Research

My research focuses on American institutions.  In particular, I focus on the consequences of institutional design on policymaking. Areas of interest include:  Legislative Politics, Executive Branch Politics, Public Administration, Public Policy, Bureaucratic Politics, State Politics, and Political Methodology.  

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Byers, Jason S. and Laine P. Shay. 2023.  "What Explains a Representative’s Staffing “Style”? Exploring the Relationship between Congressional Staffing Decisions and Electoral Considerations.  Accepted for publication at American Politics Research.

  • Figure 1 information is here.

• Shay, Laine P. and Beth M. Rauhaus. 2023. “Closing the Gap: An Analysis of Women’s Representation in State Legislatures and the Gender Pay Gap.” Accepted for publication at Legislative Studies Quarterly. 

  • Updated Appendix is here.

• Byers, Jason S. and Laine P. Shay. 2023. “Can’t Buy Me Love? An Experiment on the Relationship between Federal Grant Dollars and Federal Agency Approval.” Accepted for Publication at Public Management Review. 

• Byers, Jason S. and Laine P. Shay. 2022. “We Have it Totally Under Control? Exploring the Effects of Ideology and Knowing Someone Diagnosed with COVID-19 on Evaluations of President Trump’s Leadership on the Pandemic.” American Politics Research 50(1): 83-96.  

• Shay, Laine P.  2021.  "Do Term Limits ‘Limit’ the Speaker? Examining the Effects of Legislative Term Limits on State Speaker Power."  State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 21(2): 139-64.  

• Byers, Jason S. and Laine P. Shay. 2021. “Position-Taking on the President’s Agenda.” Political Behavior, 43(2): 495-516.

  • Replication Code is here.  Dataset is here.

• Shay, Laine P. 2020.  “Closing Time! Examining the Impact of Gender and Executive Branch Policymakers on the Timing of Stay-at-Home Orders.”  Politics & Gender, 16(4): 935-942.

  • Replication Code is here.  Dataset is here.  

• Black, Bryan M. and Laine P. Shay.  2018.  "States Testing the Legal Limits:  The Effect of Electoral Competition on the Constitutionality of State Statutes." State Politics & Policy Quarterly 18(3): 246-70.  

Working Papers

• Shay, Laine P.  "Agency Insulation and Federal Spending."

• Shay, Laine P.  "Elected Administrators and Policy Innovation."

• Madonna, Anthony and Laine P. Shay.  "The Relationship Between Committee Autonomy and Legislative Capacity:  The Case of Committee Amendments."  (Most recent version here)

• Lynch, Michael S. and Laine P. Shay.  "Valuable Vacancies." (Most recent version here)