His main research focus is on the political conditions under which governments implement egalitarian reforms. His first book, Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform, published by Cambridge University Press, examines why and when land reform programs are implemented. It won the 2016 Luebbert Award for best book published in comparative politics in 2014 or 2015. Other research interests include political regime transitions and stability, politics under dictatorship, clientelism, and civil conflict. Albertus' work has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Comparative Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Economics & Politics, World Development, Latin American Research Review, and elsewhere.