Graduated in Law and in History and Geography from the University of Barcelona (UB) and holds a PhD from Harvard University. 

He has been Robert Garrett Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs at Princeton University since 2006 and Distinguished Researcher at the University of Barcelona (UB) since 2017. He has also been a professor at the University of Chicago and Princeton University, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) since 2010, and of the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) since 2016.

His research and teaching focus on the areas of Political Economy and the Theory of Democracy. His publications include Political Parties, Growth and Equality (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Democracy and Redistribution (Cambridge University Press, 2003), Political Order and Inequality (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and Democratic Capital University Press, 2019). 

He has been editor of the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics (2007) and has published in international journals such as American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, among others. In Catalonia, he has published the books: L'obertura catalana (2003) and Cartes ianquis (2012).