neglect of international law is also profoundly shocking.

Could you elaborate on the broader shifts you’ve observed in recent years, especially the weakening of institutions and systems that once supported development and international cooperation? 

Closing down USAID is a massive change. Development institutions could certainly be improved, but shutting them down entirely is something very different. These shifts have also affected research funding. Funding has dwindled, and academic positions in development have declined. The job market in development economics overall seems to be shrinking. There is also less interest in people who study democracy, because their work would necessarily be critical of what is happening. It has been a significant backward step.

In times of uncertainty, what gives you hope for the future of your field? 

My students! Their enthusiasm has not disappeared, and the enthusiasm among researchers remains strong as well. Our international contacts remain solid, and parts of the world, especially in Europe, such as Germany and Switzerland, have not given up on these ideals. For example, Esther Duflo recently moved from MIT to Zurich, and we may see more moves like that.

Lastly, what book would you recommend for students interested in a research career in your field? 

Development economics now covers everything; it’s essentially all economics for 80 percent of the world, so there isn’t one book that summarizes it. If someone wants to start a research career focused on market institutions, I would recommend the book I wrote on that topic: Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Theory and Evidence (MIT Press, 2003). But if I had to pick a book I personally enjoyed, it would be the historian Fernand Braudel's three-volume Civilization and Capitalism, which looks at market institutions across the world from 1400 to 1800. It was eye-opening and a lot more interesting than traditional, battle-focused history.
 

As he approaches retirement at the end of 2025, Dr. Fafchamps offers insights drawn from decades of research on behavior and institutions. His legacy endures through his students and the body of research that continues to shape scholarship worldwide.

On November 14, 2025, CDDRL and the King Center on Global Development hosted "Unfinished Business: A Tribute to Marcel Fafchamps" — a full-day academic symposium celebrating the career and contributions of economist Marcel Fafchamps on the occasion of his retirement. Featuring a keynote by Marcel himself, this tribute brought together colleagues, collaborators, and students to engage with the themes and ideas that have shaped his influential work in development economics, labor markets, and social networks.

Marcel's keynote on "Behavioral Markets" can be viewed below:

A Pivotal Moment for Climate Policy

In early May, Israel faced its second major wildfire in a month, as flames tore through the woodlands around Jerusalem, forcing the shutdown of the central region and the cancellation of Independence Day celebrations. Conference Chair, Professor Alon Tal, Visiting Fellow in Israel Studies and a leading environmental advocate, explained that once a rare occurrence, such fires have become far more frequent, reflecting a broader international pattern.

“In the past, fires of this magnitude maybe happened once a decade,” Tal noted. “But like California, Israel’s fire service now reports a tripling of high-risk fire days — ultra-dry conditions paired with high winds. This is an international phenomenon. This past year, Canadian fires destroyed 45 million acres of woodlands — seven times the annual average. Israel has received a wake-up call about the impacts of the climate crisis.”

Across two days of programming, the conference will bring together 25 Israeli experts to discuss potential solutions alongside colleagues from Los Angeles and California. “This is not just a policy conversation. This is about how we prepare our communities for an uncertain future,” Tal said. “Both Los Angeles and Tel Aviv are confronting real environmental risks, but they also have the innovation ecosystems and civic infrastructure needed to respond creatively. We have a lot to learn from studying them side by side.”

Comparing Los Angeles and Tel Aviv offers scholars and policymakers unique insights, Tal believes. “These are two of the most creative cities in the world. They both have thriving tech sectors and liberal city governments with resources and professional expertise. At the same time, they face comparable challenges: they are both dryland cities on rising coastlines, where heat waves are becoming more treacherous. Bringing their top experts together at Stanford has tremendous merit.”

Rethinking Climate Governance at the City Level

Tal emphasized that local governments are increasingly bearing the burden of climate adaptation, especially in societies marked by inequality and demographic complexity. “The changing climate brings new challenges that cities need to be ready for. And they aren’t,” he said. “Most people live in cities — they need the tools (and the budget) to reduce new risks. The LA fires have left enormous human suffering in their wake, just like the climate-driven floods in New Orleans, Houston, and New York City did. So, the question is: what steps should cities take proactively to avert disasters and maintain stability?”

