top of page

My research examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) operate as political actors in the global economy and how political environments shape firms’ investment behavior, risk exposure, and strategic responses. In today’s world, international business decisions are increasingly conditioned not only by market forces but also by political conflict, institutional constraints, and security-oriented logics. My work seeks to identify the mechanisms through which political dynamics influence corporate strategies and investment outcomes.

​​

Politics and MNCs​​​

A core strand of my research focuses on the interaction between MNCs and political conflict, institutions, and regulatory environments. I study how firms respond to political risk, disputes, and uncertainty, and how these responses vary across sectors, ownership structures, and institutional contexts. My published work shows that political conflict and institutional frictions systematically shape the location, timing, and form of foreign direct investment, particularly in high-risk environments such as extractive industries and dispute-prone sectors. Building on this foundation, my ongoing projects analyze corporate lobbying and information disclosure, investor behavior under international disputes, investment timing under FDI screening regimes, and the political consequences of corporate activity, including protests, corruption, and armed conflict. Several of these projects leverage firm-level and facility-level data to examine how heterogeneity among firms and investors conditions political outcomes on the ground.

​

​
  • Corporate Lobbying Information and ISDS. (Revision)
  • Foreign Agents: MNCs and WTO Disputes. With Randall Stone. (Revision)
  • Investment Timing and Uncertainty in FDI Screening. (Revision)
  • The Ugly Face of MNCs: Protests against MNCs and Collusive Corruption in Liberia. With Mohammed Bah. (Revision)
  • The Impact of Ownership Structure of Mining Facilities on Armed Conflict. With Andres F. Jola-Sanchez. (Work in progress)
  • The Village Beside the Mine: Law-Mandated Corporate Social Responsibility and Local Resilience in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With Yingyi Lin. (Work in progress)
​
Geoeconomics
A second line of research examines the growing shift from market-oriented to security-oriented logics in global economic governance. This work focuses on geoeconomic instruments such as sanctions, investment screening, and export controls. I analyze how governments deploy these tools under conditions of interdependence and uncertainty, and how firms interpret, comply with, and adapt to them. My recent and ongoing research addresses counterproliferation sanctions, CFIUS reviews of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and China’s export control lists. These projects emphasize signaling, learning, and compliance under regulatory ambiguity, highlighting how states accumulate and manage economic leverage while firms adjust investment strategies in anticipation of political scrutiny.
​
​
  • ​Navigating Uncertainty: Signaling, Compliance, and Learning in CFIUS Reviews of Cross-Border Deals. With Sarah Danzman, Sichen Li, and Andrey Tomashevskiy. (Under review)
  • China’s Export Control Lists and Low-Salience Economic Statecraft. (Revision)
​
​
East Asian Security
In addition, I maintain an active research agenda in East Asian security. My work in this area examines nuclear security debates on the Korean Peninsula, international and domestic discourse surrounding South Korea’s nuclear self-reliance, and public opinion on nuclear armament. I also study human security and migration dynamics in Northeast Asia, including the secondary migration decisions of North Korean defectors.
​
​
  • From South Korea to the West: The Strategic Logic of Secondary Migration of North Korean Defectors. With Yongmin Kim. (Under review)​
​
bottom of page