Ezgi Gurses

Ezgi Gurses is a PhD student in Development Economics at SOAS, University of London. 

Her doctoral research examines the evolving modalities, strategic orientations, and political economies of emerging donors—particularly Türkiye, China, and Arab Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates—and their expanding contributions to development cooperation. 

Employing a mixed-methods approach with a strong quantitative component, her work investigates the motivations driving these actors’ development assistance policies, the institutional and geopolitical factors shaping their engagement, and the implications of their rise for global development finance and South–South cooperation. She is especially interested in how these states, many of which were historically positioned as aid recipients, have become influential providers of development finance, reshaping aid norms, priorities, and partnership modalities in ways that diverge from those of traditional OECD-DAC donors. 

Ezgi’s broader research interests encompass the political economy of foreign aid, development assistance governance, aid effectiveness, and the changing architecture of global development cooperation. Her work contributes to contemporary debates about the extent to which emerging donors challenge, complement, or transform existing development frameworks and what their expanding presence means for recipient countries navigating an increasingly multipolar development landscape. Before beginning her doctoral studies, Ezgi completed an MSc in Political Economy of Development at SOAS, University of London, where she developed a strong interdisciplinary foundation in development theory, political economy, and applied research methods.

Her master’s studies deepened her interest in alternative development pathways and the growing significance of non-traditional donors in global development. Ezgi holds a BSc in Political Science and Public Administration from Middle East Technical University (METU), where she also completed a minor in Economics. Her undergraduate training provided her with rigorous grounding in comparative politics, public policy analysis, and economic reasoning—analytical tools she now applies to research on development cooperation and emerging donor behavior. 

Across her academic trajectory, she has remained committed to producing empirically grounded, policy-relevant research that speaks to broader theoretical debates in development economics and international political economy. Her work ultimately seeks to advance a more nuanced understanding of the motivations, strategies, and developmental contributions of emerging donors, highlighting their increasingly central role in shaping the future of global development cooperation.

• Development Economics
• Political Economy of Development
• International Development Finance
• Quantitative Analysis and Econometric Methods in Development Research
• Emerging Donors and Foreign Aid