While Tal emphasized the immediate environmental threats, Larry Diamond, Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and director of the Visiting Fellows in Israel Studies program, framed the discussion within a broader governance context. “It is often said that ‘all politics is local,’ and there is a policy corollary to that. While we need national policies and international coordination to reduce fossil fuel emissions and accelerate the transition to renewable energy, the challenges of climate adaptation and resilience are also deeply local and must be met at that level. This is a great opportunity for all of us to learn from two cities on the front lines of the challenge in our respective countries — Tel Aviv and Los Angeles.”
 

A Vision for Collaborative Learning

The event also reflects the broader goals of Stanford’s Visiting Fellows in Israel Studies program, launched in 2023 to foster cross-disciplinary analysis of Israel and its unique position as a regional influence and geopolitical actor. The program appoints an Israel-based scholar to serve as a visiting fellow at FSI for a recurring three-year term. The fellow will teach courses related to some aspect of Israel’s politics, society, economy, modern history, technological development, and/or regional or international relations, as well as advise students and collaborate with faculty interested in Israel and the Middle East.

Diamond emphasized the significance of the conference in fulfilling the program’s mission. “One of our key goals in the Israel Studies Program is to engage scholars, policymakers, and civil society leaders in Israel, not only individually but collectively based on their expertise. And we seek to promote functional and scholarly interaction and mutual learning. This conference is a historic opportunity to advance this mission in the realm of climate resilience.”

Tal also highlighted the significance of hosting the conference at Stanford. “Stanford has become the world’s leading academic center for researching critical ecological problems like biodiversity and climate change. The Doerr School of Sustainability and the involvement of Nobel laureate Steven Chu as a keynote speaker make this an unparalleled opportunity for collaboration.”

Building a Lasting Impact

Tal hopes the conference will catalyze new approaches to addressing climate impacts. “It’s clear that new environmental conditions require new strategies and technologies. Seeing practical solutions firsthand is crucial, but they don’t matter without policies that enable cities to step up their climate mitigation game. Success stories need to be shared.”

The conference outcomes will be documented in a special issue of the academic journal Sustainability, ensuring that insights resonate beyond the event itself. “By focusing on urban policies and highlighting both successes and failures, we aim to chart pathways for cities to live with global warming while mitigating emissions to address the root causes,” Tal said.

Diamond further expressed his hopes for the conference’s impact. “We hope participants will not only take away specific ideas and strategies from the two cities and countries but also connections that can be of mutual practical value going forward. We want to underscore that Israel and California, with their similar climates and start-up cultures, have a particularly rich set of possibilities for collaboration and mutual learning.”

Community members and members of the public are invited to participate in this pivotal conversation. To view the full agenda and register, visit the conference website.

You have firsthand experience working on policy as a member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. What success did you see there, and what challenges remain in addressing environmental issues? 

Israeli politics is quite polarized, not unlike the U.S., but issues relating to the environment generally enjoy support from all political parties. I did a lot of work with partners on the Israeli right and amongst religious politicians to engage them and receive support for a green agenda. The press made a big deal about this “bi-partisan” orientation, but it feels very natural to me. Regardless of people’s political orientation, everyone wants their children to breath clean air, drink potable war, and live in a planet with a stable climate.

That being said, I worry that public awareness of these issues remains deficient in Israel even though we are considered a “climate hotspot.” Other issues, particularly those involving security, don’t leave our citizens very much bandwidth to think about other matters, even urgent ones like climate change.

That’s why having a committee that convenes regular meetings and pushes the executive branch to be more conscientious in its mitigation and adaptation efforts from inside government is so critical. While I was serving, we held hearings on increasing shading in urban areas, removing bureaucratic obstacles to installation of “agrovoltaic” systems (solar panels on farmlands), expediting sales of electric vehicles through tax incentives, and many other topics. 

Our paramount objective was to pass a “climate law,” which would provide a statutory basis for the energy transition that needs to be accelerated. This is a step many state and national governments have taken in recent years. Unfortunately, the “Government of Change” that my party was part of in Israel fell apart before this critical legislation could be passed. That’s truly unfortunate. But the cabinet did make a commitment to reach net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.  

