I came to economics through art theft. At fourteen, I held my first painting exhibition. A month later, I returned to collect my canvases — and found the best ones gone. Years later, I spent a summer as a teenage icon painter, watching a dealer pocket most of the proceeds, pay artists almost nothing, and evade taxes in plain sight. That summer convinced me: I needed to understand illicit economies, not just observe them. That decision shaped everything that followed.
Today, as a Senior Geoeconomics Analyst and Harvard Kennedy School alumna (JFK Fellow; Edward S. Mason Fellow), I study the flows of dirty money that quietly corrode democracies — particularly in Southeast Europe. My estimates show that illicit financial flows in the region reach at least 6% of GDP, nearly double the global average of 3–5%, yet the problem remains chronically understudied. I work to change that, combining empirical research, policy engagement, and a commitment to making findings matter beyond academic journals. I brief EU Council, US Mission to EU, DG Near, the ECB, and Standard & Poor's; my work has been covered by The Banker, Reuters, Euractiv, Balkan Insight, TRT World, TVP World, etc.
My academic research asks a different but related question: when governments change the rules, who actually bears the consequences? Working with quasi-experimental methods and large cross-national panel datasets, I have studied the effects of prostitution law reforms on rape rates and marriage markets, global anti-domestic violence legislation across 112 countries, and HIV travel ban removals. Laws are theories. My job is to test them. Papers have appeared in the Journal of Law and Economics, the Journal of Population Economics, and the Review of Economics of the Household. From 2018 to 2019, I served as a Fellow on the WEF Global Future Council on Financial and Monetary Systems, nominated by the Dean of Fudan University.
China is my second home — not a talking point, but a decade of lived experience. I hold a PhD in Economics from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, earned entirely in Mandarin with a full Shanghai Government Scholarship. I then spent years as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and now Non-Resident Research Fellow at Fudan University's Fanhai International School of Finance. In a field crowded with confident voices who have never set foot in the Middle Kingdom, I try to read the tea leaves differently.
I bring expertise from two Easts — Eastern Europe and East Asia — and a Harvard vantage point that connects both to the wider Western policy conversation. I grew up in post-socialist Bulgaria during years of no electricity, no water, and no bread. That era taught me the one lesson that has never left: what truly matters cannot be taken away.
Based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Open to connecting with researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working on economic security, illicit finance, institutional resilience, and the genuinely complicated realities of China today.
EDUCATION:
2024 – 2025
Master in Public Administration (MPA)
Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government
JFK Fellow; Edward S. Mason Fellow in Public Policy and Management
2012 – 2016
PhD in Economics (Finance)
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics — Chinese-taught program
Cum Laude; Shanghai Municipal Government Scholarship; Outstanding Graduate Award
Fellow, WEF Global Future Council on Financial and Monetary Systems (2018–2019)
Member, WEF Expert Network (2019–present)
Harvard Kennedy School JFK Fellow & Edward S. Mason Fellow (2024–2025)
Non-Resident Research Fellow, Fudan University FISF (2022–present)
PhD earned entirely in Mandarin; Shanghai Government Scholarship; Outstanding Graduate Award (2016)
Published in Journal of Law and Economics; Journal of Population Economics; Review of Economics of the Household
Policy briefings for EU Council, US Mission to EU, ECB, DG Near, Standard & Poor's
Research grant awarded by Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) Programme, FCDO (£198,000)
• "Do Prostitution Laws Affect Rape Rates? Evidence from Europe" (with H. Gao), Journal of Law and Economics 65 (2022), 753–789.
• "Cash is King: Impact of the Ukraine War on Illicit Financial Flows in South Eastern Europe," Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (2023).
• "Breaking the Code: Russian and Chinese Disinformation and Illicit Financial Flows in Southeast Europe" (with G. Georgiev & K. Tsabala), Center for the Study of Democracy (2023).
• "Developing Alternative Visions for Assessing Progress to Sustainable Development 'Beyond GDP'" (with M. Vladimirov et al.), European Commission, DG Research and Innovation (2023).
• "Multifractal Cross-correlations between Foreign Exchange Rates and Interest Rate Spreads" (with J. Li, X. Lu & W. Jiang), Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications (2021).