Students

Doctoral Candidate
ON THE MARKET

Email: kevinjangell@uchicago.edu  |  Website

Kevin's research primarily focuses on US political institutions with particular attention to the executive branch, Congress, and interbranch relations. He frequently combines causal inference with his data science experience to build and analyze new datasets. His job market paper finds evidence that, throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, government spending more closely matched presidential budget requests than if budget legislation were perfectly executed, suggesting that presidents use their control over spending implementation to undermine Congress’s formal authority over spending. 

Doctoral Candidate
ON THE MARKET

Email: shiyan@uchicago.edu  |  Website

Shiyan studies cooperation and conflict in weakly institutionalized environments, with particular interests in international political economy, alliance and coalition formation, and political competition. She applies dynamic games and information economics to develop formal models in international relations and comparative politics.

Email: aevert@uchicago.edu  |  Website

Alex is primarily interested in using game theory to study problems in American politics. His current research agenda is broadly focused on the politics of information and the electoral relationship between parties, candidates, and voters.

Email: agorbuntsova@uchicago.edu

Alena is excited about empirical analysis of political and judicial systems of autocracies, primarily Russia. She received her master's degree in Economics from the New Economic School in 2024 and her bachelor's degree in Economics from Moscow State University in 2022.

Email: divijs@uchicago.edu

Divij is currently interested in Indian urban politics, and the impact of proposed changes like redrawing district boundaries, reapportionment between the states, an increase in the number of seats, and the implementation of women's reservation on Indian elections. He has previously worked at the intersection of urban policy research and practice across themes like transit, property taxation and ownership, domestic work, employment, maternal health, and migration.

Email: swatling@uchicago.edu

Sam Watling is a quantitative political economist and formal theorist with a focus in housing and urban politics. His research interests include the political determinants of zoning restrictions in urban areas and the impact of property ownership of voting patterns and the provision of local public goods.

Email: yuehaoyang@uchicago.edu

Yuehao’s substantive research interests center on relationships among state actors, accountability, bureaucracy, and political polarization. He also has an interest in research methodology. 

Email: hongding@uchicago.edu

Hongding’s substantive research interests focus on institutional transition, bureaucracy, and non-democracies. His methodological interests center on applied game theory and combining formal models with historical materials.

Email: jintao@uchicago.edu  |  Website

Jintao’s research interest lies in the interaction between informal and formal institutions, with particular emphasis on legal systems and their implications for development. He holds a BSc from the London School of Economics and a MPhil from the University of Cambridge.