Harvard Kennedy School faculty disseminate their research in working publications and papers that contribute to public knowledge and fuel policy innovation. This list features recent faculty publications, including journal articles, books, edited volumes, research papers, and public testimony.
Faculty Publications
Whetsell, Travis A., Mark Prebble, Jos C. N. Raadschelders, Kirstine Zinck Pedersen, Christopher Ansell, Hahrie Han, Patricia M. Shields, Jean Hartley, John Benington, and Mark H. Moore. "Roundtable: Perspectives on The Public." Perspectives on Public Management and Governance (7 Apri l2025).
Bosché, Michelle, Rachel Krust, Archon Fung, and Aditya S. Pawar. "Exploring Democratic Deliberation in Public Health: Bridging Division and Enhancing Community Engagement." American Journal of Public Health 115.4 (April 2025): 500-505.
Baum, Matthew A., Adam J. Berinsky, Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, Joohye Jeong, Zachary Markovich, and Teppei Yamamoto. "Dynamic Persuasion: Decay and Accumulation of Partisan Media Persuasion." March 2025.
Liu, Naijia, Xinlan Emily Hu, Yasemin Savas, Matthew A. Baum, Adam J. Berinsky, Allison J.B. Chaney, Christopher Lucas, Rei Mariman, Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, Andrew M. Guess, Dean Knox, and Brandon M. Stewart. "Short-term exposure to filter-bubble recommendation systems has limited polarization effects: Naturalistic experiments on YouTube." PNAS 122.8 (February 25, 2025): e2318127122.
McKenna, Elizabeth, and Catharina O'Donnell. "Satellite Political Movements: How Grassroots Activists Bolster Trump and Bolsonaro in the United States and Brazil." American Behavioral Scientist (September 12, 2024).
Fung, Archon, and Dennis Thompson. "Conflict of interest in government: Avoiding ethical and conceptual mistakes." Governance (June 2024).
Fung, Archon, Max Kiefel, and Nick Chedli Carter. "From Crisis to Opportunity: How the City of Portland Embraced Democratic Innovation." Ash Center Occasional Papers Series, June 2024.
Kunzman, Hannah and Danielle Allen. "Beyond the Sound and Fury: The Landscape of Curricular Contestation in Texas." Ash Center Occasional Papers Series, June 2024.
Bilmes, Linda J., and Cornell Brooks. "Normalizing Reparations: U.S. Precedent, Norms, and Models for Compensating Harms and Implications for Reparations to Black Americans." RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 10.2 (June 2024): 30-67.
Sew, Natalie, Adrianne Billingham Bock, and Danielle Allen. "Creating student leaders through civics." Phi Delta Kappan 105.8 (May 2024): 26-31.
Gaudette, Jennifer, and Justin de Benedictis-Kessner. "Local Money: Evaluating the Effects of Municipal Campaign Contributions on Housing Policy Outcomes." April 23, 2024.
Bridgeland, John M., Cecilia Muñoz, and Danielle Allen. "Can Higher Education Help Renew American Democracy?" Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 56.2 (March/April 2024): 11 - 20.
Fung, Archon, David Moss, and Odd Arne Westad, eds. When Democracy Breaks: Studies in Democratic Erosion and Collapse, from Ancient Athens to the Present Day. Oxford University Press, 2024.
de Benedictis Kessner, Justin, and Michael Hankinson. "How the Identity of Substance Users Shapes Public Opinion on Opioid Policy." Political Behavior 46.1 (March 2024): 609-629.
Fung, Archon, and Sean Gray, eds. Empowering Affected Interests: Democratic Inclusion in A Globalized World. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Allen, Danielle, Sarah Hubbard, Woojin Lim, Allison Stanger, Shlomit Wagman, Kinney Zalesne. "A Roadmap for Governing AI: Technology Governance and Power Sharing Liberalism." Ash Center Occasional Paper Series, January 2024.
Weyl, E Glen and Danielle Allen. "The Real Dangers of Generative AI." Journal of Democracy 35.1 (January 2024): 147-162.
de Benedictis Kessner, Justin. "The Electoral and Policy Effects of Election Timing in City and County Government." December 23, 2023.
de Benedictis Kessner, Justin. "Where the Sidewalk Ends: How Participation Contributes to Inequity in Basic Government Service Provision." December 23, 2023.
Wittenberg, Chloe, Matthew A. Baum, Adam J. Berinsky, Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, and Teppei Yamamoto. "Media Measurement Matters: Estimating the Persuasive Effects of Partisan Media with Survey and Behavioral Data." The Journal of Politics 85.4 (October 2023): 1275-1290.
Allen, Danielle. "Feeling Seen." Polity 55.4 (October 2023): 872-876.
Goldsmith, Stephen, and Ryan Streeter. "An Aspirational Path for American Conservatism." Ash Center Policy Briefs Series, September 2023.
Richmond, Matthew A., and Elizabeth McKenna. "Placing the peripheries within Brazil’s rightward turn: Socio-spatial transformation and electoral realignment, 2002–2018." Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 0.0 (2023): 1-18.
