The West has always been at the forefront of the American mind. From the early days of the Republic, when the vast area beyond the Appalachian Mountains spurred imagination, through the mid-19th century, when the vast plains beyond the Mississippi River beckoned those seeking a new start, the West has Read more…
Using Digitized Newspapers to Refine Historical Measures: The Case of the Boll Weevil This paper shows how to remove attenuation bias in regression analyses due to measurement error in historical data for a given variable of interest by using a secondary measure which can be easily generated from digitized newspapers. Read more…
How Judges’ Professional Experience Impacts Case Outcomes: An Examination of Public Defenders and Criminal Sentencing How do judges’ previous professional experiences affect outcomes? We investigate the question by documenting the effect of judges’ previous criminal justice experience on sentencing. Leveraging millions of federal sentences from 2010 to 2019, we find Read more…
The Know-Nothing Party swept to power in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1854, running on a staunchly anti-Catholic and anti-Irish platform. In this paper, we examine the contribution of various factors that have been hypothesized to contribute to the party’s success.
Empires – or political units made up of several territories and peoples, typically created by conquest and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries – have existed across recorded time, both ancient and modern. The political economy of empire as a scholarly enterprise can take several forms, including studying Read more…
Bar Talk: Informal Social Interactions, Alcohol Prohibition, and Invention
This paper investigates the empirical relationship between inclusion and state capacity. We examine the impact of racial discrimination on Black U.S. military enlistment during the onset of WWII.
“Reducing Racial Disparities in Crime Victimization: Evidence From Employment Discrimination Litigation” Black Americans are substantially less safe than white Americans, with persistently higher risks of crime victimization. One possible cause of racial disparities in crime victimization may lie in racially disparate law enforcement responses to crime experienced by Black Read more…
We live in a polarized political age, where support for extreme political views has increased relative to support for moderate ones. In Congress, Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines than at any point since the end of Reconstruction. In the public, Republicans and Democrats are increasingly divided Read more…
“Restoration” and Representation: Legislative Consequences of Black Disfranchisement in the American South, 1879-1916 The restriction of African Americans’ voting rights in the U.S. South in the decades following Reconstruction is the most significant instance of democratic backsliding in American history. Despite this, it remains unclear whether and to what extent Read more…
Due to human error on our part, we did not record a major portion of Emily Sellars PIPE Workshop talk on fiscal legibility and state development. Apologies to those who were unable to attend the live presentation. For your convenience, here is the full transcript, saved from the live captioning Read more…
Tilly goes to Church: the Medieval and Religious Roots of European State Formation Medieval religious rivalry fundamentally shaped European state formation. The single most powerful challenger to kings and emperors in the Middle Ages was the Catholic Church. To protect its interests and ensure its autonomy, the papacy deliberately fragmented Read more…
Laboratories of Democratic Backsliding Using 61 indicators of democratic performance from 2000 to 2018, we develop a measure of subnational democratic performance, the State Democracy Index. We use this measure to test theories of democratic expansion and backsliding based in party competition, polarization, demographic change, and the group interests of Read more…
Zhao Li, Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, studies American politics and political economy with a focus on campaign finance in the United States. In particular, her research examines both institutional and behavioral factors that motivate campaign donors to give money to different types of recipients (candidates, interest groups, etc.), as well as the implications of these donations for different aspects of democratic representation in the U.S., including corporate political strategy, political extremism, and electoral accountability.
Volha Charnysh, Assistant Professor of Political Science at MIT, will present Dispute Resolution in Heterogenous Societies.
Christina Kinane, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale, will present research
Slavery, as an institution, traces its origins back to Mesopotamia in 3500 B.C. Slavery was abolished by most nations sometime in the 19th century. Slavery’s effects, however, persisted in many nations for decades — and still persist in various forms today. The Slavery and Its Legacies Symposium examines this historical persistence of institutionalized slavery, both in the United States and in other nations.
Thomas Gray, Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of Texas at Dallas, will present research.
Miguel Pereira, Assistant Professor of Political Science at USC Dornsife, will present research: The Expertise Curse: How Policy Expertise Can Hinder Responsiveness.
Rachel Van Sickle-Ward, Professor of Political Studies at Claremont University, along with Kevin Wallsten, Associate Professor of Political Science at CSULB, will present their research. Register for link to join the Zoom Webinar.
The current polarization of elites in the U.S., particularly in Congress, is frequently ascribed to the emergence of cohorts of ideologically extreme legislators replacing moderate ones. Politicians, however, do not operate as isolated agents, driven solely by their preferences. They act within organized parties, whose leaders exert control over the Read more…
The Local Political Economy Symposium at USC brings together nationally renowned scholars who study the most pressing political-economic issues at the local level — from compensation of public employees, to municipal bankruptcy, to criminal justice reform.
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Melissa Lee, Assistant Professor of Politics & International Affairs at Princeton University, will present preliminary research: From Pluribus to Unum? Statebuilding in 19th Century America.
