Leonard Wantchekon

Leonard Wantchekon holds the James Madison Professorship in Political Economy at Princeton University, with affiliations in Politics, International Affairs, and Economics. He previously taught at New York University and Yale University. His education includes a PhD in Economics from Northwestern University, shaped by his activism under Benin's repressive regime (1976–1987). Wantchekon founded and leads the African School of Economics in Benin since its 2014 establishment.

His research focuses on Political Economy, Economic History, and Development Economics, with key contributions to cultural economics through seminal works like “Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa”. Current projects examine long-term impacts of historical events, including colonial education’s role in social mobility and the origins of gender norms.

Recent work explores racial dynamics in academic citations, electoral strategies in Benin, and governance structures in post-colonial Africa. His studies combine field experiments with historical micro-data to analyze democratization processes, clientelism, and corruption.

• Awards: American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow, Econometric Society Fellow
• Grants: Not explicitly listed in provided texts

He advises on development policies through engagements with institutions like the IMF, and his teaching includes specialized courses on state capture and clientelism. Ongoing research bridges historical institutional legacies with contemporary socio-economic challenges in Africa and the U.S.