2026 Global Development Postdoctoral Fellows Conference: King Center scholars present new evidence from developing countries
On September 18, nine new researchers shared their work at the 2026 Global Development Postdoctoral Fellows Conference. The King Center on Global Development hosts the event annually in collaboration with the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). Held at the beginning of the autumn quarter, the conference introduces researchers to the university’s global development community. Katherine Casey, Faculty Director of the King Center, welcomed the scholars, highlighting the new insights and perspectives they bring to Stanford.
The CDDRL fellows focused on power and politics. Emily Russell showed that in Assam, the world’s second largest tea producing region, police do more than keep the peace on tea plantations: “Police not only manage social order, but also enforce economic order,” she said. Chris Dann examined how autocrats build legitimacy through tangible, large-scale infrastructure projects, or “conspicuous construction,” while Benjamin Yoel found that praising a pro-democracy movement shifts public opinion in Hungary more than actual allyship does. Frances Cayton explored why Poland’s autocratic ruling party may have overlooked a hidden source of resistance: ordinary community groups, noting that “informal and apolitical civic life maintain latent democratic capacity.”
The five new King Center fellows each also presented their ongoing research:
Resuf Ahmed used India’s 2008 delimitation exercise—a redrawing of electoral districts—to study political quotas for Scheduled Castes (SCs), a historically disadvantaged group. Ahmed compared areas newly reserved for SC candidates with similar ones that weren't. He found that the quotas did more than put SC politicians in office: They also helped SC families get ahead economically. In areas with new quotas, SC-owned businesses grew by 14%, and more SC students got into top schools. He concluded that “political quotas deliver economic mobility, not just representation.”
Lucile Dehouck shared her findings on “the impact of climate-induced drinking water scarcity on children's education in rural Ethiopia.” She combined machine learning with survey data to examine how failing wells in Ethiopia affect schooling. In the rural areas that she studied, children are often the primary water collectors, so the depletion of a local well raises the likelihood of a child missing a week or more of school by 7 to 8 percentage points, as children take on more water-related labor.
Alyssa Heinze challenged the assumption that climate change entrenches patriarchy. Using original survey and ethnographic data from rural India, she showed that climate change can reshape gender power: through who is seen as a desirable marriage partner. As climate change makes farming harder, farming men concede to less male-biased marriage contracts to secure a bride. Communities, moreover, update their beliefs on gender norms, for example, by not always preferring sons. These dynamics destabilize gender hierarchy both within households and broader communities.
Tess Lallemant tested whether more clearly written job descriptions resulted in better candidate pools in Kampala, Uganda. When employers received assistance from an AI-enabled tool she helped design, they “drew nearly 40% larger applicant pools with better skill alignment and reduced hiring through personal networks.”
Kailash Rajah ran an experiment testing gender breadwinning norms in India. Women did not withdraw from work when offered wages above their husbands’ incomes. The higher the wage, the more women wanted the job, no matter how it compared to their husband’s income. This reinforced the economic idea that people respond to pay over social mores, and the pattern held even in the most conservative households.
Closing the day, Hesham Sallam, Senior Research Scholar and Associate Director for Research at CDDRL, thanked the fellows for bringing to life the centers’ shared commitments to “meaningful research in social problems, and supporting emerging scholars and research in real-life practice.”
