Research Briefs
Delve deeper into the most recent research published by Watson faculty.
Research Briefs
Delve deeper into the most recent research published by Watson faculty.
Associate Professor and Faculty Affiliate of the Economics Department, Dany Bahar recently published a paper in The National Bureau of Economic Research titled, "The Economic Effects of Immigration Pardons: Evidence from Venezulan Entrepreneurs."
How India's Ruling Party Erodes Democracy
Director of the Center for Contemporary South Asia Ashutosh Varshney recently published a paper in The Journal of Democracy titled, "How India's Ruling Party Erodes Democracy."
Costs of War Awarded 2022 US Peace Prize
The Board of Directors of the US Peace Memorial Foundation unanimously voted to award the 2022 US Peace Prize to Costs of War "For Crucial Research to Shed Light on The Human, Environmental, Economic, Social, and Political Costs of U.S. Wars."
Tackling Unlit and Inefficient Gas Flaring
Senior Fellow Deborah Gordon recently co-authored an article for Science Magazine titled "Tackling Unlit and Inefficient Gas Flaring," which explains how emissions from flaring threaten the global climate and the health of local communities.
Does Fake News Affect Voting Behaviour?
Nicolò Fraccaroli co-authored a paper titled, "Does Fake News Affect Voting Behaviour?" that will be published in the January 2023 issue of Research Policy, and is currently available online.
Threat Inflation, Russian Military Weakness, and the Resulting Nuclear Paradox: Implications of the War in Ukraine for U.S. Military Spending
Visiting Professor Lyle Goldstein recently authored a paper in collaboration with the Costs of War project titled, "Threat Inflation, Russian Military Weakness, and the Resulting Nuclear Paradox: Implications of the War in Ukraine for U.S. Military Spending."
Watson Postdoctoral Fellow Named 2022 Guggenheim Emerging Scholar
Watson Postdoctoral Fellow Liana Woskie was named a 2022 Guggenheim Emerging Scholar for her dissertation project titled "Quantifying Structural Violence: Female Sterilization and Normalized State Repression in Healthcare."
Political Anger: Evidence From Social Media Campaigns in the Italian Elections
Professor of Economics Mark Blyth recently co-authored a paper titled, "Political Anger: Evidence From Social Media Campaings in the Italian Elections" that measures political anger in social media posts of political parties and candidates during electoral campaigns.
Watson Scholars Participate in APSA Annual Meeting and Exhibition
Numerous Watson scholars will participate in the American Political Science Association (APSA) annual conference.
India's Democratic Longevity and its Troubled Trajectory
Director of the Center for Contemporary South Asia Ashutosh Varshney recently published a 17,000-word paper on "India's Democratic Longevity and its Troubled Trajectory" in Democracy in Hard Places, edited by Scott Mainwaring and Tarek Masoud.
Backlash Politics in America's Disunited and Polarized State
Eric Patashnik recently authored an essay titled, "Backlash Politics in America's Disunited and Polarized State" for the Studies in American Political Development Journal published by Cambridge University Press.
Research Teams at Brown To Investigate Solutions To Nine Pressing Pandemic Challenges
Director of the Annenberg Institute Susanna Loeb among nine research teams at Brown University to be awarded research support from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation Pandemic Response Policy Research Fund.
Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation
Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation, co-edited by Mark Blyth, was recently published by Oxford University Press.
Domestic Worldmaking by the Enslaved
Geri Augusto was featured in a virtual symposium to kickoff a longer-term project titled, "Domestic Worldmaking by the Enslaved", which focuses on a collective story-telling typology and integration of diverse work related to the agency and innovations within the domestic practices of individuals enslaved during the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Know Your Oil and Gas: Generating Climate Intelligence to Cut Petroleum Industry Emissions
Senior Fellow Deborah Gordon recently co-authored a report for Rocky Mountain Institute titled, "Know Your Oil and Gas: Generating Climate Intelligence to Cut Petroleum Industry Emissions".
Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century
Professor Robert Blair recently authored a paper titled, "Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century" in the British Journal of Political Science published by Cambridge University Press.
