Contact
Biography
Dr. Moser received a Ph.D. in Political Economy in 2007 from Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Social and Decision Sciences after earning a B.A. in mathematics/ economics from New College of the University of South Florida in 2001. He was a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford from 2007-2010. Prior to joining the school of politics and international relations at Nottingham, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin.
Scott Moser was born and raised in a small town in rural Indiana.
Expertise Summary
Dr. Moser specializes in formal modeling and methodology. His research interests can be described as applied social choice, and specifically involve game theory, voting theory, collective choice, legislative institutions, and statistical modeling (especially latent class models of text and non-parametric Bayesian inference). Pursing these research interests involves development and testing of theories of collective decision making.
Methodologically, his research involves formal analytic methods such as game theory and social choice theory, as well as computational (agent-based) models. In addition, he works in the area of statistical inference, specifically the development and application of latent class models of text and non-parametric Bayesian inference to social science questions.
His work appears in the journals Complexity, Journal of Theoretical Politics and Social Choice and Welfare, and Political Analysis, among others.
Research Summary
My research interests are centered on one central (and arguably, fundamental) issue in political science: how groups do and should choose collective outcomes. When chosen alternatives affect all… read more
Recent Publications
MOSER, SCOTT, FENN, MOLLY, JI, RAN, MAIDEN, MICHELLE and PANOSIAN, MELANIE, 2016. Heresthetics and choice from tournaments JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL POLITICS. 28(3), 385-407 MATROS, ALEXANDER and MOSER, SCOTT, 2015. Coordination in a changing environment JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR & ORGANIZATION. 112, 64-84 RODRIGUEZ, ABEL and MOSER, SCOTT, 2015. Measuring and accounting for strategic abstentions in the US Senate, 1989-2012 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY SERIES C-APPLIED STATISTICS. 64(5), 779-797
Ph.D. supervision
I am open to advising PhD students in the following areas.
- Quantitative methods
- Agent based models
- Game-theoretic / social choice theoretic models of legislatures
I have served on the Ph.D. committee for a number of successfully post-graduate students whilst a Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin (US). Please see my CV for details.
Current Research
My research interests are centered on one central (and arguably, fundamental) issue in political science: how groups do and should choose collective outcomes. When chosen alternatives affect all members of a group collectively (e.g. public policy, armed conflict, elected representatives) the logical, normative, and descriptive aspects of collective choice becomes an involved matter relevant not only within the discipline of political science, but also in the larger domain of designing effective collective decision-making environments and institutions. Thematically, I research both the structural aspects of collective decision-making (voting theory) as well as informal aspects of collective decision-making (heresthetic manipulation - the strategic manipulation of issue dimensions). While my research questions are largely formal and abstract in nature, there are very concrete applications of this work which can be seen in the substantive area of institutional change in the UK House of Commons over the 19th century, for example by applying theoretical social choice insights to the enactment of the Second Reform Act.