Jeremiah Cha

Dissertation Project

1. Racial Representation in American Cities
• Metropolitan areas in the United States are undergoing rapid diversification, significantly reshaping the demographics of local leadership. This paper examines how shifts in the racial and ethnic composition of city councils influence the provision of collective goods, particularly in relation to decision-making diversity. Using data on city council elections and the distribution of new housing permits, I identify the causal effect of electing a minority representative on housing supply. The findings reveal that minority representation increases single-family housing construction at the expense of multi-family housing, challenging conventional expectations about ideology and race. Qualitative interviews with city council members suggest that efforts to address minority underrepresentation drive active support for single-family housing, while distrust of developers—rooted in fears of gentrification—fuels skepticism toward multi-family projects. Overall, the study presents a nuanced view of racial representation: while minorities achieve better representational outcomes, these gains come at the cost of reduced housing supply.

Working Papers

1. Mechanisms of Checks and Balances: Appropriations, Congressional Committees, and Interbranch Conflict (with Jon C. Rogowski). Revise and Resubmit.
2. Looks Skin Deep: Do Immigrant Legislators Better Represent Immigrant Interests? (with Justin Gest and Tom K. Wong). Revise and Resubmit.

Works in Progress

1. Preaching to the (After School) Choir: Studying Representation and Racialized Agendas Using School Board Meetings (with Hunter Rendleman and Tyler Simko)
2. Revisiting Committees (with Sooahn Shin)
3. Measuring Issue Representation
4. Drawing Blanks: Redistricting and Turnout Effects (with Angelo Dagonel and Kiara Hernandez)
5. The Direct Primary Election (with James M. Snyder, Jr.)

Data

1. The Candidates in American General Elections dataset is a comprehensive Presidential, Congressional, and gubernatorial candidate-level dataset for elections between 2006 and 2022, which includes variables for standardized names, incumbency status, party affiliation, and election results. Our standardized naming convention allows researchers to track candidates across years and offices.
• Cha, Jeremiah, Shiro Kuriwaki, and James M. Snyder, Jr. 2024. Candidates in American General Elections. Harvard Dataverse.

Policy and Data Reports

1. Desphande, Pia and Jeremiah Cha. 2022. The 2020 CES: Duplicate Respondents and Handling Asian and Hispanic Subsamples. Cooperative Election Study.
2. Devlin, Kat, Regina Widjaya and Jeremiah Cha. 2020. For Global Legislators on Twitter, an Engaged Minority Creates Outsize Share of Content. Pew Research Center.
3. Wong, Tom K., Jeremiah Cha and Erika Villareal-Garcia. 2019. The Impact of Changes to the Public Charge Rule on Undocumented Immigrants Living in the United States. U.S. Immigration Policy Center (USIPC) at UC San Diego.
4. Silver, Laura, Emily A. Vogels, Mara Mordecai, Jeremiah Cha, Raea Rasmussen and Lee Rainie. 2019. Mobile Divides in Emerging Economies. Pew Research Center.

Blog Posts

1. Cha, Jeremiah. 2020. Fast facts about South Koreans’ views of democracy as legislative election nears. Pew Research Center.
2. Cha, Jeremiah. 2020. People in Asia-Pacific regard the U.S. more favorably than China, but Trump gets negative marks. Pew Research Center.
3. Huang, Christine and Jeremiah Cha. 2020. Russia and Putin receive low ratings globally. Pew Research Center.
4. Fetterolf, Janell and Jeremiah Cha. 2020. Few in other countries approve of Trump’s major foreign policies, but Israelis are an exception. Pew Research Center.
5. Cha, Jeremiah. 2017. Dreaming of DACA. Claremont Journal of Law and Policy.

Note: This website is made using the minimalist theme created by Steve Smith. Content inspired by Shiro Kuriwaki, Emma Remy, and Sono Shah. Design elements taken from Brad Bolman.