Costs of War Project Nominated for 2022 US Peace Prize
Costs of War project among the nominees for the 2022 US Peace Prize, which is awarded by the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation to recognize and honor the most outstanding American antiwar leaders.
Public Action and the Pandemic: The Role of Civil Society in Shaping State Responses
The Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies released a research study titled, "Public Action and the Pandemic: The Role of Civil Society in Shaping State Responses" that systematically documents, evaluates, and explains the role that civil society has played in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic through an examination of five separate case studies.
Dany Bahar Awarded a Hilton Foundation Grant
Dany Bahar was recently awarded a Hilton Foundation grant to support his project, Migration Amnesty, Entrepreneurship and Labor Markets Integration: Evidence and Policy Insights on Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Colombia.
Just Who Gets Paid-Off in a “Just” Transition? Some difficult lessons from BlackRock and French populists
Mark Blyth recently co-authored this paper linking two things that are often dealt with separately when discussing what is meant by the word "just" in the notion of a "just transition."
US Security Partnership and the Protection of Civilians: The Case of Nigeria and the Nigerian Armed Forces
The Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies (CHRHS), released a paper that provides an overview of key facts, data, and analysis of issues related to U.S. security cooperation with the Government of Nigeria in the context of ongoing civilian protection, civilian harm, and humanitarian concerns.
Caribbean Regional Integration: A Critical Development Approach
Patsy Lewis recently published "Caribbean Regional Integration: A Critical Development Approach" with Routledge.
Ieva Jusionyte Selected as a 2022-2023 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow
Ieva Jusionyte Named 2022-2023 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow
Associate Professor of International Security and Anthropology Ieva Jusionyte was one of 50 scholars chosen to be a 2022–2023 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow.
Preventing Rebel Resurgence after Civil War: A Field Experiment in Security and Justice Provision in Rural Colombia
Rob Blair recently co-authored this article on how states can prevent armed groups from exploiting local governance gaps to (re)establish territorial control during transitions to national peace.
Glenn Loury selected as a 2022 Bradley Prize winner
Glenn Loury has been named a 2022 Bradley Prize winner. The honor recognizes individuals whose outstanding achievements reflect The Bradley Foundation's mission to restore, strengthen, and protect the principles and institutions of American exceptionalism. Loury will receive the award at the 18th annual Bradley Prizes ceremony on Tuesday, May 17th at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
Europe’s gas dilemma: Preparing for a winter without Russian gas
Jeff Colgan and co-author Miriam Hinthorn recently published a Climate Solutions White Paper on the threat of a full or partial cut-off of Russian natural gas to the European Union, countermeasures available, and the importance of transitioning to clean energy.
Glenn Loury Elected as a 2022 AAPSS Fellow
Glenn Loury has been elected a 2022 American Academy of Political and Social Science Fellow.
The Shortcomings of International Humanitarian Law in Access Negotiations: New Strategies and Ways Forward
Postdoctoral Fellow Jori Breslawski recently co-authored an article on humanitarian access negotiations with non-state armed groups in International Studies Review.
Neo-Authoritarian Masculinity in Brazilian Crime Film
Jeremy Lehnen recently published a book with the University of Florida Press titled, "Neo-Authoritarian Masculinity in Brazilian Crime Film."
Human Mobility and the Globalization of Knowledge Production: Causal Evidence from Multinational Enterprises
Dany Bahar recently co-authored, "Human Mobility and the Globalization of Knowledge Production: Causal Evidence from Multinational Enterprises," which investigates how reforms that ease or restrict human mobility affect global innovation.
Jayanti Owens Selected as a 2020 William T. Grant Scholar
In May 2020, Jayanti Owens was selected as a William T. Grant Scholar for her project, "What Drives Racial/Ethnic Disparities in School Discipline? Understanding Mechanisms to Inform Policy Solutions." The grant will allow her to assist schools in developing and evaluating a diagnostic tool to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in student discipline.
Faculty book contributions in 2021
Each year, Watson faculty help to edit books and chapters and publish books of their own. Explore the books our faculty worked on this year.
