Chen, Catherine | USA

Catherine Chen is a Ph.D. candidate at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, Ohio State University, USA. With specializations in statistics and economics, she studies the design and responsiveness of energy policies in her dissertation projects. She employs survey experiments to investigate how information framing and psychological interventions affect household energy-efficiency investments and behaviours, and how energy poverty comes into play. She also uses machine learning techniques to examine how legislative policymaking responds to media discourse around energy development issues in U.S. states. She received her M.Phil. in Politics and Public Administration and Bachelor of Journalism from The University of Hong Kong with honours.

Project at IAS-STS: The Grammar of Fracking: Media Attention and Policy Responsiveness

This study investigates the extent to which energy development policies formulated by state legislatures are responsive to the public discourse in media. Hydraulic fracturing issues have provoked public debates, but are concerns expressed in mass media reflected in state legislation through policymaking? I use machine-learning techniques to dissect thousands of pieces of legislation and media reports, and model policy responsiveness on hydraulic fracturing issues in 15 U.S. states. This study furthers our understanding of energy policymaking’s democratic implications.

Contact: chen [punkt] 8411 osu [punkt] edu

Selected Publications

Chen, C., Heikkila, T., Weible, C. M., Berardo, R., Yi, H., Yordy, J., & Kagan, J. Policy Composition and Adoption Duration: Capturing Conflicts in the Legislative Process. [Conditionally accepted. Policy Studies Journal.]

Yi, H., Chen, C. A Vacancy Chain Model of Local Managers’ Career Advancement. Accepted. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. DOI: 10.1093/jopart/muab039

Berardo, R., Holm, F., Heikkila, T., Weible, C. M., Yi, H., Kagan, J., Chen, C., & Yordy, J. (2020). Hydraulic fracturing and political conflict: News media coverage of topics and themes across nine states. Energy Research & Social Science, 70, 101660.

Weible, C. M., Yordy, J., Heikkila, T., Yi, H., Berardo, R., Kagan, J., & Chen, C. (2020). Portraying the Structure and Evolution of Polycentricity via Policymaking Venues. International Journal of Commons, 14(1).