Mehdi Shadmehr is an Associate Professor of Public Policy. Prior to joining UNC, he was an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Calgary (2016-2020), and an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Miami Herbert School of Business (2011-2016). He was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy (2018-2020) and Princeton University Department of Politics (2015) and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2017-2018).

Mehdi’s research interests are interdisciplinary, and his papers have appeared in various economics and political science journals, including American Economic Review, American Economic Review: Insights, Journal of the European Economic Association, American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, and Quarterly Journal of Political Science.

Mehdi’s research topics include populism, political risk, regime change, Islamic political thought, leadership (inspirational, informational, and tactical), social norms and social change, protests and revolutions, repression and censorship, revolutionary ideologies, judiciaries, decline of center city malls, and decision-making in small entrepreneurial groups.