My research areas are within development economics and economic history. I am particularly interested in the interaction between equality of opportunities and processes of economic transformation, especially in the first stages of transformation. Much of my work focuses on the long-term impact of colonialism, examining the economic and institutional effects of factor endowments and extraction. I am currently working on the formation of the fiscal colonial state during the late colonisation period in Asia.

My main areas of teaching are development economics, the East Asian economic transformation, institutions and economic growth, and research design and methods (from introductory to PhD level).