I am a second-year PhD student in Public Policy, following the Politics and Institutions track. My research focuses on political economy, particularly within the context of environmental politics and policy. I’m currently working on two main projects. The first examines how natural disasters serve as catalysts for the adoption of climate policies at both country and U.S. state levels. I find an effect for executive adaptation policies only, and attempt to disentangle the mechanisms and assess the quality of policies enacted in response to crises. My second project is about the unequal desertification of farms during a drought in Central Chile. I explore the roles of formal institutions (water rights/irrigation subsidies) and informal power (lobbying against Water Code reform/illegal extraction of water). Other areas I’m interested in include the conflicts between environmentalists and clean energy advocates, and the rise in anti-protest bills aimed to prevent environmental demonstrations. My methods are mainly quantitative, including the use of satellite data, and deep learning methods for text-processing.
Contact:
mlarreboure@g.harvard.edu