Lakshmi Iyer is a professor of economics and global affairs at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA). Her research areas are development economics and political economy, with a strong focus on Asia. She has examined the development consequences of many institutional factors, including colonial rule, the role of bureaucrats, decentralization, gender quotas, women’s political participation and the social identity of leaders. Her new lines of research examine the interplay between governance, global health and natural resource management. Her work has been published in leading economics, political science and interdisciplinary journals.