Bill Schultz

Bill Schultz

Biography

I’m a social scientist interested in natural resource management around the world and associated equity issues. I’m especially interested in work evaluating the impacts of environmental interventions or exploring community participation in policymaking. Methodologically, I’m most interested in causal inference, and debates about how analysts should draw conclusions based on statistical evidence. My own research incorporates a flexible mix of game theory, correlational analysis, quasi-experimental analysis, and experimentation.

I’m currently an Associate Scholar affiliated with Florida State University, and spend some of my time working for the General Service Administration’s Office of Evaluation Sciences as a Data Scientist. On this website, you will find some information about my personal research, courses I’ve taught in the past, and my CV. Thank you for visiting!

Interests

  • Resource management
  • Conservation and restoration
  • Participatory policymaking
  • Geospatial data
  • Causal inference
  • Statistical learning

Education

  • PhD in Political Science, 2020

    Florida State University

  • MA in Political Science, 2017

    Florida State University

  • BSc in Business Management, 2013

    University of Maryland

  • BA in Government and Politics, 2013

    University of Maryland

Publications

Recognizing the Equity Implications of Restoration Priority Maps

Adverse social impacts warrant more attention to equity in restoration priority mapping studies.
Publication link Replication

How Communities Benefit from Collaborative Governance: Experimental Evidence in Ugandan Oil and Gas

Multi-stakeholder forums in the Albertine Graben improved subsequent community collaborations with various decision-makers, and strategically targeting such forums could increase their impacts even more.
Publication link Replication

Limited effects of tree planting on forest canopy cover and rural livelihoods in Northern India

We evaluate the impacts of decades of tree planting in Kangra, India, and find limited evidence of biophysical or livelihood benefits.
Publication link Replication

Resource management and joint-planning in fragmented societies

This study uses cooperative game theory to identify the conditions under which social barriers to coordination are most likely to have consequences for sustainability
Publication link Formal Appendix

Bridging the academic-practitioner gap in RCTs

A commentary on the challenges facing academic and practitioner collaboration in development research, based on our team’s experience conducting an RCT study in Western Uganda
Publication link
See all publications

Working Papers

Transparency and Attributions in the Extractives Sector: A Field Experiment in Western Uganda

We provide experimental evidence that while multi-stakeholder forums increased transparency surrounding the oil sector in Western Uganda, they did not change how communities assign blame and credit to key policymakers.
Last updated on Aug 21, 2022

Local initiative and conservation effectiveness: evidence from mixed-use protected areas in Brazil

This study compares the performance of a sample of mixed use protected areas in Brazil (in terms of fire prevention) based on whether they were created in a top-down manner, or whether they were created in response to local policy initiative.
Last updated on Oct 22, 2022

Long-term community involvement in forest governance predicts improvements in forest canopy cover and livelihoods from tree plantations

We compare the livelihood and ecosystem benefits of tree plantations in Kangra, India, based on whether they have had long-term local participation in their management.
Last updated on Aug 21, 2022

Teaching

Social Science Inquiry I-II-III

This sequence of courses (over an entire year) introduces undergraduate students to the philosophy of quantitative social science research. Students learn the basics of quantitative social science research design and get hands on experience developing their own research projects in R.

Download example syllabi for the Fall, Winter, or Spring.

Comparative Natural Resource Management

This course introduces undergraduate students to research about the social issues that surround natural resource management around the world today, embedded within a broader tradition of research in the subfield of Comparative Politics.

Download an example syllabus.

Understanding Political Science Research

This course introduces undergraduate students to the basics of statistical techniques commonly used in the social sciences. Students come out of this class better prepared to make sense of published work in political science, and more familiar with the fundamentals of good research design. This course is based around “the Fundamentals of Political Science Research” by Kellstedt and Whitten.

Download an example syllabus.

Introduction to Game Theory

This course introduces undergraduate students to the fundamentals of game theory, and illustrates how game theoretic techniques are typically used in political science research. Readings are a mix of assigned selections from Osborne’s “Introduction to Game Theory” as well as publications in various journals.

Download an example syllabus.

Global Politics and Policy

This course introduces undergraduate students to the basics of two subfields of political science: Comparative Politics and International Relations. The goal is to prepare students to effectively engage in debates about the causes of public policy failures around the world.

Download an example syllabus.

Introduction to Comparative Politics

This course introduces undergraduate students to current state of research on Comparative Politics. It focuses on: (1) reviewing the major questions researchers in this subfield explore; and (2) giving students a basic primer on the methodological tools used by researchers in this subfield.

Download an example syllabus.

Contact