His research focuses on development, environmental and resource economics, and political economy. He uses econometric and geospatial tools to study natural resource governance, structural transformation, and the effects of resource booms and energy transitions on governments, firms, and workers.
Erik is an affiliate of the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program and the Elections Research Center at UW-Madison. Prior to his PhD, he was a Fulbright Research Fellow at Unicamp in Brazil.