Christopher R. Berry, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Harris SchoolChristopher R. Berry is an assistant professor in the Harris School. Previously, he was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University in the Department of Government's Program on Education Policy and Governance. Berry received his B.A. from Vassar College, Master of Regional Planning (M.R.P.) from Cornell University, and Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He was a Charles E. Merriam Fellow at the University of Chicago. Berry is also active in community development and was formerly a director in the MetroEdge division of ShoreBank, America's oldest and largest community development financial institution.
Berry's research focuses on the political economy of American local government, education policy, and economic development. He is currently engaged in several projects examining how the political organization of state and local government influences fiscal policy and economic performance. His other research has addressed the role of political parties in coordinating policy across layers of government, the effect of test scores on school board elections, zoning and residential segregation, and the use of alternative financial service institutions by low-income households.
Books
- Professor Berry is the author of Imperfect Union: Representation and Taxation in Multi-Level Governments, published by Cambridge University Press in the Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions Series.
Selected Working Papers
- "Direct Democracy and Redistribution," Harris School Working Paper #09.05 (March 2009)
- "The President and the Distribution of Federal Spending" (with Barry C. Burden and William G. Howell), Harris School Working Paper #09.04 (February 2009)
- "The Unbundled Executive" (with Jacob E. Gersen), Harris School Working Paper #08.05 (March 2008)
- "The Jackie (and Jill) Robinson Effect: Why Do Congresswomen Outperform Congressmen?" (with Sarah Anzia), Harris School Working Paper #07.16 (August 2009, revised)
- "Representation without Taxation: The Fiscal Consequences of Electoral Institutions" (with Jacob E. Gersen), Harris School Working Paper #07.13 (May 2007)
- "A Bridge to Somewhere: Mapping State and Congressional Ideology on a Cross-Institutional Common Space" (with Boris Shor and Nolan McCarty) Harris School Working Paper #07.12 (April 2007)
- "Accountability and Local Elections: Rethinking Respective Voting" (with William G. Howell), Harris School Working Paper #07.06 (January 2007)
- "Piling On: Overlapping Jurisdictions & the Fiscal Common-Pool," Harris School Working Paper #07.05 (January 2007)
- "Growing Pains: The School Consolidation Movement and Student Outcomes" (with Martin West), Harris School Working Paper #07.03 (January 2007)
- "Matters of Life and Death: The Durability of Discretionary Programs 1970-2004" (with Berry C. Burden and William G. Howell), Harris School Working Paper #07.01 (January 2007)
- "The Community Reinvestment Act: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis" (with Sarah Lee), Harris School Working Paper #07.04 (November 2006)
- "School Consolidation and Inequality," Harris School Working Paper #07.02 (September 2006)
- "School Finance Judgments and Spending on Education: A Review of the Evidence." Harris School Working Paper #07.07 (October 2005)
- "The Divergence of Human Capital Levels Across Cities" (with Edward L. Glaeser), NBER Working Paper #11617 (September 2005)
Courses
Contact Information
1155 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
Suite 150
E-mail: crberry@uchicago.edu
Phone: 773-702-5939
