Kristen Kao
  • CV
  • Current Research/Working Papers
  • Publications
  • Grants and Awards
    • Wallenberg Academy Fellow 2025
  • Teaching & Consulting
  • Policy and Media
  • Contact
Kristen Kao
  • CV
  • Current Research/Working Papers
  • Publications
  • Grants and Awards
    • Wallenberg Academy Fellow 2025
  • Teaching & Consulting
  • Policy and Media
  • Contact

Kristen Kao

12 posts
After having received my PhD in Political Science at UCLA, I moved to Sweden to be a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Gothenburg. I first traveled to the Middle East on a Fulbright grant to learn Arabic in Egypt in 2006. Since then, I have spent summers in Oman, Syria, and Kuwait culminating in two years of fieldwork in Jordan. My dissertation research investigates the effect of formal electoral institutions on patterns of informal rent distribution and ethnic clientelism, as well as tribal voting behavior. In the field in Jordan I obtained election results from 1989-2013, collected a variety of case work logs from parliamentarians containing thousands of requests they make on behalf of their constituents to the regime, and ran a national survey in collaboration with the Governance and Local Development (GLD) Program at Yale University and Professor Ellen Lust (University of Gothenburg) and Lindsay Benstead (Portland State University). My broader research agenda includes understanding how electoral authoritarianism works, service provision in the developing world, ethnic politics and clientelism, formal vs. informal/tribal authority structures, Middle Eastern politics, and survey methods. My research has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the American Center of Oriental Research, the National Security Education Program, and the Project on Middle East Political Science, among others. The GLD program is currently in the process of running a survey in Malawi, where I spent three weeks in the field managing an in-depth regional study alongside our household survey of 7,500 Malawians. At times, I also apply my training in survey methodology and statistics to work with consulting groups.
Kristen Kao
  • January 20, 2023

UncategorizedA Study of the Implementation of Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy in Partner Countries (2022-2023)

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  • 1 minute read
Photo Source: FP Sweden has had a Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) for eight years, since 2014. Even before…
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Kristen Kao
  • September 6, 2022

UncategorizedThe Local Governance Performance Index, 2014-Ongoing

  • 2 minute read
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash The Local Governance Performance Index (LGPI) is designed to help governments and…
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Kristen Kao
  • March 24, 2020

UncategorizedJordan Post-Elections Survey, 2014

  • 2 minute read
Photo by Kristen Kao In 2014, I was the on-the-ground project manager for a nationwide poll in Jordan…
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Kristen Kao
  • March 23, 2020

UncategorizedMalawi Local Governance Performance Index, 2016-2018

  • 2 minute read
Photo by Kristen Kao In collaboration with the Governance and Local Development (GLD) team and a team of…
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Kristen Kao
  • March 23, 2020

UncategorizedChallenges & Opportunities of Urbanization and Social Institutions and Governance: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa, 2017-2021

  • 3 minute read
Photo by Nathan Queloz on Unsplash In 2017, GLD won two large grants. The first grant focused on…
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Kristen Kao
  • March 23, 2020

UncategorizedDeveloping a Locally Rooted Approach to Covid-19 Response (2020-2021)

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  • 2 minute read
Photo Source GLD In March 2020, Zambia and Malawi reported their first cases of Covid-19, with both governments…
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Kristen Kao
  • February 26, 2020

UncategorizedDecentralization, Local Governance, and Inequality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Co-Principal Investigator, (2018-2023)

  • One comment
  • 4 minute read
Photo Source: MEI Listen to a POMEPS podcast episode with Kristen Kao and Ellen Lust on Decentralization, Local…
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Kristen Kao
  • February 21, 2020

UncategorizedRetribution or Reconciliation? Attitudes Toward Islamic State Collaborators, Principal Investigator, 2017-2023

  • 10 minute read
Photo by Levi Clancy on Unsplash Watch Kristen Kao’s presentation on the effects of injustice gaps at the…
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Kristen Kao
  • January 4, 2020

UncategorizedMobilizing Citizen Action for the Environment: Experimental Evidence from the Global South, Co-Principal Investigator (2020-2022)

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  • 2 minute read
Photo by Anera Proper household waste sorting, when practiced at scale, delivers significant sustainability benefits. This is especially…
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Kristen Kao
  • January 3, 2020

UncategorizedRefugee Migration and Cities: Social Institutions, Political Governance and Integration in Jordan, Turkey and Sweden (SIPGI), Co-Principal Investigator, 2019-2025

  • 5 minute read
Photo by Maria Teneva on Unsplash The recent refugee crisis in Europe is primarily an urban phenomenon, and…
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Projects
  • Effects of Immigrant Integration Policies on Long Run Outcomes in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, Co-Principal Investigator (2025-2029)
  • Integration at the Neighborhood Level: Cross-National Comparisons of Refugee Segregation, Identity, and Inclusion, Principal Investigator (2023-2027)
  • Refugee Migration and Cities: Social Institutions, Political Governance and Integration in Jordan, Turkey and Sweden (SIPGI), Co-Principal Investigator, 2019-2025
  • Mobilizing Citizen Action for the Environment: Experimental Evidence from the Global South, Co-Principal Investigator (2020-2022)
  • Retribution or Reconciliation? Attitudes Toward Islamic State Collaborators, Principal Investigator, 2017-2023
  • Decentralization, Local Governance, and Inequality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Co-Principal Investigator, (2018-2023)
  • Developing a Locally Rooted Approach to Covid-19 Response (2020-2021)
  • Challenges & Opportunities of Urbanization and Social Institutions and Governance: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa, 2017-2021
  • Malawi Local Governance Performance Index, 2016-2018
Kristen Kao
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