Jessica Gottlieb is an Associate Professor at the Hobby School of Public Affairs at University of Houston. She earned her PhD in political science and Master’s degree in economics from Stanford University. Gottlieb is co-director of the Democratic Erosion Consortium, a nonpartisan, collaborative effort to leverage evidence to better respond to democratic backsliding worldwide. Her research focuses on understanding constraints to democratic accountability both at home and abroad. Themes in her work include state capacity, clientelism, civic education, gender inequality, polarization and misinformation. Much of her work has been in sub-Saharan Africa, where she has conducted field experiments, behavioral games and surveys. Some newer work is on democratic erosion and political polarization in the U.S. Gottlieb’s work is published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, World Politics, Science Advances and World Development, among others. She also has an in-production book at Cambridge University Press titled, Keeping the State Weak: Economic Informality and the Weak-State Trap in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked at the Center for Global Development on a project encouraging donors, country governments and multilateral organizations to better learn what works in development through improved impact evaluation.
Jessica Gottlieb is an Associate Professor at the Hobby School of Public Affairs at University of Houston. She earned her PhD in political science and Master's degree in economics from Stanford University. Gottlieb is co-director of the Democratic Erosion Consortium, a nonpartisan, collaborative effort to leverage evidence to better respond to democratic backsliding worldwide. Her research focuses on understanding constraints to democratic accountability both at home and abroad. Themes in her work include state capacity, clientelism, civic education, gender inequality, polarization and misinformation. Much of her work has been in sub-Saharan Africa, where she has conducted field experiments, behavioral games…