Bogdan G. Popescu’s research interests focus on comparative politics and historical political economy using novel data from historical sources. His first book – Imperial Borderlands: Institutions and Legacies of the Habsburg Military Frontier (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, 2023) draws on political science, economics, and history to examine key questions related to state formation, extractive institutions, and the modern-day impact of colonial legacies. He argues that the effect of extractive institutions depends on the removal of property rights, the use of violence, and investment in local infrastructure. To illustrate such effects, he focuses on military colonialism in the Habsburg Empire, a state that governed over vast territories of Central and Eastern Europe.
His research was published in the Quarterly Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Comparative Political Studies, and the Journal of Historical Political Economy. His other projects examine how states adopt institutions in order to ensure their survival and the consequences of their actions.
Bogdan Popescu teaches courses on comparative politics and statistics. To read more about research and teaching, visit Professor Popescu's personal website.
List of publications.
