Mr. Nicholas Haas is a PhD candidate in politics at New York University. In his dissertation, he studies how states with limited institutional capacity can better respond to the demands of marginalized populations. In particular, he evaluates state efforts in India to improve responsiveness of police to women, and of political institutions to the Scheduled Tribes ethnic minority.

Mr. Haas uses experimental and advanced quantitative methods and also has extensive experience conducting qualitative fieldwork. He has completed studies on India, South Sudan, Egypt, and the United States. In addition to his dissertation, he has studied political polarization and how it can best be measured, the challenges to securing public support for civil war peace settlements across ethnic groups formerly in conflict, ethnic stereotyping and career choice, psychological motivations underpinning low-cost political expression, and the effects of negative political campaigns on interpersonal trust.

Mr. Haas has received generous research support from organizations including the Fulbright Program, the National Science Foundation, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Crime and Violence Initiative, and the Public Safety and CESS labs at New York University. In 2017, he was a pre-doctoral fellow at CESS Nuffield-FLAME University in Pune, India.

Prior to New York University, Mr. Haas served as Dechert Fellow at Harvard Law School and as a research associate at Harvard Business School. He is an author on eight Harvard Law and Business School case studies. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan with highest distinction.

In recent years, police in India have faced criticism for alleged bias in their treatment of women. How can states better respond to the needs and demands of marginalized populations? In his Fulbright-Nehru project and with the support of local police, Mr. Haas is conducting lab and field experimental work, as well as background qualitative fieldwork, to investigate why Indian police respond to women complainants in the ways they do, what causes dissatisfaction among women complainants, and which strategies can improve the match between the supply of and demand for police services.