Andy Baker

Andy Baker is a Professor of Political Science and a member of the Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts Faculty. Before coming to Purdue, he was Professor and Chair of Political Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2001 and his B.A. with Magna Cum Laude Honors in Political Science from Valparaiso University in 1994.

Professor Baker conducts research on how economic interests and interpersonal communication shape citizens’ attitudes about political issues and their voting decisions, and he is particularly interested in these questions in the Latin American context. He is the author of three books: (1) Persuasive Peers: Social Communication and Voting in Latin America (with Barry Ames and Lucio Renno, 2020, Princeton University Press), which won the 2021 APSA Political Networks Section Best Book Award; (2) The Market and the Masses in Latin America: Policy Reform and Consumption in Liberalizing Economies (2009, Cambridge University Press); and (3) Shaping the Developing World: The West, the South, and the Natural World: Second Edition (2022, Congressional Quarterly Press).

Dr. Baker was raised in Northwest Indiana and is a lifelong fanatic of Purdue basketball!

Selected Publications

Andy Baker and David Cupery (2023). “Animosity, Amnesia, or Admiration? Mass Opinion around the World toward the Former Colonizer.” British Journal of Political Science 53(4): 1132-1149. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123422000710

Andy Baker (2023). “The Microfoundations of Latin America’s Social Policy Coalitions: The Insider/Outsider Labor Divide and Attitudes toward Different Welfare Programs in Mexico.” World Politics 75(1): 99-144. Online Appendix. Replication materials.

Andy Baker and Dalton Dorr (2022). “Labor Informality and the Vote in Latin America: A Meta-Analysis.” Latin American Politics and Society 64(2): 21-44. Published version. Online Appendix. Replication materials.

Andy Baker (2022). Shaping the Developing World: The South, the West, and the Natural World: Second Edition. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press. [Request a review copy.] [First Edition, 2014]

Andy Baker, Barry Ames, and Lucio Renno (2020). Persuasive Peers: Social Communication and Voting in Latin America. Online appendices and replication materials.

Andy Baker