Carlo Prato, Ph.D.

Carlo Prato is currently Assistant Professor of Political Science. He holds a B.A. (2004) and an MSc (2006) in economics and social sciences from Bocconi University and a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University.  

From 2012 to 2016, he was an assistant professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. In 2015-2016, he was a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. 

His research addresses three broad questions: 

How does the distribution of information shape the electoral process?

How do electoral rules shape legislative representation?

How do legislative bodies choose the rules governing their deliberation? 

He tackles these questions using formal theory and, occasionally, observational and experimental data. While game theory has a long history in political science, recent expansions in researchers' ability to gather and analyze data allow for new ways to connect theory and empirics. An important theme in Professor Prato's scholarship (and service to the profession) is the development of these connections. 

His work on information aggregation identifies previously undetected issues with conventional measures of political engagement and with new approaches to estimating incumbency effects; 

His work on legislative representation helps to organize otherwise puzzling evidence on the relationship between electoral institutions, legislative behavior, and electoral outcomes; 

His work on endogenous procedures provides insights on how the variation in rules of procedures can be linked to the nature and influence of political parties in U.S. politics;

More recently, his work on field experiments represents one of the few attempts to integrate formal theory in the design of experimental interventions and in the interpretation of the resulting evidence.