He is affiliated with the Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law (CDDRL), the Stanford Center for International Development (SCID), and is a member of the board of the Center for Latin American Studies. Before taking a position at Stanford, he taught at UCLA and Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México in Mexico City. He has also been a researcher at CIDAC, a think tank in Mexico City. His current research interests include poverty, development, federalism, clientelism and patronage, and Mexico.