Aytug Sasmaz is a PhD student in the Department of Government at Harvard University. He mainly works on the issues of comparative political economy of development, state-building, local governance regimes, social policy, and education policy. His regional interests lie in the Middle East and Europe. He holds a BA degree in Political Science and International Relations from Bogazici University (Istanbul), and an MSc degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics. Prior to PhD education, he worked as an education policy analyst at a leading policy think-tank in Turkey, and designed and executed research projects in collaboration with national and international organizations, such as the UNICEF and the World Bank