Click here to download my CV as PDF; excerpts below.

Academic Positions

• Assistant Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University, since 2017
• Research Fellow, Princeton University, 2016-2017
  • Center for the Study of Democratic Politics
  • Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance

Education 

• PhD (with distinction), Political Science, Yale University, 2017
• MA and MPhil, Political Science, Yale University, 2014
• MIA, International Affairs, Columbia University, 2008
• BA equivalent, Sociology, Economics, Political Science, University of Munich (LMU), 2005

Research

Publications

• Bowles, Jeremy, John Marshall, and Pia Raffler. “Access to Social Media and Support for Elected Autocrats. Field Experimental and Observational Evidence from Uganda,” American Political Science Review, conditionally accepted.
• Fujiwara, Thomas, Hanno Hilbig, and Pia Raffler. “Biased Party Nominations as a Source of Women’s Electoral Underperformance,” American Journal of Political Science, forthcoming.
• 2026. Raffler, Pia, Daniel Posner, and Doug Parkerson. “Can Citizen Pressure Be Induced to Improve Public Service Provision?” The Journal of Politics, 88(4), forthcoming.
  • APSA Best Paper Award, Experimental Research Section, 2019
• 2026. Larreguy, Horacio and Pia Raffler. “Accountability in Developing Democracies. The Impact of the Internet, Social Media, and Polarization.” Annual Review of Political Science.
• 2022. Raffler, Pia. “Does Political Oversight of the Bureaucracy Increase Accountability? Field Experimental Evidence from an Electoral Autocracy.”  American Political Science Review, 116(4): 1443-1459
  • APSA Best Fieldwork Award, Comparative Decentralization Section, 2016
  • APSA Best Graduate Student Paper in African Affairs, Honorable Mention, 2016
• 2021. Martin, Lucy and Pia Raffler. “Fault Lines: The Effects of Bureaucratic Power on Electoral Accountability.” American Journal of Political Science, 65(1): 210-224.
• 2021. Platas, Melina and Pia Raffler. “Closing the Gap: Information and Mass Support in a Dominant Party Regime.” The Journal of Politics, 83(4): 1619-1634.
• 2019. Platas, Melina and Pia Raffler. “Private vs. Public Information and Voting Behavior. A Field Experiment in Ugandan MP Elections.” In: Information and Accountability: A New Method for Cumulative Learning. Edited by Thad Dunning et al. Cambridge University Press.
• 2019. Baldwin, Kate and Pia Raffler. “Traditional Leaders, Service Delivery, and Electoral Accountability.” In: Decentralized Governance and Accountability. Edited by Jonathan Rodden and Erik Wibbels. Cambridge University Press.
• 2019. “Voter information campaigns and political accountability: Cumulative findings from a pre-registered meta-analysis of coordinated trials,” with Thad Dunning, Guy Grossman, Macartan Humphreys, Susan Hyde, Craig McIntosh, Gareth Nellis, Claire Adida, Eric Arias, Clara Bicalho, Taylor C. Boas, Mark T. Buntaine, Simon Chauchard, Anirvan Chowdhury, Jessica Gottlieb, F. Daniel Hidalgo, Marcus Holmlund, Ryan Jablonski, Eric Kramon, Horacio Larreguy, Malte Lierl, John Marshall, Gwyneth McClendon, Marcus A. Melo, Daniel L. Nielson, Paula M. Pickering, Melina R. Platas, Pablo Querubín, and Neelanjan Sircar. Science Advances, 5(7), p.eaaw2612. 

Book manuscript

• “The Broken Link. How Weak Political Oversight of the Bureaucracy Undermines Service Delivery and Electoral Accountability”

Working Papers and Papers under Review

• Little, Andrew, Melina Platas Izama, and Pia Raffler. “Does Motivated Reasoning Limit Learning About Politics? Evidence from Coordinated Information Experiments”

Works in Progress

• Das, Sabya, Gaurav Sabharwal, and Pia Raffler. “Political Alignment and Incentives for Allocating Different Types of Bureaucrats”
• Iversen, Torben and Pia Raffler. “Clarity of Responsibility, Political Accountability, and Quality of Government”
• Bowles, Jeremy, Horacio Larreguy, and Pia Raffler. “Does Debate Participation Matter?”

