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I am a researcher and professor of politics at the Center for Economics Research and Teaching (CIDE) in Mexico City. I have been at CIDE since 2010, obtaining tenure in 2017. Previously, I used to be a post-doctoral fellow at Nuffield College in the University of Oxford. I received an MA and a PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University, and I previously received a BS in Applied Mathematics and a BA in Economics from the Mexican Autonomous Technological Institute (ITAM).

My main fields of research are elections, political parties, candidates and campaigns. My primary region of interest is Latin America with a special focus on Mexico, and I also have an enduring interest in U.S. politics. My work relies significantly on formal mathematical modeling as well as qualitative empirical research.

Substantively, I have three lines of research. First, I analyze the methods used by political parties to select their candidates, such as primary elections. Second, I evaluate the problems of new democracies such as vote buying, and whether they can be addressed through legal electoral reform. And third, I study the electoral effects of different characteristics of candidates such as their left-right ideology, their charisma, and their level of populism.

Publications from this research have appeared in the Journal of Politics, the Journal of Theoretical Politics, Electoral Studies, the Journal of Politics in Latin America, and Política y Gobierno. My research has been funded by several of institutions, including the National Bureau of Economic Research; the Social Science Research Council; and the Ford, McArthur and Hewlett foundations.

I was born and raised in Mexico to a Mexican mother and a French father. My first name is of French origin, and is best pronounced ‘jeel’.