Biography
Barbara joins King’s College London from the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (University of Oxford) where she was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and a teaching associate. Prior to that she was a researcher at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. From September 2023 Barbara will be a Lecturer in Public Policy at King's College London's Department of Political Economy.
Barbara holds a PhD and an MA in political science from the University of Rochester (USA) and an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Research interests
- Bureaucracy
- Public sector motivation
- Authoritarianism
- Regime transitions
Barbara’s research focuses on the incentives faced by bureaucrats, with a particular focus on authoritarian states and states undergoing regime transitions.
To date, Barbara has concentrated on the analysis of two very different organizations. In her study of the East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi) she constructed and analysed a dataset based on files of almost 300 informants to draw lessons about authoritarian survival. Barbara is also a member of a research project studying the recent history of expenditure control in the UK Treasury. As a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Barbara works on motivations of bureaucrats during transitions to democracy.
Office hours
Wednesday: 15.00 - 16.00
Friday: 15.00 - 16.00
Confirm the time and book at: https://calendly.com/barbara-piotrowska/
Teaching
- 7SSPN001 The Policy Process
- 7SSPP002 Comparative public policy
PhD supervision
Barbara is interested in supervising on the following topics:
- Bureaucracy
- Street-level bureaucracy
- Regime transitions: to democracy and democratic backsliding
- Authoritarianism
- Policing and security services
and other topics related to her research interests.
Please get in touch before applying.
Latest publications
Hood, C. & Piotrowska, B.M. (2021) Who Loves Ringfences? What Happened to 'Outputs' not 'Inputs' in UK Public Financial Management, and Why? Early View at Public Administration
Hood, C. & Piotrowska, B.M. (2020) Goodhart's Law and the Gaming of UK Public Spending Numbers Public Performance & Management Review
Piotrowska, B.M. (2020) The Price of Collaboration: How Authoritarian States Retain Control Comparative Political Studies 53(13):2091-2117
Research
Quantitative Political Economy Research Group
The Quantitative Political Economy research group gathers economists and political scientists that are committed to bridging the two disciplines. The common ground is the study politics and policies with advanced quantitative methods and formal modeling.
Public Policy and Regulation Research Group
Public Policy and Regulation (PPR) is the home for theoretically and empirically grounded research which analyses policy and regulatory responses to important political, social and economic issues, and (individual-level) responses to these policies.
Research
Quantitative Political Economy Research Group
The Quantitative Political Economy research group gathers economists and political scientists that are committed to bridging the two disciplines. The common ground is the study politics and policies with advanced quantitative methods and formal modeling.
Public Policy and Regulation Research Group
Public Policy and Regulation (PPR) is the home for theoretically and empirically grounded research which analyses policy and regulatory responses to important political, social and economic issues, and (individual-level) responses to these policies.