David Lazer

Office Address
Non Resident
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
79 JFK Street
Contact
Email: David_Lazer@harvard.edu
David Lazer

Profile

David M.J. Lazer, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Program on Networked Governance, teaches courses on regulation and public management. Lazer has an overarching interest in the process by which connections emerge among actors and the consequences that the resultant network has for individuals and the system. He recently edited (with Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger) Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government. He has also written extensively on the use of DNA in the criminal justice system. Finally, he is an authority on social network analysis, with a series of papers on the diffusion of information among interest groups and between interest groups and the government. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan.

Media Expertise

David Lazer welcomes media inquiries on the following subjects:

Additional experts may be found by clicking on each subject listed. You may contact faculty directly or if you need assistance contact the Communications Office at 617-495-1115.

Research

For a complete list of faculty citations from 2001 - present, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School Research Report Online.

Selected Publication Citations:

  • Academic Journals
    • Lazer, David. "The Coevolution of Individual and Network." Journal of Mathematical Sociology (January 2001): 69-108.
    • Lazer, David. "Regulatory Interdependence and International Governance." Journal of European Public Policy (April 2001): 474-492.
    • Lazer, David, and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger. "Governing Networks: Telecommunication Deregulation in Europe and the United States.” Brooklyn Journal of International Law 27.3 (2002): 819-851.
    • Coglianese, Cary, and David Lazer. "Management-Based Regulation: Prescribing Private Management to Achieve Public Goals." Law and Society Review 37 (2003): 691-730.
    • Carpenter, Daniel, Kevin Esterling, and David Lazer. "The Strength of Strong Ties: A Model of Contact-Making in Policy Networks with Evidence from U.S. Health Politics." Rationality & Society 15.4 (November 2003).
    • Lazer, David, and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger. "Staying Connected: Baby Boomers and the Internet." Harvard Generations Policy Journal 1 (Winter 2004): 67.
    • Carpenter, Daniel, Kevin Esterling, and David Lazer. "Friends, Brokers, and Transitivity: Who Informs Whom in Washington Politics?" Journal of Politics 66.1 (February 2004): 224-246.
    • Katz, Nancy, David Lazer, Holly Arrow, and Noshir Contractor. "The Network Perspective on Teams." Small Group Research 35.3 (June 2004): 307-332.
    • Lazer, David. "Regulatory Capitalism as a Networked Order: The International System as an Informational Network." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 598.1 (March 2005): 52-66.
    • Esterling, Kevin M., David Lazer, and Michael A. Neblo. "Home (Page) Style: Determinates of the Quality of the House Members' Web Sites." International Journal of Electronic Government Research 1.2 (April-June 2005).
    • Bieber, Frederick R., Charles H. Brenner, and David Lazer. "Finding Criminals Through DNA of Their Relatives." Science 312.5778 (June 2, 2006): 1315-1316.
    • Lazer, David, and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger. "Statutory Frameworks for Regulating Information Flows: Drawing Lessons for the DNA Data Banks from other Government Data Systems." Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 34.2 (Summer 2006): 366-374.
    • Lazer, David. "Global and Domestic Governance: Modes of Interdependence in Regulatory Policymaking." European Law Journal 12.4 (July 2006): 455-468.
    • Lazer, David, and Allan Friedman. "The Social Structure of Exploration and Exploitation." Administrative Science Quarterly (December 2007).
    • Ines Mergel, David Lazer, and Maria Binz-Scharf. "Lending a Helping Hand: Voluntary Engagement in Knowledge Sharing in a Network of Professionals." International Journal of Learning and Change 3.1 (2008): 5-22.
    • Lazer, David, Alex Pentland, Lada Adamic, Sinan Aral, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Devon Brewer, Nicholas Christakis, Noshir Contractor, James Fowler, Myron Gutmann, Tony Jebara, Gary King, Michael Macy, Deb Roy, and Marshall Van Alstyne. "Computational Social Science." Science 323.5915 (February 6, 2009): 721-723.
  • Book Chapters
    • Coglianese, Cary, and David Lazer. "Management-Based Regulatory Strategies." Market-Based Governance: Supply Side, Demand Side, Upside and Downside. Ed. John D. Donahue and Joseph S. Nye. Brookings Institution, 2002, 201-226.
    • Lazer, David. "Introduction: DNA and the Criminal Justice System." DNA and the Criminal Justice System: The Technology of Justice. Ed. David Lazer. MIT Press, 2004.
    • Lazer, David, and Michelle Meyer. "DNA and the Criminal Justice System: Consensus and Debate." DNA and the Criminal Justice System: The Technology of Justice. Ed. David Lazer. MIT Press, 2004.
    • Katz, Nancy, David Lazer, Holly Arrow, and Noshir Contractor. "The Network Perspective on Small Groups: Theory and Research." Theories of Small Groups: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Ed. Marshall Scott Poole and Andrea B. Hollingshead. SAGE Publications, 2004, 277-312.
  • Edited Volumes
    • Lazer, David, ed. DNA and the Criminal Justice System: The Technology of Justice. MIT Press, 2004.
    • Mayer-Schönberger, Viktor, and David Lazer, eds. Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government. MIT Press, 2007.
  • HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series
    • Coglianese, Cary, and David Lazer. "Management-Based Regulation: Using Private-Sector Management to Achieve Public Goals." KSG Faculty Research Working Papers Series RWP01-047, December 2001.
    • Lazer, David, and Allan Friedman. "The Parable of the Hare and the Tortoise: Small Worlds, Diversity, and System Performance." KSG Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP05-058, October 2005.
    • Lazer, David, Brian Rubineau, Carol Chetkovich, Nancy Katz, and Michael Neblo. "Networks and Political Attitudes: Structure, Influence, and Co-evolution." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP08-044, September 2008.
    • Lazer, David, Maria Binz-Scharf, and Ines Mergel. "Searching for Answers: Networks of Practice Among Public Administrators." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP08-046, October 2008.
    • Binz-Scharf, Maria, David Lazer. "A New Order of Things: Managing Novelty and Cooperation on E-Government Projects." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP08-048, October 2008.
  • Op-Eds
    • Bieber, Frederick, and David Lazer. "Lessons Learned from a Miscarriage of Justice." Boston Globe, April 12, 2003.
    • Lazer, David, and Frederick Bieber. "Guilt by Association." New Scientist, September 23, 2004.
    • Lazer, David, Frederick Bieber. "DNA Sweep Must Be Accompanied by Informed Consent." Provincetown Banner, January 20, 2005.
    • Bieber, Frederick R., and David Lazer. "Shaking the Family Tree." Provincetown Banner, January 26, 2005.
  • Research Papers/Reports
    • Coglianese, Cary, and David Lazer. "Management-Based Regulation: Prescribing Private Management to Achieve Public Goals." AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies Working Paper 02-11, November 2002.
    • Lazer, David. "Information and Innovation in a Networked World." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2003.
    • Lazer, David, and Nancy Katz. "Regulating Opportunism: The Role of Embeddedness in Teams." Center for Public Leadership, 2003.
    • Lazer, David, and Nancy Katz. "Building Effective Intra-Organizational Networks: The Role of Teams." Center for Public Leadership, 2003.
  • Reviews
    • Lazer, David. Review of Emergent Actors in World Politics: How States and Nations Develop, by Lars-Erik Cederman. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, March 2001.
    • Lazer, David. Review of Reinventing Environmental Regulation: Lessons from Project XL, by Alfred A. Marcus, Donald A. Geffen, and Ken Sexton. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 23.1 Winter 2004: 196-198.