Ready or not, the climate crisis is here, and making these issues part of the country’s political agenda and keeping them in the spotlight is important. The younger generations know this and are speaking out, and we have a responsibility to make sure they are heard.


What environmental implications does the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel have for the region?

For me, the war is not just about personal security, but also environmental security. Extremist, Islamist forces, and proxies for the Iranian government all threaten the kind of cooperation which is critical for the region.

I am encouraged that not one of my environmental colleagues from Arab countries — including many Palestinian colleagues — has broken off interactions with me since the war began. We continue to do research with a West Bank Palestinian group from Al Quds University about exposures to pharmaceutical products from wastewater reuse. We urgently need more of this kind of cooperation if we are going to address the pressing needs being created by this crisis.

Consider, for example, the groundwater situation in Gaza. When Egypt held the Gaza Strip in the 1960s, the aquifers were contaminated by salt water intrusion from the Mediterranean Sea caused by over pumping. It is absolutely critical that the people of Gaza have desalinated water (like Israel does) both to meet their immediate needs now and as climate-driven droughts continue to change local hydrological conditions in the future. For this to happen, whoever rules Gaza will have to stop investing limited local resources in military weaponry and focus on environmental infrastructure.

The human toll of this war is heartbreaking on all sides. But I believe that when the dust settles, there will be a victory for those who want to work together on critical environmental issues.

How can institutions like Stanford help in addressing these issues?

There’s no question that higher education is evolving. Universities generally divide up their departments according to disciplinary distinctions that were germane at the advent of the twentieth century but often make less sense today. In the fields I work in, it’s common lip service to talk about “interdisciplinary solutions.” But what that actually means in practice is that students need to be given literacy in topics ranging from chemistry and biology to economics, social science, and even aesthetics. I am very impressed with Stanford’s new Doerr School of Sustainability, which is aspiring to serve as an example of how this can be done. 

The course I am currently teaching, “Public Policy and Sustainability Challenges: Israel and the Middle East,” is designed to give the students a sense of what policies appear to work and which ones do not.  For instance, carbon taxes used to be a theoretical idea. But with 61 countries having introduced policies that monetize carbon, we can now dispassionately evaluate these interventions.

The students I see in my class are a healthy mix of MBA and sustainability scholars. They break up into groups of four and serve as consultants for a variety of climate tech companies, applying what they have learned to the real-life regulatory challenges which these promising ventures face. Stanford is preparing leaders, many of whom are committed to working in the climate space. I hope that the class provides them with valuable insights and tools to do this.


Looking to the future, what policies would you like to see put in place to precipitate meaningful action on climate-related issues in both the short and long term?

It is increasingly clear that despite increased global awareness, humanity is not meeting its goals for reducing greenhouse emissions. The population is growing, and billions of people are justifiably seeking a higher standard of living. If we are going to meet the unprecedented challenges posed by the climate crisis, the world as we know it will have to change; we are going to have undergo a complete technological makeover. This means an end to the fossil fuel era, beef as it is raised today, steel, cement, plastics – you name it. And this won’t happen without effective public policies.

One of the things that we started doing in Israel is requiring every school child from kindergarten to grade 12 to take 40 hours of classes about climate related topics during the course of the school year. That’s only a start, but it’s an important one. At Tel Aviv University, ten different departments have collaborated to produce a massive online open class, or “MOOC,” to get that expertise out of the university and into the hands of people. Education, coupled with urgency and action, is crucial. These are the kinds of initiatives that I believe are needed if we are going to see any real progress. 

Anton Turupalov is a political consulting and government relations professional in Ukraine with extensive experience in public service. He has previously served as Deputy Mayor of Mykolayiv, Advisor to the Minister of Healthcare of Ukraine, and Advisor to the Head of the Parliament of Ukraine. Anton's expertise lies in regional policy and local administration. As a key advisor on regional policy to the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, he played a pivotal role in implementing groundbreaking system changes, including land and administrative reform. Anton organized Ukraine's first coronavirus isolation facility during the COVID-19 pandemic under challenging circumstances. Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, Anton co-organized the Assistance Coordination Center in Warsaw, a hub for coordinating humanitarian aid between Ukrainian and Polish authorities, international donors, and organizations. Currently based in Warsaw, Anton serves as an advisor to the Minister of Agriculture and Food of Ukraine.

