I am interested in understanding how culture shapes political and development outcomes. By culture, I mean shared beliefs and preferences of groups, in particular, which are shaped by social norms, religion, and social identity. Culture shapes political and economic outcomes through the tastes and wants of respective group members. One implication is that understanding this process is fundamental to comprehend the causes of certain outcomes and to inform the design and implementation of various policies in a way that addresses, or even takes advantage, of this knowledge. While paying special attention to causal identification, my work applied a broad range of methods, including advanced econometrics, survey experiments, and social statistics.