Abel Gwaindepi is a Researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS). He is primarily interested in the political economy of development, broadly defined with respect to low-income countries with focuses on the state´s role, using taxation, expenditure, and public debt as main themes to interrogate the role and capacity of states. His focus is on emerging market economies, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on country cases and cross-country comparative work within Africa, and also Latin America. With experience in studying economic history, Abel uses long-term, historical and contemporary perspectives on these themes in an interdisciplinary way that employs approaches from development economics, economic history, and political economy.