Josh McCrain portrait
  • Director, Policing Accountability and Policy Evaluation Research Lab
  • Assistant Professor, Political Science Department

Publications

  • McCrain, Joshua (2023). Local elections do not increase local news demand. Political Science Research and Methods. Published, 12/2023.
    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-...
  • McIntyre, Adrianna, Joshua McCrain & Danielle Pavliv (2023). Medicaid by Any Other Name? Investigating Malleability of Partisan Attitudes Toward the Public Program. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. Published, 11/2023.
    https://read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/article-abstract...
  • Joshua McCrain & Stephen O'Connell (2023). Experience, institutions, and candidate emergence: The political career returns to state legislative service. Political Science Research and Methods. Published, 10/2023.
    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-...
  • Bolton, Alexander & Joshua McCrain (2023). A foot out the door: what drives bureaucratic exit into lobbying careers?. Political Science Research and Methods. Published, 10/2023.
    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-...
  • Schiff, Kaylyn Jackson, Joshua McCrain, Daniel Schiff, Ian Adams & Scott Mourtgos (2023). Institutional factors driving citizen perceptions of AI in government: Evidence from a survey experiment on policing. Public Administration Review. Published, 10/2023.
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/p...
  • Egerod, Benjamin C.K & McCrain, Joshua (2023). Lobbyists into Government. Quarterly Journal of Political Science. Published, 07/30/2023.
  • Arel-Bundock, Vincent (2023). Software Citations in Political Science. PS: Political Science and Politics. Published, 07/2023.
    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-politic...
  • Fortunato, David & McCrain, Joshua and Kaylyn Jackson Schiff (2023). Public Support for Professional Legislatures. State Politics and Policy Quarterly. Published, 03/01/2023.
  • Kim, Eunji, Lelkes, Yphatch & McCrain, Joshua (2022). Measuring Dynamic Media Bias. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Published, 08/01/2022.
    https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2202197119
  • Josh McCrain (2022). Book Review: News Hole: The Demise of Local Journalism and Political Engagement. By Danny Hayes & Jennifer L. Lawless. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 250p. $29.99 paper. Perspectives on Politics. Accepted, 01/21/2022.
  • Bussing, A., Furnas, Z., Ladam, C., McCrain, J., Miller, D. and Porter, R. (2022). The Junior Americanist Workshop Series (JAWS). PS: Political Science and Politics. Published, 01/01/2022.
  • Josh McCrain (2021). Congress is bumping up its top staffers’ salaries. But its real problem is the underpayment of junior staffers. [Website/Blog] URL https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/20/congress-is-bumping-up-its-top-staffers-salaries-its-real-problem-is-how-it-underpays-junior-staff/?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=wp_monkeycage&utm_medium=social. Published, 08/20/2021.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/20...
  • Grossmann, Matt, Jordan, Marty P. & McCrain, Joshua (2021). The Correlates of State Policy and the Structure of State Panel Data. State Politics and Policy Quarterly. Published, 08/02/2021.
    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/state-poli...
  • Martin, Gregory & McCrain, Joshua (2019). The FCC’s hands-off approach to media consolidation means that local news increasingly looks more like Fox News. LSE American Politics and Policy. Published, 10/18/2019.
    https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2019/10/18/the-f...
  • McCrain, Joshua (2019). Memo for the Select Committee on Modernization. Select Committee on Modernization. Published, 08/01/2019.
  • Martin, Gregory & McCrain, Joshua (2019). Local News and National Politics. American Political Science Review. Published, 02/19/2019.
    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-p...
  • Montagnes, Pablo B., Peskowitz, Zachary & McCrain, Joshua (2019). Bounding Partisan Approval Rates Under Endogenous Partisanship: Why Partisan Presidential Approval May be Higher than it Seems. Journal of Politics. Published, 01/01/2019.
    https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/...
  • McCrain, Joshua (2018). Revolving Door Lobbyists and the Value of Congressional Staff Connections. Journal of Politics. Published, 10/01/2018.
    https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/6989...
  • McCrain, Joshua & Martin, Gregory (2018). Yes, Sinclair Broadcast Group does cut local news, increase national news and tilt its stations rightward. The Washington Post, The Monkey Cage Blog. Published, 04/10/2018.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp...
  • McCrain, Joshua (2018). Convincing evidence that congressional staff do, in fact, matter . LegBranch.com. Published, 01/23/2018.
    http://www.legbranch.com/theblog/2018/1/16/convinc...
  • McCrain, Joshua (2017). Cashing In On Connections: For Congressional Staff-Turned-Lobbyists, Who You Know Matters. LegBranch.com. Published, 08/21/2017.
    http://www.legbranch.com/theblog/2017/8/21/cashing...
  • McCrain, Joshua (2017). What does Donald Trump need for a successful presidency? Bureaucrats. The Washington Post, The Monkey Cage Blog. Published, 01/27/2017.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp...

