Paul Jorgensen

Paul Jorgensen

Paul Jorgensen

As a residential Lab Fellow in 2011-12, Jorgensen improved the quality of American campaign finance data by using donor-matching algorithms to identify every unique donor, and worked with Harvard's Center for Geographic Analysis and Baker Library to develop methods for merging campaign finance data with other demographic, political, and economic data. As a non-residential Lab Fellow in 2012-13, Jorgensen utilized this new data to study congressional corruption (broadly defined). His empirical and normative project investigated how powerful economic actors, who are situated within the industrial structure of the American economy, use political money to influence the partisan control of Congress and policy formulation. The normative aspect of Jorgensen's project sought to develop tools that empower citizens to correct our current representation crisis, the crafting of rules and regulations to benefit the wealthy at the cost of the public good.