Katrina Kosec

At Johns Hopkins, Katrina Kosec is a lecturer in the MA in Global Security Studies program and a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, where she serves as the Interim Lead of CGIAR’s research on Fragile and Conflict-Affected Food Systems. She has previously led multiple CGIAR research programs focused on fragility, conflict, migration, and gender. In 2023, she co-led IFPRI’s flagship annual publication, the Global Food Policy Report, on the theme “Rethinking Food Crisis Responses.” She is also a member of the Evidence in Governance and Politics network and serves on the Executive Committee of the Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Section of the American Political Science Association.

Kosec’s research examines the linkages between governance, fragility, gender, and poverty. One strand of her work investigates the impacts of government policies and public-sector incentives on poverty, food security, women’s empowerment, and individuals’ attitudes and aspirations. A second strand explores the drivers of women’s voice and influence beyond the household, including the roles of policies, NGO- and civil-society-led interventions, climate change, and economic shocks.

She has designed and implemented surveys and field experiments in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tanzania, Mali, Malawi, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea, in collaboration with international agencies including the World Bank, the International Growth Centre, GIZ, 3ie, World Vision International, ActionAid, and USAID, as well as with government and local NGO partners.

Her work has been published in journals including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, Nature Climate Change, the Journal of Health Economics, World Politics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, and World Development. Her research has also been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and NPR, and has been cited by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Kosec received her PhD in political economics and her MA in economics from Stanford University, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in Economics. She also holds a BSc in international political economy from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.