I am a Researcher on the Civic Integrity Team at Facebook and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India (University of Pennsylvania). Before joining Facebook, I was a Visiting Professor of Comparative Politics at Tulane University and Pitzer College. I received my PhD in political science at Columbia University.

This is the home of my academic research, which focuses on the micro-foundations of clientelism, elections, and distributive politics at the level of rural local governments in India. In a series of related articles, which draw on unique behavioral and experimental measures from cross-referenced elite and voter surveys, I measure the extent to which local leaders can effectively monitor voters’ political preferences and votes, local politicians’ preferences over the beneficiaries of targeted benefits, and the effect of co-partisanship on the allocation of private anti-poverty benefits and local public goods–and its implications for strategic voting. Each of these articles develops a novel survey design for capturing local dynamics observed in fieldwork. I am also completing a collaborative project on the quality of state-run local elections across India.

My research has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, American Political Science Association, and Pitzer College.  

Contact Information

Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania
Email: mark.allan.schneider@gmail.com