Welcome!

My research investigates how the spatial distribution of inequality shapes local government capacity—defined as the state’s ability to extract revenue and deliver services. Even among municipalities with similar income levels, fiscal effort and bureaucratic quality vary dramatically. I study the mechanisms through which socioeconomic segregation undermines state-building, focusing on elite incentives to invest in enforcement and citizen demand for formal governance in Brazil and Latin America.

I am a PhD candidate in political science at Vanderbilt University. I employ a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative interviews, focus groups, public opinion surveys, and causal inference techniques to probe the social foundations of state capacity in unequal societies. I am also interested in public attitudes toward democracy and the dynamics of democratic backsliding in developing countries.

My work has been supported by the American Political Science Association, the Society for Political Methodology, the LAPOP Lab, the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI), the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies (CLACX) at Vanderbilt, the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and Foundation for the Support of Science and Technology of the State of Pernambuco (FACEPE, Brazil).

I am a research affiliate of the Center for Global Democracy, the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, and the Research on Individuals, Politics, and Society Lab at Vanderbilt.

Outside of research, I enjoy running, playing electric guitar, exploring new cuisines, watching movies, and spending time with cats.