John W. PattyProfessor

Education

• Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 2001
• M.S., California Institute of Technology, 1999
• B.A., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1996

Biography

John W. Patty is a Professor of Political Science and Quantitative Theory & Methods at Emory University. He is currently Co-editor of the Journal of Theoretical Politics and the Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions series at Cambridge University Press.  Professor Patty’s research focuses on mathematical models of political institutions.  His substantive interests include political legitimacy, the US Congress, the federal bureaucracy, American political development, and democratic theory. His work has been published in multiple journals, including American Journal of Political Science, Annual Review of Political Science, Games & Economic Behavior, Journal of Politics, Journal of Public Policy, Journal of Theoretical Politics, and Quarterly Journal of Political Science.  He also coauthored Learning While Governing (University of Chicago Press, 2012) with Sean Gailmard, which won the 2013 William H. Riker book award and the 2017 Herbert A. Simon book award, and Social Choice and Legitimacy: The Possibilities of Impossibility (Cambridge University Press, 2014) with Elizabeth Maggie Penn.  

Professor Patty received his Ph.D. in Social Sciences in 2001 and his M.S. in Economics in 1999 from the California Institute of Technology after receiving his B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1996. Prior to coming to Emory, Professor Patty was Assistant Professor of Political Economy & Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, Assistant Professor of Government at Harvard University, Professor of Political Science & Director of the Center for New Institutional Social Sciences at Washington University in Saint Louis, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.