Political Economy · Comparative & International

Serene Ho

Ph.D. Candidate · MIT Political Science

My research asks how firm-level heterogeneity in exposure to globalization and technological change generates divergent political preferences, and how that divergence reshapes the institutions governing labor, trade, and technology. My dissertation, Heterogeneous Firms and the Politics of Institutional Change, tests this argument across three papers using confidential U.S. Census microdata linking firms, establishments, and trade transactions, alongside computational analysis of lobbying disclosures. Beyond that core data infrastructure, I work with supply-chain records, lobbying disclosures, and legislative text, paired with formal modeling and causal identification strategies including shift-share designs. I bring a background in large-scale data infrastructure and research computing, and enjoy working with diverse data sources.

Email GitHub LinkedIn Google Scholar

Background

Before starting my PhD, I completed a Masters in Public Administration at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), then spent two years as Firms Sector Policy Manager at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), where I helped launch the firms sector. I hold a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol and am a Walter A. Rosenblith Presidential Fellow at MIT.