Email | Personal Website
EDUCATION
PhD, Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
BA, Wellesley College
BACKGROUND
Olivia recently earned her PhD from MIT. She has worked within major financial institutions and government agencies to implement large-scale randomized trials, and supplements this work with survey experiments and qualitative analyses, all in the US, Sweden and Australia. Before MIT, she graduated summa cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Peace and Justice Studies, Spanish, and Psychology.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Olivia studies how citizens’ everyday interactions with the state—such as paying taxes, claiming benefits—shape their views of government.
Her particular interest is seemingly innocuous "micro" design factors—e.g., not how high (low) the tax rate is, but how the process of paying taxes is designed—which, she finds, have an outsized impact on attitudes.
By partnering with companies and government agencies, her work experiments with new ways to deliver social programs, and learn about human behavior.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
For more information, please visit her website.