Department of Political Science

Prof. Razo researches how informal and formal institutions affect economic behavior in developing countries. His research interests include the development of mathematical and computational models to develop theories on the impact of social and political networks on economic outcomes. He is also interested in applying statistical networks analysis to the study of economic history and international development. He served on the Founding Scientific Leadership Team that helped establish the Indiana University Network Science Institute (http://iuni.iu.edu).

His teaching includes courses on networks and institutions, quantitative contextual analysis, political economy of development, positive political economy, and Latin American politics. He is the author of Social Foundations of Limited Dictatorship (2008), which advances a network theory of private policymaking applicable to different regimes. A student of economic history, he is also co-author with Stephen Haber and Noel Maurer of The Politics of Property Rights (2003). He has published articles in the Journal of Theoretical Politics, World Politics, the Journal of Economic History, and the Journal of Latin American Studies.