Presentations

  • Patrolling the Police: Experimental Evidence on Police Executives’ Support for Oversight, Berkeley University. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/2024.
  • Public Support for Police Reform, Purdue University. Invited Talk/Keynote, Accepted, 12/01/2023.
  • Media Consolidation, Columbia University. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/2023.
  • Media Consolidation and Demand for Local Media, Duke University. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/2023.
  • Patrolling the Police: Experimental Evidence on Police Executives' Support for Oversight, Center for the Study of American Politics, Yale University. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/2023.
  • Media Consolidation, University of Pennsylvania. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/2023.
  • Human Capital on Capitol Hill, University of Bologna. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/2023.
  • Patrolling the Police: Experimental Evidence on Police Executives’ Support for Oversight, European Society for Criminology Annual Meeting. Conference Paper, Presented, 09/2023.
  • Inequality and Covid-19, University of Oklahoma. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 08/2023.
  • Local Elections Do Not Increase Demand for Local News, SPSA Annual Meeting. Conference Paper, Presented, 01/2023.
  • Patrolling the Police: Experimental Evidence on Police Executives’ Support for Oversight, SPSA Annual Meeting. Conference Paper, Presented, 01/2023.
  • Local Elections Do Not Increase Local News Demand. Invited Talk/Keynote, Accepted, 10/01/2022.
  • The Political Consequences of Media Ownership, Copenhagen School of Business, Money in Politics Conference. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/15/2022.
  • R for Web Scraping, Salt Lake City R Users Group. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/22/2022.
  • Committee Staff Capacity and Legislative Performance: A Team Production Approach, SPSA Annual Meeting. Conference Paper, Presented, 01/07/2022.
  • Human Capital on Capitol Hill, SPSA Annual Meeting. Conference Paper, Presented, 01/06/2022.
  • Human Capital on Capitol Hill Copenhagen Business School, Money in Politics Workshop. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/24/2021.
  • The Congressional Leadership Tournament, APSA Annual Meeting. Conference Paper, Presented, 10/08/2021.
  • Dynamic Media Bias, APSA Annual Meeting. Conference Paper, Presented, 10/07/2021.
  • Differences-in-Differences with Staggered Treatments, Indiana University Workshop in Methodology. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/01/2021.
  • Human Capital on Capitol Hill, MPSA Annual Meeting. Conference Paper, Presented, 04/08/2021.
  • Human Capital on Capitol Hill American Politics Workshop, Indiana University, March 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/12/2021.

Research Groups

  • Scott Mourtgos, Graduate Student. 06/01/2024 - present.

Grants, Contracts & Research Gifts

  • Levin Center Oversight Fellowship. PI: Joshua McCrain. 06/01/2022 - present. Total project budget to date: $10,000.00
  • Policing Policy, Reforms, and Human Capital. PI: McCrain, Joshua. Co-PI(s): Ian Adams and Scott Mourtgos. University of Utah Research Incentive Seed Grant, 04/01/2022 - present. Total project budget to date: $26,796.00
  • Cataloging State Legislation. PI: James Curry, David Carter, Joshua McCrain. University of Utah Faculty Small Grants Program, 01/10/2022 - present. Total project budget to date: $6,000.00
  • Support for Police Reforms. PI: Joshua McCrain. Co-PI(s): Scott Mourtgos, Ian Adams. University of Utah Faculty Small Grant Program, 01/10/2022 - present. Total project budget to date: $5,320.00
  • Representation, Responsiveness, and COVID-19. PI: William Bianco, Rachel Blum, and Joshua McCrain. Russell Sage Foundation, 01/01/2022 - present. Total project budget to date: $138,832.00

Software Titles

  • nicknameR: Easy name merging of common nicknames. github: https://github.com/jmccrain/nicknameR. Release Date: 04/01/2021. Inventors: McCrain, Joshua.
  • cspp: A Tool for the Correlates of State Policy Project Data. CRAN: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/cspp/index.html. Release Date: 10/01/2020. Inventors: Caleb Lucas and Joshua McCrain.

Languages

  • Italian, functional.