Field:
    Comparative Politics, IPE

Dissertation Title:
    Endogenous Capital Mobility and Regime Transitions

Committee:
    Barbara Geddes (Chair), Ronald Rogowski, James Honaker, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal

Date of Completion:
    June 2008

Contact Information:
    Stan Hok-Wui Wong
    UCLA Political Science Department
    4289 Bunche Hall
    Los Angeles, California 90095-1472
    Phone: 310-876-3221
    Fax: 310-825-0778

Curriculum Vitae:
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Dissertation Summary:
    In my dissertation, I examine the relationship between capital mobility and regime transitions. I find that although capital mobility affects regime survival, it is not as exogenous as existing theories suggest; political leaders can choose policies that affect capital mobility, and thus they try to choose levels of capital mobility to maximize the chance of their survival. The dissertation includes a formal model of optimal capital controls that shows how political leaders set the restrictions on capital movements depending on the size of their support coalition. In addition, I argue that the direction of capital movements also matters. While inflows tend to strengthen the leader’s governing power, outflows may threaten regime survival by damaging the economy. For this reason, political leaders generally welcome inflows, but fear outflows. Since political leaders do everything they can to rein in outflows, paradoxically, outflows end up having little effects on regime survival. Rather, it is inflows, something beyond the manipulation of political leaders, that have a strong effect on the likelihood of regime transitions including democratization. Several empirical tests support my arguments. These findings challenge several well known arguments about the effects of capital mobility on authoritarian survival.

Research Interests:
    I am interested in studying economic globalization and its effects on domestic politics such as regime survival and institutional changes, with a regional focus on East Asia. For instance, my current research focuses on how politicians respond to global financial integration by controlling the pace and scale of financial liberalization.

Teaching Interests:
    Comparative Politics, East Asian Politics, Democratization, Globalization, International Political Economy, Research Design and Quantitative Methods