Edmund Malesky, Prof.
VinUniversity’s Smart Green Transformation Center (Green X)
Scientific Director
Biography
Prof. Malesky is a Professor of Political Economy at Duke University and the Director of the Duke Center for International Development (DCID). A leading voice in international and comparative political economy, Prof. Malesky has produced groundbreaking research on governance, markets, and institutional reform in developing and authoritarian regimes, with a particular emphasis on Southeast Asia.
He received his B.S. in Developmental Economics from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1996 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University in 2001 and 2004, respectively. He has held faculty and visiting appointments at the University of California, San Diego, the National University of Singapore, and the University of North Carolina.
Prof. Malesky’s scholarship centers on critical questions in foreign direct investment (FDI), investment incentives, authoritarian institutions, transparency, and anti-corruption. He has been at the forefront of developing practical tools that translate academic insights into measurable governance improvements. Most notably, he pioneered the Vietnam Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), which has become a widely adopted model for assessing subnational economic governance from the perspective of private firms. Building on this foundation, he contributed to the design of the Provincial Administrative Performance Index (PAPI), which captures citizen experiences with government performance. These indices have since been replicated and adapted in a growing list of countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Senegal.
Prof. Malesky’s academic publications span the top journals across multiple disciplines. In Political Science, his work appears in American Political Science Review (APSR), American Journal of Political Science (AJPS), Journal of Politics (JOP), and Quarterly Journal of Political Science (QJPS). His Economics publications include the Economic Journal and Journal of International Economics. In Management and International Business, he has published in the Academy of Management Journal (AMJ) and the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS). His work is characterized by empirical rigor, cross-disciplinary relevance, and a commitment to real-world impact.
As the founding member and current chair of the Southeast Asia Research Group (SEAREG), Prof. Malesky has helped foster a dynamic community of scholars dedicated to empirical research on Southeast Asia. Through SEAREG, he has mentored early-career researchers and contributed to shaping a new generation of area studies scholarship that integrates quantitative methods and field-based insight.
Dr. Malesky’s contributions have been recognized through numerous prestigious awards. He is a recipient of a state medal awarded by the Government of Vietnam for his contributions to the country’s governance reforms. His research has earned best article awards from the International Political Economy Society, the American Political Science Association (APSA) Political Economy Section, and the APSA Southeast Asian Politics Section. His commitment to policy engagement was recognized by the Academy of Management’s ONE-SIM Outreach Award, honoring outstanding real-world impact based on a published academic paper. He has also received the Duke Teaching Award for Top 5% of all instructors, based on undergraduate teaching evaluations three times. Early in his career, he was honored with the Gabriel Almond Award for the Best Dissertation in Comparative Politics, awarded by APSA.
Through his scholarship, institutional leadership, and policy engagement, Prof. Edmund Malesky continues to drive new thinking about the political underpinnings of economic reform and institutional accountability in emerging markets.
• Business-Government Relations
• Economic Governance
• Sustainable Economic Transition
• Political Risk Analysis
• Anticorruption Policy
• Transparency and Public Participation
• Political Institutions in Single-Party States
• Randomized Field Experiments and Survey Experiments
• Program Evaluation
• Political Economy of Southeast Asia
• Econometrics
• Experimental Methods
• Political Risk Analysis
• Comparative Political Economy
• International Political Economy
1. Jensen, Nathan, and Edmund Malesky. 2018. Incentives to Pander. How Politicians Use Corporate Welfare for Political Gain. Cambridge University Press.
2. Stromseth, Jonathan, Edmund Malesky, Dimitar Gueorguiev. 2017. China’s Governance Puzzle Enabling Transparency and Participation in a Single-Party State. Cambridge University Press.
3. Nathan Jensen, Glenn Biglaiser, Quan Li, Edmund Malesky Pablo Pinto, Santiago Pinto. 2012. Politics and Foreign Direct Investment. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
4. Fertig, Alexander., Iyer, Lakshmi, Hartman, Alexandra, & Malesky, Edmund J. (2025). “A Field of Her Own: Property Rights and Women’s Agency in Myanmar.” Journal of Politics. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/734236?casa_token=K6x4A60BFAAAAAAA%3AytL6YNxHkPO6WKu6NeAlvU_tFvF_bxdiBLC_xJBLI5ex3ffsF5xGGiL7JsffAq532-u3lRg5ew8U8Q&journalCode=jop
5. Bonifai, Niccolo, Edmund J. Malesky, Nita Rudra (2025). “Economic Risk Perceptions and Willingness to Learn about Globalization: A Field Experiment with Migrants and Other Underprivileged Groups in Vietnam” American Journal of Political Science DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12925
6. Delios, Andrew, Malesky, Edmund J. Malesky, Yu Shu, and Griffen Riddler (2023). “Methodological errors in corruption research: Recommendations for future research.” Journal of International Business Studies, 55(2), 235-251.
7. Malesky, Edmund J., Jason D. Todd, and Anh Tran (2023). “Can Elections Motivate Responsiveness in a Single-Party Regime? Experimental Evidence from Vietnam.” American Political Science Review, 117(2), 497-517.
8. Malesky, Edmund and Markus Taussig (2019). “Participation, Government Legitimacy, and Regulatory Compliance in Emerging Economies: A Firm-Level Field Experiment in Vietnam.” American Political Science Review 113.2: 530-551.
9. Malesky, Edmund J., and Layna Mosley. 2018. “Chains of Love? Global Production and the Firm‐Level Diffusion of Labor Standards.” American Journal of Political Science 62.3: 712-728
10. Jensen, Nathan and Edmund J. Malesky. 2018. “Nonstate Actors and Compliance with International Agreements: An Empirical Analysis of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.” International Organization, 72.1:33-69.
• Ph.D. Political Science, Duke University, 2004.
• M.A.Political Science, Duke University, 2001.
– Passed Comprehensive Examinations with Distinction
– Certificate of Political Economy awarded jointly by Duke Economics and Political Science Departments.
• B.S. Developmental Economics, Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, 1996.
– Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa
• Duke Teaching Award for Top 5% of all instructors on undergraduate teaching evaluations. Fall 2024, Spring 2022, Fall 2022
• Southeast Asia Politics Related Group, Best Paper Award, 2022
• American Academy of Management ONE-SIM Award for best outreach activities based on a published paper. Decision to be made in August 2020.
• Duke Teaching Award for Highest Student Evaluations in class with under 20 students, May 2016.
• Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Center Fellow, June 2014
• State Medal Awarded by the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry,Hanoi, Vietnam, December 2012. Awarded for service to the country’s economic development.
• Gabriel A. Almond Award for Best Dissertation in Comparative Political Science, American Political Science Association, 2005.
• Luce Scholar to Vietnam, Henry Luce Foundation, 1997 to 1998.
