I am a political scientist, studying Comparative Political Economy and Local Politics.

I am an Assistant Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.

I obtained my Ph.D. from New York University’s Department of Politics. I was an assistant professor at the Global School of Public Policy at UC San Diego and a postdoctoral fellow at the Kellogg School of Management.

I teach Causal Inference, Urban Political Economy, and Public Management.

I am an affiliate of the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), and of the Future of Democracy initiative at the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC).

I am the recipient of the Susan Clarke Young Scholar Award from the APSA Urban Politics Section.

You can find my CV here.

Contact Information
Pronouns: she/her
Email: mariacarreri@berkeley.edu

Publications
“Local Leaders and the Pursuit of Growth in U.S. Cities: The Role of Managerial Skill” (with Julia Payson)
Political Science Research and Methods. 2023.

“Economic Recessions and Congressional Preferences for Redistribution” (with Edoardo Teso)
The Review of Economics and Statistics. 2023.
Covered by the Boston Globe.

“Can Good Politicians Compensate for Bad Institutions? Evidence from an original survey of Italian mayors”
Journal of Politics. 2021.
Online Appendix
Winner of the 2022 Michael Wallerstein Best Paper Award by APSA’s Political Economy Section. NEW .
Winner of the 2018 Quality of Government Best Paper award.
Covered by the Jain Family Institutenewsletter.

“What Makes a Good Local Leader? Evidence from U.S. Mayors and City Managers” (with Julia Payson)
Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy. 2021.

“Do Natural Resources Influence Who Comes to Power and How?” (with Oeindrila Dube)
Journal of Politics, 2017, 79(2): 502-518.
Online Appendix. Replication Materials.

 

Working Papers and Selected Work in Progress

“[Fiscal Rules, Austerity in Public Administration, and Political Accountability: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Colombia” (with Luis Martinez) R&R at the Journal of the European Economic Association .
Covered by VoxDev
Honorable mention for the 2022 ADB-IEA Innovative Policy Research Award. Presenation at NBER Political Economy Spring 2023 meeting NEW

“When Progressives Took Power: The Limited Economic Effects of Municipal Reform in U.S. Cities ” (with Julia Payson and Dan Thompson). NEW

“The Influence of Public Safety Unions in Local Elections. Evidence from U.S. Cities Spending and Performance,” (with Edoardo Teso and Rui Yu) .

“Constraints in Bureaucratic Hiring and Public Sector Performance” (with Edoardo Di Porto, Carlo Medici, Edoardo Teso, and Silvia Vannutelli) . Project made possible thanks to the Visitinps Scholars program, granting access to the universe of Italian Social Security Data.

 

Teaching.
Local Political Economy (graduate)
Quantitative Analysis of Public Policy (graduate)
Urban Politics (undergraduate)

 

Service
Organizer of the UCSD Political Economy Seminar (PELG), CALIWEPS, and the Petralia Workshop. .