Abby K. Wood
Abby Wood’s research is at the intersection of law and politics. Wood uses quantitative analysis to examine the causal effects of institutional changes on human behavior. Her current projects analyze what voters learn from campaign finance disclosures, whether transparency can affect donor decision-making, and patterns in congressional oversight of agency activity. Recent projects examine the Freedom of Information Act and agency politicization, regulating false political speech on social media and the effects of Citizens United v. FEC on political donors.
Wood teaches administrative law, campaign finance and analytical methods for lawyers. She has taught on a variety of subjects, including international human rights law, constitutional law, quantitative methods for political science and comparative politics. In addition to teaching at USC, Wood has taught at the University of Chicago Law School.
Wood currently serves as a Commissioner on the California Fair Political Practices Commission, as well as on the Commission’s Digital Transparency Task Force. From 2015 to 2017, she served on the Federal Bipartisan Campaign Finance Task Force. Before joining USC Gould, Wood clerked for the Honorable John T. Noonan, judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She also has consulted on good governance projects in association with USAID, World Bank, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and UNDP.
Wood holds a BA from Austin College, a JD from Harvard Law School, an MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Works in Progress
ssrn
