I am an external lecturer at CAS and a senior researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS). I am primarily interested in the political economy of development, broadly defined with respect to low-income countries.  So far, I have focused on and published work on the state´s role, using taxation, expenditure, and public debt as main themes to interrogate the role and capacity of states. I am also interested in state capacity as it relates to other public policy and reforms areas, such as on land, informal sectors and climate-resilient development pathways. My focus is on emerging market economies, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on country cases and cross-country comparative work within Africa, but at times my comparative work also covers other regions such as Latin America. With experience in studying economic history, I use long-term, historical and contemporary perspectives on these themes in an interdisciplinary way that employs approaches from development economics, economic history, and political economy.