Github: https://github.com/ljanastas/.

CV: Download here.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I9yQIZ0AAAAJ&hl=en.

Research Statement

My research sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, democratic governance, and the historical development of the administrative state. I use computational and causal inference methods to study how technology reshapes political institutions — from the rise of the regulatory state in the 19th century to the adoption of AI by contemporary governments and authoritarian regimes. Alongside this substantive work, I develop methods for causal inference with machine learning and AI, with applications across public administration and the social sciences. My work has appeared in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Democracy, Political Analysis, and Public Administration Review, among other venues.

Publications and works in progress

BOOKS

  • Inventing the Leviathan: How Technology Created the Administrative State In preparation — to be submitted to Cambridge University Press (Historical Political Economy series)

  • Causal Inference and Counterfactuals with Machine Learning Under contract, Cambridge University Press (Elements Series)

WORKING PAPERS/WORKS IN PROGRESS

  • Artificial Intelligence, Bureaucratic Discretion, and Democratic Administration (Revise and Resubmit at Public Administration Review)

  • Mapping the Temporal Evolution of Causal Effects in Public Administration and Policy Research (w/ Inkyu Kang, Revise and Resubmit at Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory)

  • Delegation, Discretion, and Regime Type: A Principal-Agent Theory of AI Adoption (w/ Jie Lian) (In Progress)

  • The State-Builder's Dilemma: Rural Electrification, Southern Oligarchy, and the Limits of the New Deal Administrative State (In Progress)

  • Adverse Destruction? Federal Workforce Reductions and Bureaucratic Capacity (w/ Gregory Porumbescu) (In Progress)

  • Simulating Public Opinion with Large Language Models (w/ Ryan Powers and Akshat Lakhiwal) (In Progress)

  • Computational Forensics for Research Integrity: A Forensic Funnel Approach (In Progress)

PUBLICATIONS