Clayton Nall

Biography

My research seeks to explain how policies that change geographic space change American politics, and my broader research interests encompass American political development, public policy, political geography, and political methodology. My book, The Road to Inequality: How the Federal Highway Program Polarized America and Undermined Cities (Cambridge University Press, 2018) uses a range of new data sources constructed from public archives and databases to examine how the largest public works project in U.S. history created Republican suburbs, increased the urban-suburban political divide, and worsened spatial inequality in the nation's metro areas.

I am currently pursuing research broadly addressing the politics of housing, examining how the expression of economic self-interest in local politics interacts with Americans' nationally focused political ideologies.

Book:

Clayton Nall. 2018. The Road to Inequality: How the Federal Highway Program Polarized America and Undermined Cities. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Selected Articles:

Sean Westwood, Justin Grimmer, Matthew Tyler, and Clayton Nall. 2022. “American Support for Political Violence is Lower Than Expected.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 19, No. 2. 

William Marble and Clayton Nall. 2021. “Where Self-Interest Trumps Ideology: Liberal Homeowners and Local Opposition to Housing Development.” Journal of Politics, Vol. 83, Issue 4. 

Justin Grimmer, Eitan Hersh, Marc Meredith, Jonathan Mummolo and Clayton Nall. 2018. “Obstacles to Estimating Voter ID Laws’ Effect on Turnout.” Journal of Politics, Vol. 80, Issue 3, pp. 1045–51. 

Clayton Nall, Benjamin Schneer and Daniel P. Carpenter. 2018. “Paths of Recruitment: Rational Social Prospecting in Petition Canvassing.” American
Journal of Political Science, Vol. 62, Issue 1, pp. 192–209. 
*Winner, AJPS Best Article Award, 2018

Jonathan Mummolo and Clayton Nall. 2017. “Why Partisans Do Not Sort: How Quality and Resource Constraints Prevent Political Segregation.” Journal of Politics, Vol. 79, Issue 1, pp. 29–53. 

Eitan Hersh and Clayton Nall. 2016. “The Primacy of Race in the Geography of Income-Based Voting: New Evidence from Public Voting Records.” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 60, Issue 2, pp. 289–303.  
*Winner, Pi Sigma Alpha Award for Best Conference Paper, MPSA Annual Meeting, 2013.
*Winner, Emerging Scholar Award, MPSA Annual Meeting, 2013.

Clayton Nall. 2015. “The Political Consequences of Spatial Policies: How Interstate Highways Caused Geographic Polarization,” Journal of Politics, Vol. 77, No. 2, pp. 394–406. (link)