Jeremiah Cha

Dissertation Project

1. Racial Representation in American Cities
• Metropolitan areas in the United States are experiencing rapid diversification, which has radically changed local political landscapes. Canonical accounts suggest that increasing ethnic heterogeneity can reduce the quality and effectiveness of public goods provision. This paper examines how changes in racial and ethnic composition - both among constituencies and within city councils - influence agenda-setting in local city councils. Using a novel dataset of city council agendas and minutes from the 100 largest city governments from 2016 to 2022, I explore the effects of the contemporary diversification of American cities in the context of housing policy. The findings provide new evidence on extant theories of elite decision-making and how diversity shapes accountability at the local level.

Working Papers

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

Works in Progress

1. What School Boards Talk About When They Talk About Race (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. 2021. 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.