Publications in Development Economics

• 2019. Fischer, Greg, Dean Karlan, Margaret McConnell and Pia Raffler. “Short-term Subsidies and Seller Type: A Health Products Experiment in Uganda,” Journal of Development Economics. 
• 2013. Jamison, Julian, Dean Karlan and Pia Raffler. “Mixed Method Evaluation of a Passive mHealth Sexual Information Texting Service in Uganda”. Information Technology & International Development 9(3)

Policy Papers and Reports

• Baldwin, Kate and Pia Raffler. 2016. “Traditional Leaders, Service Delivery and Electoral Accountability”. Decentralization. Edited by Jonathan Rodden and Erik Wibbels. USAID.
• Dunning, Thad, Daniel N. Posner and Pia Raffler. 2013. “Political Knowledge and Political Participation. Improving USAID Program Design and Evaluation”
• Martin, Lucy and Pia Raffler. 2013. “Local Governance in Uganda”

Awards and Fellowships

• Award for Best Experimental Paper, American Political Science Association, 2019
• Award for Best Dissertation in Experimental Research, American Political Science Association, 2018
• Best Fieldwork Award, Comparative Democratization Section, American Political Science Association, 2016
• Best Graduate Student Paper in African Affairs, Honorable Mention, African Politics Conference Group, American Political Science Association, 2016
• Darius Thompson Waldhams Fellowship, Yale University, 2015-2016
• Pierre B.A. Keller Fellowship, Yale University, 2014-2015
• M. Cox Fellowship, Yale University, 2013-2014
• Teaching Fellowship, Economic Analysis, Columbia University, 2007
• Scholarship, German Academic Exchange Service for Academic Excellence, 2005-2006
• Scholarship for Academic Success, E-fellows, 2002 – 2008
• Nominated for German National Merit Foundation, 2001, 2004

Grants

• Research Grant, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard
• Research Grant, JPAL Governance Initiative, joint with Jeremy Bowles and John Marshall
• Research Grant, Competitive Dean’s Fund, Harvard
• Research Grant, International Republican Institute/USAID, 2016, joint with Melina Platas
• Research Grant, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2015, joint with Melina Platas
• Research Grant, Hewlett Foundation, 2015
• Research Grant, EGAP, 2014, joint with Melina Platas
• Research Grant, The International Growth Centre, 2014
• Research Grant, Hewlett Foundation, 2014
• Research Grant, Anonymous Donor, 2013
• Research Fellowship, Georg W. Leitner Program in International and Comparative Political Economy, 2013
• Research Grant, 2012, joint with Chris Blattman, Dean Karlan and Lucy Martin
• Research Grant, 2010, joint with Dean Karlan and Margaret McConnell

Affiliations

• Member, Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP)
• Faculty Affiliate, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
• Faculty Affiliate, Center for African Studies, Harvard University
• Faculty Affiliate, Center for International Development, Harvard University
• Faculty Affiliate, Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD), Harvard University
• Faculty Affiliate, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University
• Research Affiliate, Center on the Politics of Development, UC Berkeley
• Research Network Member, Innovations for Poverty Action
• Invited Researcher, J-PAL Governance Initiative
• Affiliated Researcher, International Growth Centre

