Leonard Wantchekon

Leonard Wantchekon is the James Madison Professor of Political Economy and Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, serving in the Department of Politics and as Associated Faculty in the Economics Department and the School of Public and International Affairs. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University (1995), an M.A. in Economics from the University of British Columbia (1992), and a Maitrise Plan A in Economics from Laval University (1990). His academic career includes positions as Professor of Politics (joint with Economics) at New York University from 2001 to 2011 and Assistant Professor of Political Science (joint with the Economic Growth Center) at Yale University from 1995 to 2001. Wantchekon founded and serves as President of the African School of Economics in Benin since 2010 and as Director of the Institute for Empirical Research in Political Economy since 2004. He has also held visiting positions such as Centennial Chair at the London School of Economics (2018–2019) and Kellogg Fellow at the University of Notre Dame (2019).

Wantchekon has made pioneering contributions to political economy, economic history, and development economics, particularly through field experiments on political institutions, governance, clientelism, vote buying, and democratization, often in African contexts. His seminal works include “The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa” (American Economic Review, 2011, co-authored with Nathan Nunn), which links historical slave trades to contemporary trust levels and is foundational in cultural economics; “Clientelism and Voting Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Benin” (World Politics, 2003); “Resource Wealth and Political Regimes in Africa” (Comparative Political Studies, 2004, with Nathan Jensen); “The Paradox of Warlord Democracy: A Theoretical Investigation” (American Political Science Review, 2004); and “Education and Human Capital Externalities: Evidence from Colonial Benin” (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2015, with others). His research also examines long-term historical effects, such as anti-colonial movements on post-Cold War democracy and colonial education's impact on social mobility and gender norms. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013) and the Econometric Society (2018), he has served as Secretary of the American Political Science Association, on the Executive Committee of the International Economic Association and Afrobarometer Network, and received major grants from DFID, IDRC, and Open Society Foundations. His scholarship, influenced by his activism against Benin's military regime, is covered by outlets like the New York Times and Financial Times. He authored the autobiography Rêver-a-Contre Courant (2012).

Professional Email: lwantche@princeton.edu