Tesalia Rizzo Reyes

Tesalia Rizzo Reyes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Merced, within the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. She is also a Research Affiliate at the MIT Governance Lab and the Stanford Governance Project, and is affiliated with CAPE at UC Merced, where she co-directs the PEARS Lab. Her research lies at the intersection of comparative political behavior and political economy, focusing on clientelism, accountability, bureaucratic transaction costs, and survey and experimental methodology.

Her research interests center on how institutional design affects citizen-state interactions, particularly in developing democracies. She investigates how bureaucratic hurdles prevent direct access to welfare benefits, creating demand for clientelist intermediaries. Her work employs rigorous field experiments, surveys, interviews, and observational data, primarily in Latin America, with a strong focus on Mexico. She has developed policy instruments recognized by the Mexican government for innovations in transparency.

The body of her recent publications reflects a consistent focus on political intermediaries, accountability mechanisms, bureaucratic burden, and experimental methods. Her work spans comparative politics, political economy, public policy, and governance, with deep methodological expertise in survey and field experiments. She contributes significantly to understanding how informal institutions shape democratic performance.

• Honorable Mention, Best Dissertation Award in Experimental Research, American Political Science Association (2020)
• 2017 Innovations in Transparency Award, Mexican Government’s Transparency Institute

She has advised research projects and mentored students through her roles at UC Merced and her lab leadership. Her work has been supported by affiliations with MIT, Stanford, and UC San Diego. She co-directs the PEARS Lab, which focuses on political economy, accountability, and research methods, providing training and collaboration opportunities for graduate and undergraduate researchers. Her future research continues to explore institutional reforms and citizen engagement in contexts of weak governance.

The PEARS Lab, which she co-directs, serves as a hub for experimental and survey-based research on political behavior and governance. It supports student researchers, hosts collaborative projects, and promotes methodological rigor in political science. The lab is closely tied to CAPE and benefits from national and international academic networks.