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Avi Ahuja

@avi-ahuja.bsky.social
282 followers 616 following 21 posts

PhD candidate at NYU Politics. I study development, aid, political behavior & governance in Africa.

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Reposted by Avi Ahuja
Dana El Kurd @danaelkurd.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
So when will there be investigations of this ref. Free football from FIFA
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Belinda Archibong @belindaarch.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
A World Cup fan honoring Patrice Lumumba at football games- exemplifying why I love the WC and why these games are so important. Reminds me of one of my favorite econ papers from @filipecampante.bsky.social and co-authors on the effects of African football
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American Political Science Review @apsrjournal.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
From our FirstView: The Effects of Exposure to New Electoral Rules: Field Experimental Evidence from Sierra Leone by AVI AHUJA and @gmcclendon.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1017/S000...
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Tim Hirschel-Burns @timhirschelburns.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
When you work on issues of development and cooperation with the Global South, you're often asked “what’s in it for us?” Well, we're now seeing perhaps the clearest example: not getting Ebola. I wrote about lessons we really should have learned by now timhirschelburns.substack.com/p/we-could-n...
timhirschelburns.substack.com
We could not have been more warned
COVID underlined the depth of our interconnection. Then we made our pandemic response systems worse.
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Charles Onyango-Obbo @cobbo3.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Public transport operators in several major Kenyan towns began a strike to protest soaring fuel costs after diesel prices jumped 50% since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Fuel Protests Over Pump Prices Paralyze Kenya’s Public Transport
Public transport operators in several major Kenyan towns began a strike on Monday to protest soaring fuel costs, after diesel prices jumped 50% since the start of the war in Iran.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Many thanks to @laynamosley.bsky.social & @peterrosendorff.bsky.social for thoughtful comments and edits!
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
We argue, among other things, that Senegal’s resistance to restructuring can be understood as a political choice about who bears the costs of adjustment and how the government presents itself to domestic and regional audiences.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
In our new policy brief for the @princetonsovfinlab.bsky.social, Tetsekela Anyiam-Osigwe, Mengfan Cheng, and I explore the domestic politics and regional dynamics underpinning Senegal’s handling of its recent hidden debt crisis. We welcome your thoughts! psfl.princeton.edu/sites/g/file...
psfl.princeton.edu
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Congratulations!
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Ahhh big congrats Alia!!!
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Recipe please!
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Ricky Clark @rickyclark.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
📢 Virtual IPES (VIPES) Spring/Summer 2026 CFP! Great chance to workshop IPE/CPE papers in a small-group format with detailed discussant feedback. 🗓 Deadline: April 20, 2026 📄 Full papers (≤10k words) 🔗 forms.gle/KDnxua5L5DrX... More info: www.internationalpoliticaleconomysociety.org/virtual-ipes
forms.gle
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Geneva @genevavalerie.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Very excited to see this paper out in the world! Across 3 rounds of interviews with white Minnesotans, I show that white id varies and responds dynamically to shifts in context. Many whites have low id but vary in how they interpret whiteness—as providing them dis/advantages. 1/7
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Geneva @genevavalerie.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Grateful for the support from RSF and @j-palna.bsky.social and excited to work on this project with @genbates.bsky.social!
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
We welcome your thoughts and comments on the article! Thanks for reading.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Together, we show many existing ideas about the effects of PR rules extend to developing democracies, but that the mechanisms undergirding those effects may be about candidate-vote vs. party-voter linkages rather than changes in programmatic politics, political competition, new party entry, etc.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
This study would not be possible without the dedicated partnership of igr-sl.org and their commitment to voter civic education in Sierra Leone under the leadership of Andrew Lavali and Fredline MCormack-Hale, as well as the field and operations teams led by Justine Ganawah and Gilbert Fullah.
igr-sl.org
Welcome to Institute for Governace Reform (IGR)
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
So many amazing people provided feedback on this paper, including @luciamotoliniac.bsky.social, @tinepaulsen.bsky.social, Amy Catalinac, Yael Shomer, @danpemstein.com, @profdansmith.bsky.social, @thaliagerzso.bsky.social, Leonie Huddie, Michael Wahman, Raduan van Velthem Meira, Paige Bollen.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
In the follow-up survey experiment, voters shared concerns that party leaders would have too much closed-door control over representation. Closed-list PR had by then become the status quo instead of an alternative to it, unlike when we first ran the field experiment and saw positive effects on trust
