Jake Haselswerdt
Assistant Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science, University of Missouri
Chapter Member: Confluence SSN
Areas of Expertise:
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About Jake
Haselswerdt is a political scientist whose work focuses on the politics of public policy, particularly taxation, social policy and health policy. His past research examines the implications of policy delivery through the tax code (i.e., tax breaks) on both congressional politics and public opinion. Haselwerdt served as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan. He worked on tax issues as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in the office of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, and worked as a lobbyist in Washington, DC for six years before making the change to academia. He received his PhD from George Washington University.
Contributions
In the News
Jake Haselswerdt's research on a correlation between voter turnout and Medicaid expansion discussed by "States with Expanded Medicaid Program Saw Higher Voter Turnout," Newswise, March 15, 2017.
"Tax Breaks are Not Immortal – But That Doesn’t Mean Comprehensive Tax Reform is Easy," Jake Haselswerdt, USA Politics and Policy, London School of Economics Blog, August 1, 2014.
"Public Opinion about Tax Expenditures vs. Government ‘Grants’," Jake Haselswerdt (with ), The Monkey Cage Blog, November 9, 2011.
"Generations, Life Cycles, and Views of Unions," Jake Haselswerdt, The Monkey Cage Blog, March 10, 2011.
Publications
"Public Opinion, Policy Tools, and the Status Quo: Evidence from a Survey Experiment," (with ), George Washington University, August 31, 2014.
Uses a survey experiment to demonstrate that Americans prefer policies delivered as tax breaks over otherwise identical programs delivered as traditional spending; also finds that this preference is shaped by the policy status quo, indicating that decades of indirect policymaking through the tax code has substantially shaped the public’s understanding of how government should intervene to solve policy problems.
"The Lifespan of a Tax Break: Comparing the Durability of Tax Expenditures and Spending Programs" American Politics Research 42, no. 5 (2014): 731-759.
Finds that tax breaks are actually less durable than regular spending programs over time, and I argue that this requires us to revise the conventional wisdom about tax policy.
"Hybrid Federalism, Partisan Politics, and Early Implementation of State Health Insurance Exchanges" (with ). Publius: The Journal of Federalism 43, no. 3 (2013): 368-391.
Uses an original data set to model states’ progress in the implementation of state-based health insurance exchanges and find that ideological and partisan considerations strongly influence a state’s likelihood of moving forward, but that these political influences take place within a complex strategic environment structured by the ACA’s policy design.