Project Description: Anton is spearheading the creation of the Ukrainian Endowment for Democracy (UED), a platform dedicated to protecting and developing democracy in Ukraine. The UED aims to promote the transformation of the political system, establish effective institutions, and introduce equal rules of the game to build sustainable democracy. The Endowment’s mission is to promote democratic institutions, foster economic development, and support the political system’s evolution. UED will bring together responsible businesses and experienced reformers to address systemic national problems, shape the national agenda, partner with international organizations, and work on two fronts: promoting democracy and building a strong economy. It will support the development of democratic institutions, political parties, civil society organizations, and independent media, and promote Ukraine as a regional leader of democracy, as well as support Ukraine’s integration with Europe and the West.

In addition to establishing the UED, Anton is working on a secondary project focused on improving the efficiency, transparency, and responsiveness of reconstruction and humanitarian aid efforts in Ukraine. The project aims to develop a one-stop-shop system connecting international donors, relevant national government ministries, agencies, and local actors (region, town, and community-level stakeholders). This platform will enable a more transparent, efficient, and responsive mechanism for coordinating aid efforts in Ukraine, reducing corruption, improving prioritization, lowering net costs, and facilitating communication of needs and systemic issues by local administrations.

Gulsanna ("Sanna") Mamediieva led strategic planning and European integration of the digital sector of Ukraine as Director General for EU Integration at the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. She played a significant role in Ukraine’s integration into the EU Digital Single Market and the rapid digital transformation of Ukraine, including building the government ecosystem “Diia” (The State and Me), which makes it easy and secure for Ukrainians to obtain digital documents (driver’s licenses, passports, etc.), access public services online (such as paying taxes, business registration), developing digital skills, electronic communication and growth of ICT industry. This influence made Ukraine one of the world leaders in public innovation and, without exaggeration, European “digital tiger.” It also served as a backbone of Ukrainian resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and wartime. Since February 2022, she has coordinated international technical assistance to support Ukraine’s digital resilience. Gulsanna also initiated exporting Ukrainian digital transformation experience to other countries. The first case is with Estonia, which will present its government state application, “Mrik,” which is based on Ukraine’s “Diia” app. Gulsanna currently serves as an Advisor to the Vice Prime Minister on Innovation, Technology and Education, and to the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. She is also Director for Programs and Partnerships at Digitally GovTech Center of Excellence, a member of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Artificial Intelligence, and Coordinator for Ukraine at Eastern Partnership Harmonization Digital Market initiative. She was a Visiting Fellow at the McCourt School for Public Policy at Georgetown University before arriving at Stanford this summer. She holds a Master’s degree in Information Technology Law from the University of Tartu, Estonia, and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Internet Law at Carleton University in Canada. Before her government role, Gulsanna worked as an IT lawyer at DLA Piper Ukraine, specializing in ICT and Intellectual Property.

Project Description: Sanna has a number of tech policy areas of interest. She would like to learn more about innovation strategy development, edTech, govTech, military tech, AI for public purpose, saving ecosystems, biotech and medtech, and innovation parks. She is also interested in developing solutions and learning about comparative practices for upskilling and reskilling displaced people, mostly women, with a specific focus on the ICT sector. She has been very involved in building Ukraine’s digital capacity and IT sector development. Sanna is also interested in helping to build further digital capacities for better governance at both the local and national levels. To achieve this, she is keen on connecting with individuals in California, including local government representatives, who are engaged in similar efforts. She is also eager to connect with women in the Bay Area who have participated in ICT-related retraining and reskilling initiatives.

Gulsanna is interested in technology around elections, blockchain, and security that would be involved in structuring a way in which all displaced Ukrainians might have the opportunity to vote in the next round of presidential and/or parliamentary and local elections. She endeavors to understand the risks and benefits of such a system and, thus, is interested in connecting with experts in technical/computer science who are conversant in blockchain and e-voting, if only to explain why these ideas may not work that well. She is also interested in digital diplomacy, promoting and sharing Ukrainian digital transformation experiences.

