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I am PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Notre Dame. My research interests are at the intersection of development economics and political economy focusing on how institutions and gender influence economic and human development. My research has been published in the Journal of Development Economics and the Journal of Population Economics.
I am on the 2026-2027 job market. My job market paper studies how electoral redistricting shapes political candidacy and economic development.
I am a PhD Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, a graduate student affiliate of the Building Inclusive Growth (BIG) Lab, and a member of the Representation of Women Lab.
Email: cweir2@nd.edu
Address: 3060 Jenkins Nanovic Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556
Job Market Paper
This paper examines how electoral redistricting affects political candidacy, representation, and economic development. I utilize India's 2008 Delimitation, which was the world's largest redistricting exercise, as a natural experiment. Redistricting generates constituency-level variation in voter composition and changes in which seats are reserved for candidates from historically disadvantaged social groups. I find that parties nominate more incumbents and fewer previous runners-up in constituencies with more new voters; these constituencies see no altered provision of public goods. Changes in the reservation status of a constituency reduce both incumbent nominations and the probability that an incumbent wins reelection; these constituencies see increased public goods provision and higher nighttime lights growth in the years following redistricting. The findings suggest redistricting boosts local economic development only when it constrains parties’ ability to protect incumbents.
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