Field:
    International and Comparative Political Economy & Quantitative Methods

Dissertation Title:
    Between Votes and Capital: Democracy and the Internationalization of Financial Markets in the Developing World

Committee:
    Letters of recommendation:
        Ronald Rogowski (co-chair), Barbara Geddes (co-chair), Geoffrey Garrett, Miriam Golden
    Other members of the committee: Kathleen Bawn, Robert Brenner

Date of Completion:
    May 2008

Contact Information:
    Daniela Campello
    4289 Bunche Hall
    University of California Los Angeles
    90095-1472
    Phone: 310-825-4331
    Fax: 310-825-4778

Curriculum Vitae:
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Current and Past Projects:
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Dissertation Summary:
    My dissertation investigates how the internationalization of financial markets affects prospects for income redistribution and the consolidation of democracy in the developing world. I examine financial investors’ responses to national elections and how, and under which institutional and economic conditions, these responses curtail left-wing governments’ capacity to advance a redistributive agenda. The first chapter of my dissertation presents a model of optimal taxation that depicts the way incumbents decide how much income to redistribute, subject to voters’ demands and the prospect of capital flight. It explains why increased capital mobility exacerbates the conflict between growth and redistribution in less developed economies, and how international liquidity cycles intervene in this dynamic. Statistical analyses that follow test the general logic of the model. I show that financial investors systematically take their money out of countries where the left replaces the right in government and that capital flight during election campaigns increases the likelihood that left-wing incumbents switch to conservative programs early in their term. The last two chapters are the result of field work in Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela, and test different implications of the model proposed in chapter 1. They highlight how capital mobility and international liquidity cycles affect investors’ political power in less developed economies.

Research Interests:
    I am broadly interested in financial globalization and in the politics of economic development and income redistribution, with a particular concern for developing countries. I am also involved in the study of how globalization affects political ideology and partisanship in less developed democracies.

Teaching Interests:
    I worked as a TA for two years and also prepared and taught my own upper division International Political Economy course while at UCLA. I have training in international political economy, game theory, comparative politics, and statistics. I am prepared to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in International/Comparative Political Economy, International Relations, Comparative Politics, Latin American Political Economy, the Politics of Economic Development, and Introductory Quantitative Research Methods.