Danyao Li

Welcome,

I am an Assistant Professor at Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California. I earned a PhD in Public Affairs from The Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington.

My research agenda centers on representation and diversity, bureaucratic decision making and organizational performance, with a specific application to law enforcement. I am primarily interested in research questions that concern issues of social equity and justice. My work aims to develop a better understanding of the ways in which design and implementation of policy programs impact disparities in policy outcomes.

My dissertation studies one of the most pressing social equity concerns in the United States -- racial disparities in policing. I use individual-level data on millions of traffic stops across multiple states over years to :

1) assess the degree to which minority representation on police force changes the behavior of majority white officers, and further contributes to racial equity in stop outcomes;

2) estimate the conditions under which white officers' behavioral alteration occurs as critical mass of minorities on force is achieved;

3) examine the intersectionality of race/ethnicity and gender in predicting individual officer behavior and shaping policy implementation on the ground.