Dr Nelson A. Ruiz

Dr Nelson A. Ruiz

Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) and LSE Senior Visiting Fellow

Department of Government

Room No
CBG 4.02
Connect with me

Languages
English, Spanish
Key Expertise
Political Economy, Money in Politics, Comparative Politics

About me

I am a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Senior Lecturer (Associate Prof) and Head of the Political Economy Research Division at the Government Department at the University of Essex. I am also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the LSE Government Department, an Associate Member at Nuffield College University of Oxford, and an Associate Member at the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR).

Before, I was Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and Lecturer at DPIR/Oxford and a Non-Stipendiary Research Fellow at Nuffield College. Before that, I was a post-doctoral researcher at ETH-Zurich Public Policy Group (Chair: Dominik Hangartner), a fellow at Harvard-IQSS, and I was part of the Visiting Scholars Program at NYU-Politics department. I completed my PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

My research interests are in the political economy of development. Within this field, the main topic I am interested in is the role of money in politics. I am also interested in studying corruption, clientelism, and political selection. Most of my research involves the use of causal inference methods.

Before academia, I worked at the Inter-American Development Bank as a research fellow evaluating development projects in the field across Latin America.

Research interests

  • Political Economy
  • Money in Politics
  • Comparative Politics
  • Development

Selected publications