Scott Ashworth

About

Scott Ashworth is an associate professor and the director of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy Ph.D. program. His research uses game-theoretic models to study a variety of issues in political science, with a special emphasis on campaigns and elections. Ashworth’s recent research has examined the welfare economics of campaign finance, the sources of the incumbency advantage, the media’s influence on policy choice, and some methodological pitfalls in the study of suicide terrorism. His current research has two main foci: the first uses nonstandard models of beliefs to study issues including optimal delegation and targeting in electoral campaigns; the second applies canonical ideas from the theory of contracts to study the impact of domestic politics on international conflict. Before joining Chicago Harris, Ashworth was an assistant professor in the department of government at Harvard University and in the department of politics at Princeton University. He received his B.S. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Economics
• Macroeconomics
• Mathematics
• Demographic economics
• Law
• Social psychology
• Econometrics

Selected publications

• Theory and Credibility : Integrating Theoretical and Empirical Social Science

  2021 · 74 citations

• Modeling Theories of Women's Underrepresentation in Elections

  American Journal of Political Science · 2023 · 22 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Research on women candidates in American elections uncovers four key facts: Women (i) are underrepresented among candidates, (ii) are underrepresented among office holders, (iii) perform better in office, and (iv) win open seats at equal rates to men. Scholars offer two types of explanations: Women are less willing to run than men, due to differential costs or a gap in self‐perceived qualification, or voters discriminate at the ballot box. We formally model these mechanisms. Lower willi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Electorates versus Voters

  Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy · 2020 · 11 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Voters are allegedly uninformed, fickle, and sensitive to irrelevant events, or they are stubborn, tribal, and hyper-partisan. As a result of evidence along these lines, many scholars argue that democracy does not function as it should, and some have gone so far as to argue that we should abandon democracy altogether. At the same time, studies on elections and policy outcomes tend to find that electoral selection and incentives work reasonably well. In this paper, we offer a reconciliation of th…

  DOI

• The accountability of politicians in international crises and the nature of audience cost

  Political Science Research and Methods · 2022-09-07 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  Abstract We study the problem of how citizens should punish or reward a leader's choices during international crises. Audiences should impose costs rooted in citizens’ preferences over policy outcomes, but that need not mean that these costs directly reflect the citizens’ preferences over actions. Instead, rewards and punishments are valued for their equilibrium consequences. To understand how citizens’ policy preferences shape electoral accountability, we characterize the retention strategies t…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Explanation, formal models, and rational choice

  Journal of Theoretical Politics · 2024-08-28 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Formal theorists use a unified collection of models to generate intentional and causal explanations of political behavior. I explicate this claim and argue that disagreements about the role of unification and intentionality are at the root of persistent friction between theorists and empiricists. A debate around pathologies of rational choice theory is used to illustrate the argument.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ethan Bueno de Mesquita

  University of Chicago

  46 shared

• Christopher R. Berry

  University of Chicago

  29 shared

• Joshua D. Clinton

  Vanderbilt University

  12 shared

• Kenneth W. Shotts

  3 shared

• Kristopher W. Ramsay

  Princeton University

  2 shared

• Amanda Friedenberg

  2 shared

• Adam Meirowitz

  2 shared

• Anthony Fowler

  1 shared

Labs

• Harris School of Public PolicyPI

Education

• B.S., Economics

  University of Pennsylvania

• Ph.D., Economics

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Awards & honors

• NIHCM Foundation Research Award (2018)