Halyna Yanchenko was elected to the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) in 2019 and is the Deputy Chair of Sluha Narodum “SN” (Servant of the People), a centrist, pro-European and anti-corruption Party. Shortly after her election, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, tapped her to lead government investment efforts. In January 2022, she was appointed as a Secretary in the National Investment Council of Ukraine. In addition, she chairs the Temporary Special Commission of the Verkhovna Rada on protecting investor rights. Prior to being elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, she led the Civil Oversight Council at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. In 2014-2015 was a deputy of the Kyiv city council. Halyna earned a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. She also studied for one year at Wichita Falls High School in Texas. 

Project Description: Halyna has many interests and was an important voice in the political process that led to the creation of “Diya” (a state cell phone application that has electronic IDs and provides public services to citizens and businesses) to make it easy and secure for Ukrainians to obtain digital drivers’ licenses, passports, health cards, and the like. This was very successful, and Ukrainians can now do all of this on their smartphones. Building on this success, Halyna is interested in using technology to assist in quickly employing veterans and returning displaced Ukrainians post-war. She is interested in engaging foreign investment for the recovery of Ukraine. She also wants to learn more about platforms and systems that can match skills with reconstruction priorities (as well as helping to map out those priorities). She would benefit from making connections in the private sector, including tech companies that could be helpful in these areas, as well as learning more from people who have worked in post-conflict zones on reconstruction priorities and organization. She also seeks to meet with emergency and disaster preparedness and recovery organizations at the state, federal and local levels or other contacts who may have experience in some of these areas.

Konstantyn ("Kostya") Chyzhyk is a Partner at British-Ukrainian law and consultancy firm Hillmont Partners, helping international companies develop business in Ukraine and advising the government and the parliament on economic and judicial reforms. As Deputy Minister of Energy and Ecology, Konstantyn coordinated European integration, investments, digital transformation, and security, worked on renewable energy sector stabilization and reform, launched new auctions on gas extraction, and managed the largest sectoral loan and grant portfolio in the government of $1.2B. As Deputy Head and later as Head of the Investment Promotion Office under the President of Ukraine, Konstantyn unlocked and secured more than $1B of foreign direct investments. As Head of Communications and International Relations of the Ministry of Finance, he promoted IMF-backed reforms and managed cooperation with investors and the IMF, World Bank, EBRD, and EIB. 

Project Description: Kostya wants to use his time at Stanford to develop a new vision for ways in which to attract foreign direct investment to Ukraine. He is interested in learning more about strategic, sectoral, and institutional policy and regulatory frameworks that Ukraine would need to have in place in order to attract foreign capital post-war. He is keen on engaging with professionals from private equity and venture funds. Additionally, he seeks to connect with regional authorities, both at the state and local levels, if applicable, who are actively involved in economic development and the promotion of foreign direct investment (FDI). Kostya's intention is to gain insights from California's initiatives in this realm and also understand more about the factors that investors prioritize when considering investment in post-conflict areas.

Mykhailo Pavliuk is vice-chairman of the Chernivtsi Oblast (state) legislature in Ukraine. Among his central duties is the protection of the mutual interests of communities (known in Ukrainian as hromadas) and local governing bodies. His interests have long been focused on Euro-Atlantic integration, decentralization and deconcentration of authority in Ukraine, and the engagement of public and non-governmental organizations in policymaking. As acting Governor of the Chernivtsi Oblast State Administration in 2018-2019, Mykhailo focused on the creation of a successful administrative structure of new, capable, self-sufficient communities. In 2006-2010 shortly after his university graduation, he also organized long-term public discussions about the advantages for Ukraine of European Union and NATO membership. In his spare time, Mykhailo volunteers to deliver humanitarian aid to liberated areas of Ukraine and to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He also supports internally displaced persons in Chernivtsi and coordinates their resettlement.

Project Description: Mykhailo’s project is about local self-governance — its decentralization, finalization, and implementation in the post-war period in Ukraine. He wants to learn more about checks and balances between executive and local self-governance in the United States, how to empower self-sufficient communities (hromadas in Ukrainian, which are literally community-based forms of governance) and enrich them with practices of good governance (transparent, responsive and efficient), and also ways in which to engage citizens in local public issues. During his time at Stanford, he is interested in meeting with local government representatives in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Mountain View, as well as state (California) government actors to understand better how (or whether) this works here.

