Darin Christensen

Associate Professor
Public Policy & Political Science

UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

I am a political scientist interested in international development.

My research focuses on two questions:

What are the causes and consequences of conflict?
What policies promote well-being without causing undue harm to the environment?

My research uses fine-grained, often geo-spatial, data; employs natural or field experiments to identify causal relationships; and applies game-theoretic models to motivate and interpret empirical analysis. I collaborate with NGOs and government agencies in the Global South.

Affiliations

Education

PhD in Political Science, 2016

Stanford University
MA in Economics, 2016

Stanford University
BA in Political Science, 2008

Duke University

Articles

Darin Christensen, Alexandra Hartman, Cyrus Samii, Alessandro Toppeta (2025). Interest-based Negotiation over Natural Resources: Experimental Evidence from Liberia. Accepted, Journal of the European Economic Association.

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Darin Christensen, Allison Grossman, Guy Grossman, Jon Kurtz, Jeremy Weinstein, Jessical Wolff (2025). Ethical Oversight in Impact Evaluations: External Advisory Committees to Assess Programming Risks. Accepted, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Darin Christensen, Graeme Blair, Michael Gibilisco (2024). The Point of Attack: Where and Why Does Oil Cause Armed Conflict in Africa?. Accepted, Journal of Politics.

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Darin Christensen, Michael Gibilisco (2024). How Budgets Shape Power Sharing in Autocracies. Quarterly Journal of Political Science.

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Darin Christensen, Graeme Blair, Valerie Wirtschafter (2022). How Does Armed Conflict Shape Investment? Evidence from the Mining Sector. Journal of Politics.

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Tara Slough, Daniel Rubenson, Ro'ee Levy, Darin Christensen, 15 others (2021). Adoption of Community Monitoring Improves Common Pool Resource Management Across Contexts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Darin Christensen, Alexandra Hartman, Cyrus Samii (2021). Citizen Monitoring Promotes Informed and Inclusive Forest Governance in Liberia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Darin Christensen, Francisco Garfias (2021). The Politics of Property Taxation: Fiscal Infrastructure and Electoral Incentives in Brazil. Journal of Politics.

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Darin Christensen, Oeindrila Dube, Johannes Haushofer, Bilal Siddiqi, Maarten Voors (2021). Building Resilient Health Systems: Experimental Evidence from Sierra Leone and the 2014 Ebola Outbreak. Quarterly Journal of Economics.

PDF Dataset Policy Brief

Darin Christensen, Graeme Blair, Aaron Rudkin (2021). Do Commodity Price Shocks Cause Armed Conflict? A Meta-Analysis of Natural Experiments. American Political Science Review.

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Darin Christensen, Alexandra Hartman, Cyrus Samii (2020). Legibility and External Investment: An Institutional Natural Experiment in Liberia. International Organization.

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Darin Christensen, Oeindrila Dube, Johannes Haushofer, Bilal Siddiqi, Maarten Voors (2020). Community-based Crisis Response: Evidence from Sierra Leone's Ebola Outbreak. AEA Papers and Proceedings.

PDF Dataset SI

Darin Christensen (2019). Concession Stands: How Mining Investments Incite Protest in Africa. International Organization.

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