Carles Boix writes and teaches on comparative political economy and comparative politics. He is the author of Political Parties, Growth and Equality (Cambridge University Press, 1998), L'obertura catalana (Idees, 2002) and Democracy and Redistribution (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics (Oxford University Press, 2007). He has received the William Riker award for the best book on political economy twice, the Mattei Dogan award for best book published in the field of comparative research and the Heinz Eulau award for best article published in the American Political Science Review. His current research projects include: the exploration of the origins and persistence of economic inequality; the analysis of the conditions that led to the emergence of party systems and electoral institutions in advanced democracies; the application of agent-based models to understand the formation of states; and the internal structure of dictatorships. Before joining Princeton he taught at the University of Chicago. Ph.D. Harvard University.