Olena Kutsai is a lawyer with more than 15 years of experience in the international corporate sector, including work for Chevron and Scorpio Real Estate corporations. Olena currently serves as a Member of the Secretariat of the Business Ombudsman Council of Ukraine and is a Member of the Peace Coalition. In the Business Ombudsman Council, Olena leads high-level dialogues focused on improving the business environment in Ukraine. She is responsible for strategic cooperation with a number of stakeholders, including the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. Olena drives several special initiatives to support the reconstruction and recovery of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in 2022. She also develops policy recommendations promoting good governance, sustainable development, and the rule of law in Ukraine, working with the Government of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada (parliament), the Office of the President of Ukraine, business associations, non-governmental institutions, international financial institutions (World Bank, EBRD), and international development organizations such as USAID and Agriteam. Olena is an author and co-author of the Council’s educational webinars and training for the private and public sectors. She holds a Master’s of Public Administration from the Ukrainian Catholic University and a Master’s of Law from the Eastern European University. Olena is a graduate of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law’s Leadership Academy for Development (Stanford University) and an advanced leadership course at Harvard Business School.

Project Description: Olena has an extensive background in business development and business advocacy. Her primary interest revolves around exploring effective strategies to reconstruct and revitalize the business community in Kherson, a region in southeastern Ukraine liberated from Russian occupation in the spring of 2022. Her overarching goal is to create models that can be scaled, adapted, and implemented in other parts of Ukraine.

Her past work has been focused on helping businesses forced to relocate from occupied or conflict-ridden areas of Ukraine. She helped these businesses secure new operational spaces, access essential services like electricity and internet, and rebuild disrupted supply chains to resume production. In Kherson, specific challenges arise due to the aftermath of flooding caused by the Russian military's destruction of the Khakovka Dam on June 6, 2023. Alongside her focus on business recovery, Olena also seeks to address the cleanup and restoration of vital services like electricity and internet, as well as the rebuilding of other infrastructure destroyed in the flooding.

Given the significant environmental damage in Kherson, Olena has found value in connecting with experts in food sustainability at Stanford, as well as climate and environmental scientists like David Lobell. She also seeks to engage with and learn from individuals with experience in disaster cleanup and recovery, both within California and on a national and international scale.

Hometown: Caracas, Venezuela
Academic Institution: New York University
Discipline and degree conferral date (or expected): PhD in Political Science, expected September 2023

Research Interests: Political parties with violent origins, post-conflict politics, peacebuilding and democracy, political integration and representation, and Latin America. 

Dissertation Title: Essays on the Political Paths of Former Fighters

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/ Postdoctoral program? CDDRL is an ideal intellectual environment for scholars like myself who are invested in producing innovative empirical research on pressing and policy-relevant questions of governance, conflict, and development. I look forward to the opportunity to learn from, and collaborate with, fellow postdoctoral scholars and the wide variety of experts associated with the Center studying conflict and democracy across contexts.

What do you hope to accomplish during your nine-month residency at CDDRL? I plan on advancing my book manuscript on the perseverance of political parties with violent origins and preparing it for publication. I also aim to advance my broader research agenda by investigating the fundamental tension democracies face when considering the inclusion (or exclusion) of groups with violent origins, the consequences of these decisions, and strategies to minimize violence and democratic erosion.

Fun fact: I was once almost a backup dancer for the late icon Celia Cruz.

Hometown: Huntington Beach, CA
Academic Institution: Princeton University
Discipline and degree conferral date (or expected): PhD in Politics, August 2020

Research Interests: African political economy, climate change, causal inference, machine learning

Dissertation Title: Essays on Electoral and Inter-Ethnic Accountability in Sub-Saharan Africa

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/ Postdoctoral program? CDDRL is making an interdisciplinary effort to tackle issues at the intersection of climate change and political economy. 

What do you hope to accomplish during your nine-month residency at CDDRL? I hope to help establish CDDRL's research agenda on the political economy of climate change, especially research into how climate change is affecting democratic governance in the developing world.

Fun fact: I still get lost on campus.