Selected Invited Presentations 

• Conference on Bureaucracies Beyond Boundaries, University of Virginia, 2026
• Conference on New Perspectives in Political Economy of Development, University of Southern California, 2025
• Comparative Politics Seminar, Princeton University, 2024
• Boston Working Group on African Political Economy, MIT, 2024
• Contemporary Africa Political Economy Research Seminar, NYU, 2023
• CESifo Venice Summer Institute Workshop, 2023
• Development and Political Economy Conference, Northwestern-U Chicago, 2023
• Methods/Political Economy Seminar, UW Madison, 2023
• Washington Political Economy Conference (PECO), 2022
• Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP), 2022
• Center for Development Studies, Cambridge University, 2022
• Political Science Seminar, Duke University, 2022
• Political Economy Seminar, UC Berkeley, 2022
• LIEP Seminar, Harvard University, 2022
• Batten School, University of Virginia, 2021
• GLIDE Seminar, World Bank, 2021
• Political Economy Seminar, Oxford University, 2020
• Political Economy Seminar, Columbia University, 2019
• Comparative Politics Seminar, Stanford University, 2019
• Department Seminar, UC San Diego, 2019
• Political Economy Seminar, Warwick University, 2019
• Political Economy Seminar, London School of Economics, 2019
• Development Economics Seminar, WZB, 2019
• Political Economy Seminar, Kellogg School, Northwestern University, 2018
• Political Economy Seminar, Harris School, University of Chicago, 2018
• American Politics Conference, MIT, 2018
• Political Economy Conference, Emory University, 2018
• Bureaucratic Politics Workshop, Ohio State University, 2018
• State Capacity Conference, Harvard University, 2018
• Comparative Politics Seminar, Boston University, 2017
• Comparative Politics Speaker Series, Harvard University, 2017
• American Politics Speaker Series (CSDP), Princeton University, 2017
• Niehaus Center for Globalization & Governance Seminar, Princeton University, 2017
• Northeast Workshop in Empirical Political Science (NEWEPS), NYU, 2016
• Georg W. Leitner Seminar on Political Economy, Yale University, 2016
• Comparative Politics Workshop, Yale University, 2015, 2016
• Experimental Political Science Graduate Conference, Harvard University, 2016
• National WGAPE Meeting, World Bank and Georgetown University, 2016
• Center on the Politics of Development Workshop, UC Berkeley, 2015, 2016
• CAPERS Conference, Columbia University, 2013, 2015
• Research&Innovation in Governance Conference, Yale Africa Initiative, Nairobi, 2014
• Yale Georg W. Leitner Graduate Workshop on Political Economy, 2013, 2014
• Yale African Politics Working Group, 2014
• Yale Experiments Workshop, 2011, 2014
• Yale CIRA Conference, 2012

Teaching

• Politics and Economics, Graduate Course, Fall 2018, Spring 2023, Fall 2023 (with Torben Iversen)
• Political Economy of Development, Graduate Seminar, Harvard University, Spring 2019, Fall 2020
• Politics of Development in Africa, Undergraduate Seminar/Lecture, Harvard University, Fall 2017 & 2018, Spring 2020 & 2021, Fall 2023
• Political Economy Research Workshop, Graduate Course, Harvard University, 2017/2018 (with Robert Bates and Torben Iversen), 2023/2024 (with Jeff Frieden)
• Comparative Politics Research Workshop, Graduate Course, 2021/2022, 2022/2023 (with Melani Cammett/Torben Iversen)
• Teaching Fellow African Politics, Undergraduate Course, Yale University, Fall 2014
• Teaching Fellow, Fundamentals of Modeling II (Game Theory), Graduate Course, Yale University, Spring 2013
• Teaching Fellow, Introduction to Statistics, Graduate Course,  Yale University, Fall 2012
• Teaching Fellow, Advanced Economic Analysis (Macro), Graduate Course, Columbia University, Spring 2007
• Teaching Assistant, Demographics & Social Structure, Undergraduate Course, University of Munich, 2005
• Workshop Instructor, LaTeX, Yale Statistics Lab, Spring 2013
• Workshop Instructor, Executive Education, JPAL/IPA, 2012
• Workshop Instructor, Survey Design, Yale Statistics Lab, Fall 2012

Other Work Experience 

• Research Consultant, Social Impact/USAID, Evidence Review on Political Participation, 2012
• Consultant, Statistics Lab, Yale University, 2012
• Country Director, Innovations for Poverty Action, Uganda, 2009-2010
• Project Coordinator, Innovations for Poverty Action, Uganda, 2008-2009
• Research Assistant, Prof. Chris Blattman, Survey on War Affected Youth (SWAY) & Northern Uganda Social Action Fund, 2007
• Consultant, UNDP Regional Center Asia-Pacific, MDG Initiative, 2006
• Research Assistant, Prof. Ulrich Beck, University of Munich, 2004-2005