Elizabeth Rigby is an Assistant Professor in the Trachtenberg School of Public
Policy and Public Administration at the George Washington University. Her research
examines the interplay of politics, policy, and social inequality. In current projects,
Rigby examines the representation of the poor across state legislatures, public opinion
regarding inequality and redistribution, and the role of partisanship in the 2009-2010
health care reform debate. Her research has been published in a range of journals
including: Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Political Research Quarterly,
Policy Studies Journal, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, and Social Science Quarterly. 

Rigby holds a Ph.D. (with distinction) in Politics and Education from Columbia
University. In addition, she received post-doctoral training in population health at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison as a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar.
Complimenting this academic training, Rigby has worked at the intersection of politics,
policy, and inequality in a range of roles. These include: coordinating a state-wide
lobbying campaign, consulting with state policymakers on design of early childhood
education programs, teaching in a large urban school district, and conducting evaluation
research in Head Start programs. Together these experiences convinced her of the
importance of structural and institutional influences on both individual outcomes and the
inequalities we see among population sub-groups. This conviction motivates her work
illuminating the causes and consequences of public policy in our society.

Policy Analysis

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Federal Food Assistance Programs: Part of the Early Childhood Obesity Solution or Part of the Problem? (with Rachel Kimbro), Health Affairs (2010)
 

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Child Care Quality in Different State Policy Contexts (with Rebecca M. Ryan and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn), Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (2007)
 

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POLICY COUNTS: Improving the Readiness of Children for School, Recommendations for State Policy (with Sharon Lynn Kagan), A Concept Paper Commissioned for the Policy Counts Project, Center for the Study of Social Policy (2003)
 

Policy Process

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Federalism, Partisan Politics, and Shifting Support for State Flexibility: The Case of the U.S. State Children’s Health Insurance Program (with Colleen Grogan), Publius: The Journal of Federalism (2009)
 

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Alternative Policy Designs and the Socio-Political Construction of Child Care (with Kate Tarrant and Michelle Neuman), Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Special Issue: Child Care Politics (2007)
 

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Same Policy Area, Different Politics: How the Characteristics of Policy Tools Alter the Determinants of Early Childhood Policymaking, Policy Studies Journal (2007)
 

Politics of Inequality

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Public Values, Health Inequality, and Alternative Notions of a “Fair” Response (with Erika Blacksher and Claire Espey), Forthcoming in Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law (2010)
 

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Does Electoral Reform Increase (or Decrease) Political Equality? (with Melanie J. Springer), Forthcoming in Political Research Quarterly (2010)
 

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Whose Statehouse Democracy?: Policy Responsiveness to Poor vs. Rich Constituents in Poor vs. Rich States (with Gerald C. Wright), Who is Represented? (2010)
 

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Public Responses to Health Disparities: How Group Cues Structure Support for Government Intervention (with Joe Soss, Bridget Booske, Angela Rohan, and Stephanie Roberts), Social Science Quarterly (2009)
 

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Public Views on Determinants of Health, Interventions to Improve Health, and Priorities for Government (with Stephanie Roberts, Bridget Booske, and Angela Rohan), Wisconsin Medical Journal (2008)