Hometown: Piliscsaba, Hungary 
Academic Institution: Stanford University 
Discipline and degree conferral date (or expected): JSD (Doctor of the Science of Law), expected June 2024

Research Interests: Economic and reputational effects of the erosion of the rule of law, rule of law measure construction, and research design for rule of law impact studies.

Dissertation Title: How Much Does the Rule of Law Matter for the Economy? A Novel Approach to Rule of Law Impact Studies and Two Implementations on European Union Member States.

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/Postdoctoral program? The vibrant intellectual community of fellows and scholars at CDDRL and the possibility of working alongside highly driven researchers as a source of inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and future collaborations drew me to the CDDRL fellowship program.

What do you hope to accomplish during your nine-month residency at CDDRL? Aided by invaluable insights from the CDDRL community, I would like to polish and submit two dissertation papers for publication.

Fun fact: I can’t tell jokes. Every time I try to tell one, I fail to make it funny.

Hometown: Monster, the Netherlands
Academic Institution: Stanford University 
Discipline and degree conferral date (or expected): Ph.D. Management Science and Engineering

Research Interests: Deliberative democracy, participatory budgeting, and online community organizing.

Dissertation Title: Design and Evaluation of Online Technologies for Societal Decision-Making

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/ Postdoctoral program? I have been an interdisciplinary scholar for many years and look forward to engaging with the interface between engineering and democracy from the other side of campus!

What do you hope to accomplish during your nine-month residency at CDDRL? I hope to make further progress towards building a toolkit for decision-makers to engage residents meaningfully and effectively.

Fun fact: I have been active in the Wikimedia community for many years.

Hometown: Sichuan, China
Academic Institution: Stanford University 
Discipline and degree conferral date (or expected): PhD in Political Science, expected June 2024

Research Interests: Authoritarian politics, information technology, Chinese political economy, big data, and computational methods.

Dissertation Title: AI, Bureaucracy, and Information Manipulation: The Political Economy of Digitalizing Governmental Operations in China 

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/ Postdoctoral program? The Center is host to a group of leading scholars on the most pressing issues facing democracy and autocracy in today’s challenging world.

What do you hope to accomplish during your nine-month residency at CDDRL? I plan to complete my book-style dissertation project on how information technologies are integrated into bureaucratic operations in China and how that has led to unintended consequences on information manipulation, economic growth, official corruption, and central-local relations. I will also revise and prepare several working papers for publication.

Fun fact: In all three places where I have attended school since childhood, the regional or even global technology center is always located next door. This was the Mozi Bridge in Chengdu, Zhongguancun in Beijing, and, of course, Silicon Valley here in the Bay Area.

Hometown: Macomb, MI
Academic Institution: Stanford University 
Discipline and degree conferral date (or expected): PhD in History, expected 2024

Research Interests: Soviet Union, East Europe, Post-Soviet Successor States, Spatial History, Nationalism, Architecture 

Dissertation Title: Expropriating Mezhyhirya: State Property Regimes from the Russian Empire to the Maidan

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/ Postdoctoral program? I was attracted by the opportunity to explore interdisciplinary components of my research and the chance to get to meet other scholars interested in the history of democracy.

What do you hope to accomplish during your nine-month residency at CDDRL? I hope to gain new perspectives on my research as I revise my dissertation and explore potential next projects related to democracy and the rule of law.

Fun fact: I have ridden the entire length of the Trans-Siberian railway between Moscow and Vladivostok one and a half times (the second time, I transferred at Irkutsk and went to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia).

Hometown: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Academic Institution: University of Chicago 
Discipline and degree conferral date (or expected): Ph.D., Political Science, 2023 (expected)

Research Interests: Democracy, governance, and political violence.

Dissertation Title: Coercion and Capture in Democratic Politics

What attracted you to the CDDRL Pre/ Postdoctoral program? I was drawn to CDDRL’s vibrant intellectual community and to the opportunities it offers to learn from scholars working on questions of democracy and political conflict in different settings around the world. 

What do you hope to accomplish during your nine-month residency at CDDRL? During my time at the Center, I’m hoping to develop my book manuscript and a few related projects, and hopefully launch new collaborations with others in the CDDRL community.

Fun fact: I’ve never lived west of Chicago (and never experienced a winter without snow!)