The Functional Structure of State Governments

In this video, Ricardo Hausmann, Stephen Kosack, and Michele Coscia discuss their research on the functional structure of state governments. The team, which includes Evann Smith, Kim Albrecht, and Albert-László Barabási developed a new way of empirically mapping the functional structures of governments. By tracing the activity of government agencies through webpages and hyperlinks, the team was able to identify similarities and differences in state government structure and the execution of government responsibilities. This approach – published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States (PNAS) – generates the most comprehensive and detailed picture to date of U.S. governments and their characteristics.

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