He studies comparative politics and political economy, with a focus on emerging market economies in Southeast Asia. Here at Cornell Pepinsky also serves as Director of the International Political Economy Program and the Associate Director of the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 2007. His research centers around two themes: the relationship between economic interests and political outcomes, and the interaction between domestic politics and the global economy. He is the author of Economic Crises and the Breakdown of Authoritarian Regimes (Cambridge University Press, 2009), and his current work focuses on financial politics in emerging market economies, authoritarianism and regime survival, and political Islam in Indonesia and beyond.