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 qualitative analysis of historical records. 

My job market paper asks why premodern rulers imposed onerous forced labor that depleted the very populations upon which they depended to sustain their states. Using a simple model, I argue that such population loss reflected a strategic sacrifice: unable to prevent the demographic consequences of forced labor, rulers accepted meaningful losses as the cost of imposing heavier demands on those who remained. I find support for this argument using quasi-experimental and historical evidence on forced labor in colonial Peru.

Prior to entering 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.