Bill Schultz

Bill Schultz

Biography

I’m a quantitative social scientist specializing in policy research. Substantively, I’m interested in equity implications of policy implementation choices, especially in the environmental and health sectors. Methodologically, I’m interested in how analysts draw conclusions based on statistical evidence and the challenges of casual inference in program evaluation. My work employs a flexible mix of correlational descriptive work, quasi-experimental analysis, and experimentation. I also sometimes dabble in game theory.

I’m currently an Assistant Research Professor in the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, working in the Better Governance Lab. I’m also an Associate Scholar affiliated with Florida State University, and I spend some of my time working for the General Service Administration’s Office of Evaluation Sciences as a Data Scientist. On this website, you will find information about some of my research, courses I’ve taught in the past, and my CV. Thank you for visiting!

Interests

  • Equity in policy implementation
  • Conservation and restoration
  • Participatory policymaking
  • Geospatial data
  • Causal inference
  • Statistical learning
  • Evidence-based policy

Education

  • PhD in Political Science, 2020

    Florida State University

  • MA in Political Science, 2017

    Florida State University

  • BSc in Business Management, 2013

    University of Maryland

  • BA in Government and Politics, 2013

    University of Maryland

Publications

Promoting Safe Opioid Disposal: Experimental Evidence on Behavioral Messaging with Financial Incentives

Low-cost behavioral message can enhance the effectiveness of financial incentives as a way to reduce opioid misuse.
Publication link

Transparency and Responsibility Attribution: A Field Experiment in Western Uganda

Improving transparency does not guarantee changes in policy attributions, but this does not preclude collective action.
Publication link Replication

Forest restoration for environment and well-being is associated with empowered local governance over long time horizons

Forest plantations with long term local participation tend to provide greater environmental and social benefits.
Publication link Replication

Interventions to Increase Affordable Care Act Marketplace Enrollment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis finds that behaviorally informed interventions increase enrollment in ACA marketplaces.
Publication link

Recognizing the Equity Implications of Restoration Priority Maps

Adverse social impacts warrant more attention to equity in restoration priority mapping studies.
Publication link Replication
See all publications

Working Papers

Does improving customer experience improve employment assistance uptake? Experimental evidence from the Ticket to Work program

Summary not yet available.
Last updated on Feb 5, 2025

What questions about conservation have causal answers? Highlighting the problem of multiple treatment versions.

This study reviews the importance of carefully defining the causal questions that conservation scientists want to answer during the early stages of a study, with the focus on issues raised by non-random selection into different “versions” of treatment.
Last updated on Mar 20, 2025

Teaching

Social Science Inquiry I-II-III

This sequence of courses (over an entire year) introduces undergraduate students to the philosophy of quantitative social science research. Students learn the basics of quantitative social science research design and get hands on experience developing their own research projects in R.

Download example syllabi for the Fall, Winter, or Spring.

Comparative Natural Resource Management

This course introduces undergraduate students to research about the social issues that surround natural resource management around the world today, embedded within a broader tradition of research in the subfield of Comparative Politics.

Download an example syllabus.

Understanding Political Science Research

This course introduces undergraduate students to the basics of statistical techniques commonly used in the social sciences. Students come out of this class better prepared to make sense of published work in political science, and more familiar with the fundamentals of good research design. This course is based around “the Fundamentals of Political Science Research” by Kellstedt and Whitten.

Download an example syllabus.

Introduction to Game Theory

This course introduces undergraduate students to the fundamentals of game theory, and illustrates how game theoretic techniques are typically used in political science research. Readings are a mix of assigned selections from Osborne’s “Introduction to Game Theory” as well as publications in various journals.

Download an example syllabus.

Global Politics and Policy

This course introduces undergraduate students to the basics of two subfields of political science: Comparative Politics and International Relations. The goal is to prepare students to effectively engage in debates about the causes of public policy failures around the world.

Download an example syllabus.

Introduction to Comparative Politics

This course introduces undergraduate students to current state of research on Comparative Politics. It focuses on: (1) reviewing the major questions researchers in this subfield explore; and (2) giving students a basic primer on the methodological tools used by researchers in this subfield.

Download an example syllabus.

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