Ignacio Arana is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University. He specializes in elite behavior by analyzing how the personality traits and other individual differences of heads of government impact executive governance. He also studies the consequences of variation in political institutions across countries, with a focus on Latin America. He examines executive-legislative relations, informal institutions, gender and politics, and judicial politics.
His research has been published or is forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Political Psychology, Democratization, Journal of Legislative Studies, Latin American Politics and Society, Journal of Law and Courts, Latin American Perspectives, América Latina Hoy, Revista de Ciencia Política, Bolivian Studies Journal, and Política. He also has published or forthcoming book chapters in Oxford University Press, Springer, and Flacso.