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Some studies have argued that proportional representation rules increase voter trust in elections, because those rules are less distortionary and winner-take-all and perhaps more transparent. However, respondents in our study did not greet closed-list PR rules with clear increases in trust. Why?
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
We find that women are much more excited to vote for a party, because they perceive a party-centered system easier to navigate over one with more direct politician-voter linkages. That is also perhaps why both women and men report that PR is more likely to advance policies for women’s development.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
In a follow-up survey experiment, also in this @apsrjournal.bsky.social piece, we find many male respondents react negatively to the switch from being able to vote for a candidate to being able to vote only for the party *because* they know and are comfortable with lobbying specific local candidates
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Incredibly, we found these effects even in a context when elites themselves had not adjusted to the new rules. During fieldwork, we saw several campaign billboards that featured the MP candidate encouraging voters to elect that person, even though the ballot would only allow them to choose a party
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Here, we find that voters become more skeptical of particularistic campaign promises when the new electoral rules switch voter choice from local candidates (as in the old system) to parties (under closed-list PR), even where a real switch to programmatic politics is unlikely.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
As the map here shows, changes in electoral rules have been and are happening all over the world, but we’ve had fewer studies of their consequences in developing democracies where clientelism is prevalent (important exceptions! e.g., @luciamotoliniac.bsky.social) and information environments weaker.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Here, we worked within a context where the change in electoral rules was sudden and not widely known about or understood. We randomized information (including through an app developed by IGR Sierra Leone) about the new PR rules at the individual-voter level and collected panel data on key outcomes.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
A rich literature has looked at the effects of electoral rules on voting behavior, attitudes, and electoral outcomes (eg. by @teele.bsky.social, @profdansmith.bsky.social, etc.), but rarely have we estimated *individual-level* effects of rules within both the same polity and the same election.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
We find that receiving information about closed-list PR rules: - increased *women’s* commitment to voting , and - decreased women’s and men’s support for particularistic campaign appeals, But had ambiguous (and possibly) negative effects on trust in elections.
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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
New #OpenAccess Paper Alert! 🚨 In @apsrjournal.bsky.social, @gmcclendon.bsky.social and I present results from a collaborative field experiment with the Institute for Governance Reform around a switch from plurality rules to closed-list PR rules in Sierra Leone’s 2023 parliamentary elections. A🧵:
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Duncan Jones @manmademoon.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
The only surefire way to stop oligarchs buying up the things we love is to drop those things the moment oligarchs buy them & that requires changing habits and massive self-discipline. It means going to alternatives that might not be quite as good or convenient. It’s really hard. But there it is.
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Center for Global Development @cgdev.org · 04/12/2025
The UK’s plan to cut aid to 0.3% of GNI threatens Sierra Leone—including a £35m health program set to fall below £1m. CGD experts argue Sierra Leone should stay a priority: needs are severe, alternatives scarce, & interventions cost-effective: go.cgdev.org/4oKJJ0s
go.cgdev.org
The UK Must Avoid Deadly Cuts to Health Aid in Sierra Leone
The UK Government’s February announcement that aid will fall to 0.3 percent of gross national income by 2027 has led to a wave of concern as to which programs will be cut. The outlook is especially bl...
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Annie M Leonard @anniemleonard.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
It’s not a great deal if you don’t need it. And especially this year, others really need support. So for all of us who have enough, let’s refuse to get sucked into the holiday shopping frenzy and share instead of shop. We don’t need more stuff, we need communities where all our neighbors are safe.
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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
*external validity voice* actually it could just be that nairobi is fucking awesome
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British Journal of Political Science @bjpols.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
NEW - Rooting Equality: Testing the Effectiveness of Activist Frames Combating Homophobia in Zimbabwe - cup.org/3XSzLPn - @payoub.bsky.social & Adam S. Harris #OpenAccess
BJPolS abstract of a discussing the effectiveness of locally rooted human rights activism in reducing homophobia in Zimbabwe, focusing on strategies for challenging anti-LGBTQ sentiments and promoting LGBTQ rights in African contexts.
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 07/11/2025
Hundreds of thousands of people, dead because of a decision made by the world's richest man
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Lee Crawfurd @leecrawfurd.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Reducing the cost of remittances could replace large chunks of lost USAID funds for many countries - two-thirds for Nigeria! www.cgdev.org/blog/after-a...
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