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Associate Professor · Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

I study electoral behavior, political corruption, and democratic accountability in Latin America.

My work focuses on subnational politics and combines experiments, quantitative methods, and computational text analysis. This fall I am a Mid-Career Fellow at the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research, Tulane University.

Portrait of José Incio

Electoral behavior

How voters choose when information is scarce and party systems are weak.

Corruption and accountability

Reelection, recall, and how citizens punish or forgive corrupt politicians.

Democratic backsliding

New paths to autocratization, including legislative authoritarianism in Peru.

Selected publications

All publications →
  1. 2026

    When electoral reforms backfire: reassessing reelection's impact on corruption

    Incio, J., & Muñoz, P. · Public Choice

    DOIProject: Subnational Territorial Governance and Corruption in Peru

  2. 2025

    The Rise of Legislative Authoritarianism

    Sosa-Villagarcía, P., Incio, J., & Arce, M. · Journal of Democracy 36(2), 106-117

    ArticleDOI

  3. 2024

    Social media versus surveys: A new scalable approach to understanding legislators' discourse

    González-Rostani, V., Incio, J., & Lezama, G. · Legislative Studies Quarterly 50(2), 258-266

    ArticleDOI

  4. 2024

    How the Perception of Corruption Shapes the Willingness to Bribe: Evidence From An Online Experiment

    Incio, J., & Seifert, M. · International Journal of Public Opinion Research 36(3), edae035

    ArticleDOI

  5. 2022

    From Drug Lords to Police State: The Effects of Order Transition on Local Economies

    Gentil-Fernandes, L., Guedes-Neto, J. V., & Incio, J. · Comparative Political Studies 55(10), 1765-1801

    ArticleDOIFree PDFReplication data

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Work in progress

All working papers →

Drafts available on request.

Forthcoming · Revista de Ciencia Política

Peru 2025: The Consolidation of Chaos

Incio, J.

Revise and resubmit

A Vote of Confidence? Corruption, Accountability, and Local Candidate Preferences in a Developing Democracy

Incio, J., Muñoz, P., & Bird, M.

Revise and resubmit

Competing Narratives of Welcome? Migration Shocks and Elite Communication

González-Rostani, V., Incio, J., & Lezama, G.

Working paper

Calidad de la visita y bienestar de las personas privadas de libertad

Bracco Bruce, L., & Incio, J.

Working paper

Electoral Incentives, Natural Resource Revenues, and Local Protests: Evidence from Peru

Chang, A., & Incio, J.

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Funding and awards

Earlier fellowships
  • 2020–2021Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh
  • 2019–2020Arts & Science Fellowship, Dietrich School of Arts and Science
  • 2016–2017Latin American Social and Public Policy Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh
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Public engagement

2026 – present · Founder

Hechos y No Palabras

A nonpartisan portal that tracks how members of Congress and other political actors voted on major policy reforms, ahead of the 2026 general election. Close to 80,000 visits.

2021 · Founder

DecideBien

A voter information platform to help citizens navigate the large number of candidates and information in Peruvian elections. Close to one million visits and the National Digital Democracy Award.

GitHubWebsite

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