Andrew Schrank

Olive C. Watson Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs, Brown University

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About Andrew

Schrank’s research focuses on economic development; industrial policy; labor market regulation; immigration; and public administration in Latin America and the United States; with a particular focus on the southwestern border region. Schrank has consulted for the World Bank; Inter-American Development Bank; and a number of United Nations agencies. He has also worked with Somos un Pueblo Unido; an immigrant resource center in Santa Fe; and volunteered for a host of local and national electoral campaigns.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

A Strategy to Foster Advanced Manufacturing in the United States

Andrew Schrank
Josh Whitford

Memo, December 2012

How America Can Better Enforce Laws to Protect Workers

Key Findings Brief, January 2012

In the News

Opinion: "America Deserves a Raise: Why Biden Should Prioritize a $15 Minimum Wage," Andrew Schrank, The Hill, November 10, 2020.

Interviewed in "U.S. Congress Fighting Over Further Disaster Relief Funding For Puerto Rico," KJZZ, April 2, 2019.

Research discussed by KRWG News & Partners, in "NM Employers Steal Wages from One in Four Mexican Immigrant Workers," NPR's KRWG, August 22, 2013.

Opinion: "Friedman Fuels a Debate," Andrew Schrank, Foreign Policy 155, July 1, 2006.

Opinion: "Factories and the Contradictions of Globalization," Andrew Schrank, NPR, May 19, 2005.

Publications

"A Second Regulatory Divide? Labor Inspection Regimes in Comparative Historical Perspective" in Economy and Society: Essays in Honor of Michael J. Piore, edited by Paul Osterman (MIT Press, forthcoming).

Shows that spreading responsibility for the enforcement of different labor laws across multiple agencies (such as OSHA, the NLRB, the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor) causes the United States to squander enforcement resources and forego opportunities for inter-agency collaboration, creating inefficiencies for both government and firms.

"Green Capitalists in a Purple State: Sandia National Laboratories and the Renewable Energy Industry in New Mexico" in States of Innovation: Technology Policy in the United States, edited by Fred Block and Matt Keller (Paradigm Press, 2011), 96-108.

Documents the role of the federal government in jump-starting the growth of the renewable energy industry in New Mexico, a state rich in oil and gas.

"Industrial Policy in the United States: A Neo-Polanyian Interpretation" (with Josh Whitford). Politics & Society 37, no. 4 (2009): 521-553.

Challenges the widely held notion that U.S. political institutions – such as federalism and the separation of powers – are incompatible with an active industrial policy.

"Homeward Bound: Interest, Identity, and Investor Behavior in a Third World Export Platform" American Journal of Sociology 114, no. 1 (2008): 1-34.

Demonstrates that domestically owned firms are more stable sources of investment and employment than their foreign-owned counterparts.

"Growth and Governance: Models, Measures, and Mechanisms" (with Marcus Kurtz). Journal of Politics 69, no. 2 (2007): 538-554.

Calls into question the validity of a number of leading indicators used in surveys of businesspeople and consultants to measure the performance of political institutions, focusing particular attention to the tendency to treat subservience to the demands of big business as the primary measure of “good governance.”