Soeren J. Henn

I am an economist and political scientist working on economic development and political economy in sub-Saharan Africa.

I am an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previously, I was a Lecturer in Economics at Newcastle University Business School, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago's Pearson Institute, and at Innovations for Poverty Action's Peace and Recover Program. I received my Ph.D. in Political Economy & Government from Harvard University in 2019.

My research lies at the intersection of development, comparative politics and political economy. I study the politics of development with a focus on fragile state settings, informal institutions, and conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the Great Lakes region, and Latin America. Using a range of methods, from field and natural experiments to qualitative interviews, my research aims to address the overarching question of what characterizes governance in fragile states and how it might be improved.

My work has been published or is forthcoming in the American Political Science Review, the Journal of African Economies, the Review of Economic Studies, and World Politics. Findings of my research have received coverage from Brookings, Development Impact, Global Prosperity Institute, LSE Business Review, Marginal Revolution, ThisWeekinAfrica, and VoxEU.

Before graduate school I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics with a secondary field in Economics from the University of Essex and attended high school in Rwanda and Canada. I also worked in Malawi for the German Development Bank, KfW.