Faisal Z. Ahmed

Welcome! I am an assistant professor at Princeton University.

I study the political economy of institutions and development from an international perspective. This research agenda fits into political economy and international relations broadly defined and engages with comparative politics, international security, and development economics. My work is interdisciplinary and has been published in various journals, such as the American Political Science Review, American Economic Journal – Macroeconomics, Explorations in Economic History, Review of Economics and Statistics, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization.

My research largely probes the strategic interactions of political actors and the international economy. Some of this research features in two books, The Perils of International Capital (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Conquest and Rents: A Political Economy of Dictatorship and Violence in Muslim Societies (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Other strands of my work explore topics in development, international economic law, and the political economy of migration. I am currently working on projects related to political connections and globalization, geopolitics and political violence, and the political economy of international bureaucrats. A more detailed description of my research is available here.

I earned a BA in mathematics and BA/MA in economics from Northwestern University and later completed my doctoral studies at the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the faculty at Princeton, I was a Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford University. I spent the 2016-2017 academic year as the William C. Bark National Fellow at the Hoover Institute and most recently was a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies. Before transitioning to academia, I spent a few years as an international and macroeconomist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

In my free time, I like to run, hike, travel, and support Arsenal FC and my native country's national cricket team, The Tigers.