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Nicholas Bagley Here's a popular essay version Niskanen Center niskanencenter.org/the-state-capa… and here's the full paper, papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

The next White Lotus should take place at a Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells

Before the tariff pause and market rally today, the top 25 U.S. pension funds (shown below by % of assets in equities) had lost ~$169 billion in just the last four trading days. Here's an update on what losses have been trimmed and what pension funds should be worried about.

I wrote my dissertation on this puzzle. It’s even more surprising/stark than it first seems, and almost none of the answers in reply to this post hold water. Ag policy suggests that economic clout can be overrated for understanding US political influence jakejares.com/uploads/Jares_…

I wrote an essay on how the politics of problem-solving and policy reform depends on the interest group structure of the issue. I compare the issues of housing affordability and public pension underfunding. Key to both: the dominance of organized interests on one side, and

Important piece by Sarah Binder and my coauthor Mark Spindel

Can American government help solve the big problems facing society? Working papers from a recent conference of leading scholars organized by Alan Gerber and Eric Patashnik are now available to read: bit.ly/3RwNRTq Sarah Anzia

At a moment in which the federal government’s capacity as a problem-solving institution is being eroded, it is useful to explore the political forces that shape the incentives (or lack thereof) of public officials to tackle the problems faced by everyday citizens.

Early organizations of city government employees, especially firefighters, helped to influence the adoption of municipal civil service throughout the U.S. in the early 20th century. Happy to see this article with Jessica Trounstine in American Political Science Review!

Also, the cover of the American Political Science Review issue is Figure 1 from our article: a 1934 political cartoon from the International Fire Fighter Magazine. Jessica Trounstine

Wieners Circle for the win

"Today, fourth-grade students in Mississippi read almost a full school year ahead of their peers in New York City" write David Wakelyn and @michaelthartney nypost.com/2025/05/16/opi…

I appreciate this thoughtful review of Local Interests by Tom Ogorzalek. And it's much more than a review; it's an essay on where the field of local politics research has been, where it stands now, and where it should go from here.

Public pensions increasingly allocate capital to private equity, regardless of party control, even in states with strong unions. The interdependence of public pensions and private equity connects the fates of governments, public employees, the economy, and Wall Street in ways few

New article. Here’s one issue on which red and blue states still look similar: investing their public pension funds in private equity. Roughly $1 trillion. Our article dives into the peculiar politics of the issue. degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/1… Mark Spindel The Forum

EDITORIAL: Budget trutherism is on the rise in CA. Politicans & interest groups have a bridge to sell you: Our budget woes aren’t real. Daring to disagree can get leaders ousted, as in Oakland Unified & City College of SF. The consequences will be stark. sfchronicle.com/opinion/editor…

Here's a Goldman School of Public Policy piece on some of my recent research with Jessica Trounstine on the early development of public-sector unions as well as my new article with Mark Spindel on public pensions' increasing investment in private equity: gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-i…

🗞️NEW TODAY: 1 in 3 school districts are cutting classroom priorities because teacher pension costs are devouring K-12 budgets. Survey data reveals reports from school board members and district admins on what they are cutting explicitly because of growing pension costs. 🧵