Reid Pauly Wins Nuclear Security Grant
Reid Pauly recently won a Nuclear Security Grant from the Stanton Foundation, which focuses on international nuclear security issues. The grant will support Pauly's forthcoming research, "Threats That Leave Something to Chance."
Pandemic Schooling Mode and Student Test Scores: Evidence from U.S. States
Emily Oster recently co-authored "Pandemic Schooling Mode and Student Test Scores: Evidence from U.S. States," featuring research that analyzes the impact of district-level schooling modes on test scores.
The impact of school opening model on SARS-CoV-2 community incidence and mortality
Emily Oster recently co-authored an article in Nature Medicine featuring a study using a nationwide cohort evaluating the effect of school mode on COVID-19 cases during the 12 weeks after school opening (July - September 2020.)
Caught Red-Handed: How States Wield Proof to Coerce Wrongdoers
Reid Pauly and Cullen G. Nutt (U.S. Naval Academy) recently co-authored an article published in International Security 46, 2 (Fall 2021). Together they delve into four case studies of nuclear proliferation in Taiwan, Libya, South Africa, and North Korea.
How Exclusionary Nationalism Has Made the World Socially Sicker from COVID-19
Prerna Singh recently authored, How Exclusionary Nationalism Has Made the World Socially Sicker from COVID-19, in which she argues that the preexisting notion of exclusionary nationalism has made the COVID-19 pandemic more dangerous than it might otherwise have been.
Is cheap gasoline killing us? Fuel subsidies and under-taxation as a driver of obesity and public health problems worldwide
Jeff Colgan and co-author Miriam Hinthorn (Brown University) recently published a piece in Energy Research and Social Science on the relationship between fuel prices and the global obesity epidemic using data spanning 145 countries between 1998 and 2016.
Professor Schiller wins APSA Barbara Sinclair Lectureship Award
Wendy Schiller was recently awarded the APSA Barbara Sinclair Lectureship Award by the American Political Science Association, which recognizes achievement in promoting understanding of the U.S. Congress and legislative politics.
Innovation contests, vaccine diplomacy, and health nationalism: The case of Kenya
Nitsan Chorev and coauthor Salma Mutwafy recently published a piece in SECTORS: Newsletter of the American Sociological Association's Sociology of Development Section on the impact that international contests over innovation, vaccine diplomacy, and health nationalism have on both the availability of vaccines and their perception in low-income countries.
No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World
In her book, "No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World," published by Oxford University Press in October 2021, Deborah Gordon examines the widely varying climate impacts of global oils and gases and proposes solutions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in this sector.
Research Symposium on Civilian-Military Humanitarian Coordination
In September 2021, the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies (CHRHS) at Watson, in collaboration with the Naval War College, presented cutting edge public health, social science, and legal research examining key questions regarding humanitarian civil-military coordination.
The Italian Catholic Press and the Racial Laws (1938–1943)
In an article appearing in the Fall 2021 issue of the journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies titled "The Italian Catholic Press and the Racial Laws (1938–1943)," David Kertzer, with coauthor Roberto Benedetti, examines the support that the Roman Catholic Church gave to Fascist Italy's antisemitic "racial laws."
Who Gets What? The New Politics of Insecurity
Margaret Weir recently co-edited "Who Gets What? The New Politics of Insecurity," a book harnessing the expertise of scholars from across the disciplines of history and the social sciences to probe how the economic and social transformations of the past forty years have introduced new risks and insecurities that fractured the solidarities of the postwar era.
The Politics of Climate Change at the International Maritime Organization
Climate Solutions Lab affiliate Jan Stockbruegger recently wrote a White Paper focusing on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and it's role in climate change.
Does the Meeting Style Matter? The Effects of Exposure to Participatory and Deliberative School Board Meetings
Jonathan Collins recently authored, "Does the Meeting Style Matter? The Effects of Exposure to Participatory and Deliberative School Board Meetings" a study focused on the effects of civic engagement in public meetings.
Climate Change, Grand Strategy, and International Order
Jeff Colgan recently authored, "Climate Change, Grand Strategy, and International Order" a piece in which he identifies three different ways that various analysts of strategy and order think about climate change.