Education
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
MA, University of California, Berkeley
BA, Brown University

Profile
Aaron Schneider is the Leo Block Chair of International Studies, having recently moved from the Judy and Avram Chair in the Political Science Department at Tulane University in New Orleans. Prior to joining Tulane University, Dr. Schneider worked at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, U.K. and he has also been an advisor to the chief economist for Central America at the Interamerican Development Bank. His most recent book is State-Building and Tax Regimes in Central America (Cambridge University Press 2012), and he has published over 40 articles and book chapters. His most recent book is State-Building and Tax Regimes in Central America (Cambridge University Press 2012).

Research and Expertise
Dr. Schneider’s work focuses on the intersection of wealth and power, and he has conducted research in Latin America, India, and Sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, he emphasizes the study of public finance as a window into the political economy of development and democracy. The way governments secure contributions from key social groups, and how they decide what to do with the money tells a story about the nature of national political communities – who is in, who is out, and who will enjoy what benefits of membership.

Among other projects, Dr. Schneider’s main ongoing enterprise is a comparative project on India and Brazil, examining the political impact of similarly successful but quite divergent strategies of insertion into international markets. The project explores emerging markets in global capitalism and how domestic political institutions of federalism and political parties respond to distinct macroeconomic constraints. 

Courses
Social Movements in Latin America
Comparative State-building
International Development
International Political Economy of Emerging Markets: Brazil and India
Public Finance in Developing Countries