Bilmes, Linda, Mauricio Rodas, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Devon Rowe, Aminata Touré, and Lan Xue. "Public institutions and support for climate funding." United Nations ECOSOC, March 16. 2023.
de Jong, Jorrit, Maurits Waardenburg, Bertine Steenbergen, and Nicholas Vachon. "All Minds on Deck? Assessing Distributed Strategic Capacity in Public-Sector Organizations." Review of Public Personnel Administration 43.1 (March 2023): 33–55.
Bilmes, Linda J. "I helped balance the federal budget in the 1990s – here’s just how hard it will be for the GOP to achieve that same rare feat." The Conversation, February 1, 2023.
Allen, Danielle. "Democracy versus Republic." Democracies in America: Keywords for the 19th Century and Today. Ed. D. Berton Emerson and Gregory Laski. Oxford University Press, 2023, 17-23.
Democratic mayors have no effect on crime, but do reduce the Black share of arrests for petty crimes
de Benedictis Kessner, Justin, Matthew Harvey, Daniel Jones, and Christopher Warshaw. "Democratic mayors have no effect on crime, but do reduce the Black share of arrests for petty crimes." January 23, 2023.
Cushman, Joy, and Elizabeth McKenna. "Power Metrics: Measuring What Matters to Build a Multiracial Democracy." Democracy & Power Innovation Fund, 2023.
Aiyar, Yamini, Rolf Alter, and Linda J. Bilmes. "Challenges of effective governance for sustainable development at subnational government levels: introduction to this thematic issue of Public Sector Economics." Public Sector Economics Journal (December 2022): 456-458.
MartÃnez Orbegozo, Eva Flavia, Jorrit de Jong, Hannah Riley Bowles, Amy Edmondson, Anahide Nahhal, and Lisa Cox. "Entry Points: Gaining Momentum in Early-Stage Cross-Boundary Collaborations." The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 58.4 (December 2022): 595-645.
Sevtsuk, Andres, Rounaq Basu, Dylan Halpern, Anne Hudson, Kloe Ng, and Jorrit de Jong. "A tale of two Americas: Socio-economic mobility gaps within and across American cities before and during the pandemic." Cities 131 (December 2022): 104006.
de Benedictis Kessner, Justin, Daniel Jones, and Christopher Warshaw. "How Partisanship in Cities Influences Housing Policy." ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP21-035, August 2022.
Jay, Jonathan, Jorrit de Jong, Marcia P Jimenez, Quynh Nguyen, and Jason Goldstick. "Effects of demolishing abandoned buildings on firearm violence: a moderation analysis using aerial imagery and deep learning." Injury Prevention 28 (May 2022): 249-255.
Bilmes, Linda J., and Cornell William Brooks. "The GI Bill was one of the worst racial injustices of the 20th century. Congress can fix it." Boston Globe. February 23, 2022.
Oyakawa, Michelle, Elizabeth McKenna, and Hahrie Han. "Habits of Courage: Reconceptualizing Risk in Social Movement Organizing." Journal of Community Psychology 49.8 (November 2021): 3101-3121.
Goldsmith, Stephen, Betsy Gardner, and Jill Jamieson. "Toward a Smarter Future: Building Back Better with Intelligent Civil Infrastructure -- Smart Sensors and Self-Monitoring Civil Works." Ash Center Policy Briefs Series, September 2021.
Han, Hahrie, Elizabeth McKenna, and Michelle Oyakawa. "Beyond Numbers." Stanford Social Innovation Review (August 10, 2021).
Oyakawa, Michelle, Elizabeth McKenna, and Hahrie Han. "Constituency as an Independent Source of Power." Social Science Research Council - Items. April 6, 2021.
Han, Hahrie, and Elizabeth McKenna. "To Learn About the Democratic Party’s Future, Look to What Latino Organizers did in Arizona." The Washington Post, Monkey Cage, February 9, 2021.
McKenna, Elizabeth. "Taxes and Tithes: The Organizational Foundations of Bolsonarismo." International Sociology 35.6 (November 2020): 610-631.
Bringel, Breno, and Elizabeth McKenna. "Social Movements in a Global Context: History, Content, and Form." The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook. Ed. Walter W. Powell and Patricia Bromley. Stanford University Press, 2020, 631-647.
Goldsmith, Stephen, and Matthew Leger. "Effectively Managing Connected Mobility Marketplaces." Mobility in the Connected City Series, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, February 2020.
Schrantz, Doran, Michelle Oyakawa, and Elizabeth McKenna. "People Power: Building Political Bases to Make Multiracial Democracy Work." Stanford Social Innovation Review 18.1 (Winter 2020): A9–A11.
Goldsmith, Stephen, and Betsy Gardner. "Prioritizing Public Value in the Changing Mobility Landscape." Mobility and the Connected City Series, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, January 2020.
Ganz, Marshall, and Elizabeth McKenna. "Bringing Leadership Back In." The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. Ed. David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, Hanspeter Kriesi, and Holly J. McCammon. Wiley-Blackwell, 2018, 185-202.
Han, Hahrie, and Elizabeth McKenna. "The Untilled Field of Field Campaigns." Perspectives on Politics 14.3 (September 2016): 750-757.
McKenna, Elizabeth, and Hahrie Han. Groundbreakers: How Obama’s 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Han, Hahrie, and Elizabeth McKenna. "Engaging Voters Can Kickstart Community Activism." The Washington Post, Monkey Cage, November 25, 2014.