Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University

Maggie Penn

Assistant Professor, Undergraduate Scholars Program

• Maggie Penn's web site

Professor Penn's areas of specialization are social choice theory, institutional organization and political economy. She is especially interested in how groups make decisions in dynamic environments. In such settings individuals must interact repeatedly over periods of time, and past decisions strongly affect current choices. Some of her past research has focused on the emergence of cooperation between individuals with competing interests in dynamic settings.

Professor Penn also interested in the effect that voting procedures have on the choices groups make, and in particular, in how different systems function when used by different groups. She is currently working with John Patty on a project that examines the performance of different electoral systems within different societies. They use not only the specifics of voting systems as inputs, but also specifics of the groups using them, such as group heterogeneity, ability, size, and complexity of communication. Professors Penn and Patty are motivated by the fact that it is difficult to evaluate a voting system in isolation from the group that is using it. Different groups may structure their political debate differently, may employ different strategies when voting, and may vote for different reasons. A voting system may spark collaboration between political parties when used by one society and may exacerbate partisan conflict when used by another.
Although most of her work has been theoretic, other past projects have addressed topics relating to local and state governance, including municipal secession and the initiative in California. Professor Penn is also the Director of the Undergraduate Scholars Program at the Institute.