Jason M. Lakin
I have recently completed my Ph.D. in the Department of
Government at Harvard University.
I am now a Research Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. My new email address is the same ID as before,
jlakin, plus the new suffix @hsph.harvard.edu. My old email address will cease to function in a few days.
If you would like to view a copy of my CV, click here.
My research focuses on social policy reform in developing countries.
In 2005-6, I was writing a paper on the Mexican health care reform of 2003.
I presented this research at APSA in September, 2005, and at LASA in March, 2006.
More recently, I have been conducting research on the politics of the creation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India for a paper with Nirmala Ravishankar.
A version of this paper will be available soon. We presented a preliminary version of our paper on an APSA panel looking at the politics of social policy and poverty in developing countries
I also spent several months working at the New Delhi office of the World Bank in 2007 on a project on the political economy of policy reform in Uttar Pradesh.
My dissertation looks at the politics of social policy reform, with a focus on health, in Mexico.
Brief Bio
I graduated from Brown University in 1998, and spent several years in
Washington, D.C. afterwards.
In Washington, I worked with Prof. Seymour Martin Lipset on a book about trends in democratization around the world.
. You can get a preview of and purchase our book,
The Democratic Century, by clicking on the link.
In 2002, I was a research assistant at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities where
I conducted research on local tax and housing policy in Washington, DC.
From September 2002 to May 2003, I was a Fulbright Scholar in Chile.
Other Writing
I am now blogging regularly at Harvard International Review, mostly about Mexico.
My archive of blogs on social policy is still at Foresight, New Vision's Blog,
and an archive of blogs on other topics is at my personal blog.
In 2005, I co-authored an options brief with other New Vision Associates and the Center for American Progress
which you can view here.
Other co-authored pieces I wrote with Ed Lazere at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute are available as well.
Our paper comparing the D.C. tax burden to surrounding areas found that high taxes in D.C were an Urban Legend.
Our paper on the D.C. Earned Income Tax Credit is here.
Dispatches from Abroad
The writing in this section is from my travels to Germany, Mexico and India. It will be updated with more postings over time.
India
Coming Soon.
Mexico
A weekend of high culture in Mexico City: a Molotov concert and a satire about, of all things, health insurance
Mexico City has a great metro system...as long as you don't break these rules.
Germany
Why I was blown away by the Jewish Museum in Berlin.
Johann Sebastian Bach, the Stasi and the war in Iraq get mixed up on my trip to Leipzig.