Julia Payson
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jpayson.bsky.social
Julia Payson
@jpayson.bsky.social
UCLA Political Scientist. Representation & public policy in state/ local/ urban politics. City enthusiast. https://www.juliapayson.com/
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Did incumbent politicians benefit from the influx of federal spending during the pandemic? We use an IV strategy to show that incumbents performed better in places that received more aid due to their overrepresentation in Congress. @stanveuger.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Julia Payson
Big thanks to @mattgrossmann.bsky.social for the invitation to discuss my new book!
How the Money Chase Governs our Elections

Early $ still governs who runs, who lasts, & who rises in Congress, even though it's often spent just to raise more

@daniellethomsen.bsky.social on The Money Signal on the #ScienceOfPolitics podcast/transcript:
www.niskanencenter.org/how-the-mone...
How the money chase governs our elections - Niskanen Center
Danielle Thomsen finds that candidates are raising money earlier and in larger amounts than ever.
www.niskanencenter.org
October 30, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Did incumbent politicians benefit from the influx of federal spending during the pandemic? We use an IV strategy to show that incumbents performed better in places that received more aid due to their overrepresentation in Congress. @stanveuger.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...
September 22, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Hey #PoliSci folks and @apsa.bsky.social attendees! As placement director, I'm excited to let you know about some of our excellent UCLA job candidates on the market this year. Please take a look and share widley. #psjminfo
September 10, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
MIT Political Science is hiring this fall, with junior lines in both American Politics (members.apsanet.org/CAREERS/eJob...) and IR. Please share widely!
American Political Science Association > Sign In
members.apsanet.org
July 15, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
Thrilled to share my new publication @epsrjournal.bsky.social!

When we think of lobbying, we often picture big businesses or NGOs. But regional governments lobby, too!

But what makes govts-as-lobbyists successful?

I study intergovt lobbying success based on a multi-year data collection effort
June 19, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Reposted by Julia Payson
Congrats to the authors @andreucasas.bsky.social, @oms279.bsky.social, @jpayson.bsky.social, @jatucker.bsky.social, Richard Bonneau, & Jonathan Nagler. The paper, which is accepted for publication at @thejop.bsky.social, is available here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent
www.journals.uchicago.edu
April 21, 2025 at 7:12 PM
State Politics and Policy Quarterly is celebrating 25 years! Check out the call for proposals for this special issue dedicated to the impact of state politics research in political science and how the field has evolved over the past decades. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Call for Proposals - 25th Anniversary of SPPQ
Call for Proposals - 25th Anniversary of SPPQ
www.cambridge.org
March 20, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
🚨News flash🚨

In a late-breaking development, UCLA political science has successfully cut a deal with Cesar Vargas Nuñez, who will be joining our roster in ‘26.

This guy has it all: sharp intellect, highly productive, and an all around great human being. Big win for our department & university.
March 13, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey has monitored the wellbeing of America’s high school students since 1991.

Since 2015, it’s been a vital source of data on LGBQ youth. In 2023, it provided the first ever nationally representative sample of transgender teens.

As of this morning, it’s gone.
January 31, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
Are Democratic leaders making cities more dangerous than Republicans? Trump + others have repeatedly made claims like this. New paper in Science Advances w/ @chriswarshaw.bsky.social, Dan Jones & Matt Harvey shows that, in short, the answer is no.
January 15, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012.

Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place.

A thread.
January 15, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Reposted by Julia Payson
To celebrate the publication of our HANDBOOK OF COMPARATIVE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS and our awesome contributors, I’m kicking off a pre-holiday challenge: every day, I’ll share a short intro to one of its chapters.

This is also an opportunity to connect with new colleagues, so please feel free to 📌!
Happy book publication day—thrilled that our HANDBOOK OF COMPARATIVE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS is now officially published!

It features 31 chapters authored by 50+ leading authorities. We hope that it will contribute to the (re-)emergent study of institutions, a founding pillar of polisky econsky
November 18, 2024 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
Some time ago and spurred on by an email from @mullinmeg.bsky.social, I recreated a bunch of local government maps that the Census Bureau once created but no longer does. They live on my website. I hope they're helpful to someone (I regularly steal them for presentations).
Map Gallery | Christopher B. Goodman
Christopher B Goodman is an associate professor at Northern Illinois University, researching special districts & preemption and teaching public finance.
www.cgoodman.com
November 18, 2024 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
@nottone.bsky.social and I have made a starter pack of Junior Quant Americanists!

If you want to understand American politics and policy through research by cutting-edge (mostly ABD/postdoc) researchers, then this is the list for you.

Let us know who we are missing!

go.bsky.app/KKmVtH6
November 13, 2024 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
How did different racial/ethnic groups move over the course of the campaign?

Here is data from our two-wave NORC panel showing that Harris increased support over Biden among Black, Hispanic & white citizens between late winter & fall 2024.
November 18, 2024 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
@elizabethelder.bsky.social will present her paper, "Responsiveness to Corruption: Evidence from U.S. Local Governments," with discussant comments by @jpayson.bsky.social (please contact her for a copy)
November 25, 2023 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
This collaborative mapping project is amazing data viz -- my favorite part is how they how the "data" (the polygons drawn by each respondent) and the "summary" (what most ppl call a neighborhood) together.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
October 31, 2023 at 6:43 PM
Now out in QJPS: we find locally set minimum wages are responsive to public preferences but overshoot them and are too high in many places. But, minimum wages in states with preemption are too low. For details of our city-level minimum wage estimates, check out www.nowpublishers.com/article/Deta...
October 17, 2023 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
Excited that this project (JMP!) is now FirstView @APSR!

doi.org/10.1017/S000...

I show that segregation encourages the privatization of urban services. Conversely, integrated cities produce intergroup externalities that align the middle class w/ the poor in coalitions for public goods 🧵
October 16, 2023 at 4:14 PM
Does decentralizing policymaking lead to a closer match between minimum wages and local preferences? Gabor Simonovits and I find evidence of "leap frogging" -- check out the October issue of QJPS:
www.nowpublishers.com/article/Deta...
now publishers - Locally Controlled Minimum Wages Leapfrog Public Preferences
Publishers of Foundations and Trends, making research accessible
www.nowpublishers.com
October 7, 2023 at 3:24 PM
@profmusgrave.bsky.social -- can you please add me to the Polisky list? Thanks!
October 6, 2023 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by Julia Payson
Join us today for our first session of the academic year! Polisky
September 27, 2023 at 3:48 PM