Jiaen Wu
About Me
Name pronunciation: Jiaen Pronounced Jia-En (sounds like ‘Giant’ without the ‘t’)
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Public Affairs at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington.
My research lies at the intersection of bureaucratic discretion, representative bureaucracy, and algorithmic governance. Overall, I study how administrative tools, such as diversity regulations or predictive algorithms, redistribute bureaucratic discretion within public agencies and shape frontline behavior.
A central goal of my research agenda is to understand how bureaucratic choices respond to shifting decision environments. Whether the source of change is a demographic hiring mandate, the introduction of an algorithmic risk score, or an unexpected policy shock, I investigate three linked questions:
- How do these interventions alter the balance of discretion between political principals and bureaucrats?
- Through what behavioral channels, such as identity, information, or incentives, do they shape managerial and frontline decisions?
- How do these altered decisions affect equity and efficiency of governmental outcomes?
Across my projects, I use quasi-experimental designs and rich administrative datasets to provide causal evidence on the mechanisms connecting institutional reforms to policy outcomes.
My dissertation, Balancing Bureaucratic Discretion: The Role of Diversity, Policy, and AI in Public Governance, examines how variation in discretion influences equity and effectiveness in three settings: workforce diversity interventions, federal contracting, and algorithmic screening in child protective services.
Before beginning my Ph.D., I earned my M.S. and B.S. in Political Science and Public Policy from National Taiwan University.
Contact
Email: jiaewu@iu.edu
Affiliation: O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington
Research fields: Public management, representative bureaucracy, bureaucratic discretion, algorithmic governance, causal inference