Brian Min studies the political economy of development, with a focus on the politics of energy, ethnic politics, and civil conflict. His current research asks: How do governments distribute basic public services when budget constraints necessitate their rationing? Using satellite imagery of nighttime lights and other high-resolution geo-coded data available across the entire globe and over time, he analyzes how political institutions affect the delivery of electricity to the poor. His other stream of research focuses on ethnic politics and conflict, including the collection of a large new dataset (with Lars-Erik Cederman and Andreas Wimmer) on Ethnic Power Relations (EPR) in all countries of the world from 1946–2005.