About
I am a Ph.D. candidate in political science specializing in American politics and quantitative methods at Columbia University, where I am also student fellow in the Applied Statistics Center and an ISERP statistical consultant. I will receive my degree in May 2012.
My CV is available here and my research statement here.
My dissertation comprises three studies that address classic questions in law and in distributive politics by employing fresh methodological approaches that utilize new techniques for modeling and analyzing clustered data. In the first paper, I demonstrate how to use non-parametric randomization tests on grouped observational data. I show that this approach is superior to those commonly employed in political science and argue that it is applicable to a host of substantive questions that connect group-level treatments to individual-level outcomes. In the second, I use this method to assess the constraint of legal precedent on appellate court judgments. In the third, I use this method to evaluate whether and how much a Congressional district benefits when its representative is a member of the majority party.
Contact
Department of Political Science
Columbia University
420 W. 118th St.
New York, NY 10027
E-mail: ktr2102 at columbia dot edu