Benjamin Schneer

Benjamin Schneer is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. His research is in American politics and focuses primarily on political representation: how citizens express their preferences, how government responds to them, and what may shape and distort these processes. His most recent papers have studied just how much of an effect the media has on the national political conversation, the role that petitioning has played in American political development, and the returns to elected office based on future earnings from corporate board service and lobbying. His research has been published in journals including Science, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and Studies in American Political Development and has received coverage in media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Economist, and Fast Company.

He received his Ph.D. in 2016 from the Department of Government at Harvard University. He received his B.A. in History and in Economics from Columbia University and an M.A. in Economics from Stanford University. Prior to joining the Kennedy School, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Florida State University.