Minh D. Trinh

Minh D. Trinh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Purdue University, affiliated with the Advanced Methods program and Asian Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from MIT (2022), and prior degrees from Harvard University (B.A. in Government, M.A. in Statistics). Before Purdue, he was a Raphael Morrison Dorman Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

His research focuses on authoritarian regimes, particularly the impact of internal misinformation via falsified statistics on governance and citizens' compliance with authoritarian rule. He explores both instrumental and normative angles of compliance, combining comparative politics with rigorous quantitative methods.

His work is supported by institutions including the Southeast Asia Research Group (SEAREG), Mercatus Center, MIT Center for International Studies, and MIT GOV/LAB. He has developed statistical software tools like 'paths' and 'mediation' for causal inference analysis.

Notable research outputs include a book manuscript on statistical misreporting in authoritarian systems, studies on anti-protest propaganda efficacy, and analysis of electoral dynamics in authoritarian contexts. His research spans Vietnam, China, and broader Southeast Asia.