Christian Tangkere

Christian’s research agenda rests on the intersection between capability theory of the firm, heterodox analysis on rents and rent-seeking, and political settlement framework. His doctoral research examines why some state-owned enterprises (SOEs) become globally competitive despite operating in political economy contexts often characterised by rent-seeking and political capture. 

By integrating the political settlement framework with the dynamic capabilities approach, he explores how domestic political settlement mediates the creation and allocation of rents, which in turn shape the development of state-owned enterprises’ dynamic capabilities in a co-evolutionary process. He welcomes collaboration on research related to industrial policy, state capitalism, evolutionary political economy, rent governance, and the emergence of “pockets of effectiveness” under clientelist political settlements. Christian holds a Bachelor of Economics from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia, where he graduated as the Best Graduate of the Department of Economics in 2022. He later completed an MSc in Economics from SOAS University of London in 2025. 

He is a recipient of the Arryman Scholarship from the Indonesian Scholarship and Research Support Foundation (ISRSF), a prestigious scholarship programme designed to cultivate Indonesia’s future social scientists through the Institutes for Advanced Research (IFAR) Consortium, comprising Universitas Indonesia, Monash University Indonesia, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia, and the Catholic University of Atma Jaya Jakarta. Christian also has extensive research experience in human development policy. He worked as a Research Associate at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada, from 2022 to 2024, where he managed research projects in collaboration with multilateral and philanthropic institutions. 

His work during that position included a randomised evaluation with Indonesia’s Tanoto Foundation on a principals’ professional development programme in Central Java, as well as a randomised evaluation with the Asian Development Bank on folic acid interventions for middle-school adolescents in Indonesia. He also worked as Teaching Assistant in the Master of Economic Development programme at Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada, from 2023 to 2024, teaching microeconometrics with a focus on impact evaluation in public policy.

• State capitalism
• Capability theory of the firm
• Political settlement analysis
• Industrial policy
• State-owned entities (state-owned companies and investment fund)