Research | mrichardson

Journal Articles

2025. "Measuring the Impact of Appointee Vacancies on U.S. Federal Agency Performance." Journal of Politics. 87(2): 680-695. With Christopher Piper and David E. Lewis.

2024. "Characterizing Agencies’ Political Environments: Partisan Agreement and Disagreement in the U.S. Executive Branch." Journal of Politics. 86(3): 1,110-1,114 (Data available here.)

2024. "Evaluating turnover intention as a proxy for behavior in the federal public service: Evidence from two surveys of senior civil servants." Public Administration Review. 84(6): 1,067-1,078 With Scott Limbocker.

2023. "Identifying bureaus with substantial personnel change during the Trump administration: A Bayesian approach." PLoS ONE. 18(1): e0278458. With Brian Libgober.

2019. "Politicization and Expertise: Exit, Effort, and Investment." Journal of Politics. 81(3): 878-891. (Online Appendix)

* Winner of the Joseph L. Bernd Award for the best paper published in the Journal of Politics in 2019.

2019. "Lawmaking in American Legislatures: An Empirical Investigation." Journal of Public Policy. 39(1): 143-175. With Joshua D. Clinton. (Hear me discuss this paper with Matt Grossman on the The Science of Politics podcast.)

2018. "Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill."Journal of Politics. 80(1): 303-308. With Joshua D. Clinton and David E. Lewis. (Data available here.)

Book Chapters

2020. "OMB In Its Management Role: Evidence from Surveys of Federal Executives." In Meena Bose and Andrew Rudalevige, eds. Executive Policymaking: The Role of the OMB in the Presidency. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. With David E. Lewis and Eric Rosenthal.

Invited Publications

2022. "The Politicization Conversation: A Call to Better Define and Measure the Concept." Presidential Studies Quarterly. 52(1): 10-37. With Scott Limbocker and Jennifer L. Selin.

2021. "The Very Best People: President Trump and the Management of Executive Personnel." Presidential Studies Quarterly. 51(1): 51-70. With David E. Lewis.

Working Papers

"Personnel System Under Stress: Results of the 2014 Survey on the Future of Government Service." With David E. Lewis. (Data available here.)

"Setting the Administrative Agenda: Expert Perceptions of Influence in Pre-Proposal Rulemaking."
With Maraam A. Dwidar. Revise and Resubmit.

Works in Progress

“The Presidential Pendelum: Partisan Disagreement, Personnel, and Performance.”

"The U.S. Federal Workforce, 1973-2024." With Benjamin Reese. Revise and Resubmit.

"Interest Groups and the Politics of Agency Design: A Model of Agency Insulation."

"Ideology and Presidential Appointment Strategies."

“The Politics of Careers in the U.S. Civil Service.” With Scott Limbocker.

"Putting Problems Out to Pasture: Geographic Reassignments as a Tool of Bureaucratic Control in the EPA." With Scott Limbocker.

"When Do Elections Matter? Appointments and Bureaucratic Resistance in the United States." With David E. Lewis.

Research Projects

2020 Survey on the Future of Government Service

2014 Survey on the Future of Government Service