Kimberly J. Renk

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California San Diego. My research examines the political economy of state extraction and popular resistance, with a focus on predatory states and Spanish colonialism in particular. To study this topic, I combine formal reasoning with quasi-experimental methods and systematic analysis of historical records. 

My job market paper asks why premodern rulers imposed extractive demands that drove away many of the very subjects upon whom they depended for revenue. Using a simple model, I argue that such flight reflected not overextraction but a strategic response to limited state capacity: unable to prevent their subjects’ departures, rulers accepted some population loss as the cost of imposing heavier burdens on those who remained. I find support for this argument using quasi-experimental and historical evidence on forced labor in colonial Peru.

Prior to pursuing academia, I worked on international disputes as a lawyer in Washington, DC, led projects in the governments of the Dominican Republic and Liberia, and managed policy and training programs at the Harvard Kennedy School and Stanford University.