I hold the Globe Fellowship in Economies of Muslim Societies at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. I am also an associate professor in development economics at the University of Oxford's Department of International Development and hold a senior research fellowship at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.I research on the political economy of development with a regional focus on Middle East and Pakistan. I use an empirically rigorous, historically informed, and policy-relevant approach to addressing the big questions in political economy. My research combines rigorous empirical methods with hand-collected data on firms, political families, and religious institutions. An emerging strand of his research seeks to enhance our understanding the political economy of authoritarian rule in Muslim societies. In this regard, I am currently researching on the politics of trade liberalization in Muslim societies, the impact of political dynasties on economic development, the interplay between religion, land, and politics in Pakistan, and the impact of exceptional institutional arrangements in frontier regions on conflict.