Clara Bicalho
(pronounced bee-KAH-leeoh)
PhD Student, UC Berkeley
I am a PhD Candidate in Political Science at University of California, Berkeley and a Research Associate at the Center of the Politics of Development.
In my dissertation work, I explore the determinants of collective land titling reforms in Latin America and its effects on identity, governance, and political participation. I draw on a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods and focus on the empirical case of quilombos (afrodescendent communities) in Brazil.
I am also interested in developing tools for improving causal inference, reproducibility and research transparency. Some software collaborators and I created for that purpose include the DDWizard, a web app for defining and inspecting research designs, and the Metaketa I Meta-Analysis dashboard for real-time sensitivity analysis of research results. See Research tab for related research and R software packages.
Prior to joining UC Berkeley, I was a predoctoral fellow at WZB Berlin and researcher at NYU Center for Technology and Development (CTED). I graduated from NYU Abu Dhabi with a B.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in Arab Crossroads Studies.You can find a copy of my CV here.
Sou doutoranda em Ciência Política na University of California, Berkeley e Pesquisadora Associada no Centro de Políticas de Desenvolvimento.
Em minha dissertação, exploro os fatores que influenciam a mobilização e eventual obtenção da titulação coletiva de terras na América Latina e seus efeitos sobre identidade, governança e participação política nas comunidades contempladas. Utilizo uma combinação de métodos quantitativos e qualitativos, com foco no caso empírico dos quilombos no Brasil.
Também tenho interesse em desenvolver ferramentas para melhorar a inferência causal, a reprodutibilidade e a transparência de estudos que envolvem métodos quantitativos. Alguns softwares que criei em colaboração com outros pesquisadores incluem o DDWizard, um aplicativo web para definir e inspecionar desenhos de pesquisa, e o Metaketa I Meta-Analysis dashboard, para análise de sensibilidade de resultados de pesquisa em tempo real. Veja a aba Research para pesquisas relacionadas e pacotes de software R.
Antes de ingressar na University of California, Berkeley, fui pesquisadora no Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (Centro de Pesquisas Sociais de Berlim) e assistente de pesquisa no Centro de Tecnologia e Desenvolvimento (CTED) na New York University. Sou bacharel em Ciência Política pela New York Univertsity Abu Dhabi.
Acesse meu currículo Lattes aqui.
Research
Peer-Reviewed Publications
2021.““If we move, it moves with us:” Physical Distancing in Africa during COVID-19” (with Melina
Platas and Leah Rosenzweig) World Development 142 (2021) 105379.
[article]
[appendix]
[replication files]
[pre-analysis
plan]
[The Washington Post]
2019. “Voter information campaigns and political accountability: Cumulative findings from a
preregistered meta-analysis of coordinated trials.” (with Thad Dunning et al.) Science
Advances 5.7 (2019): eaaw2612.
[article]
[replication files]
[pre-analysis plan]
2019. “Meta-Analysis” (with Thad Dunning, Anirvan Chowdhury, Guy Grossman, Macartan Humphreys,
Susan D. Hyde, Craig Mcintosh, and Gareth Nellis) in Information, Accountability, and
Cumulative Learning: Lessons from Metaketa I. Thad Dunning, Guy Grossman, Macartan
Humphreys, Susan D. Hyde, and Craig Mcintosh (Eds.). Cambridge University Press.
[book chapter]
[replication files]
[pre-analysis plan]
Working Papers
“Disentitled: Subnational Politics of Communal Land Titling”
Abstract
Despite recent land reform policies targeting the demarcation and protection of indigenous and
afrodescendent communities' collective land rights in Latin America, enormous gaps persist in
formalizing these rights. In this paper, I examine the political dynamics between the state,
landed elites, and communal land claimants to explain why some communities are more successful
than others in obtaining formalization. I focus on claims to collective land made by 1,881
afrodescendent communities in Brazil known as quilombos across 752 municipalities. I compile
municipal-level panel data to investigate determinants of two separate titling outcomes: whether
claims are analyzed by the state and whether titles are granted. The findings reveal that
municipalities with higher capture by local landed elites experience higher rates of national
government’s response to communal claims. However, successful titling is significantly greater
in municipalities where claimants make up a higher proportion of voters. I employ observational
and interview data to explore the mechanisms that lead to these separate outcomes. This paper
underscores the importance of subnational politics and of unpacking titling stages as a means of
understanding when and why formalization of collective land rights is successful.
“Conditional Balance Tests: Increasing Sensitivity and Specificity with Prognostic Covariates”
(with Thad Dunning and Adam Bouyamourn)
[working paper]
“Ethnic Identification and Ethnic Deception: Experimental Evidence from Uganda, South Africa, and the United States” (with Adam Harris, Daniel Nielson, Lily Medina, Michael Findley, Jeremy Weinstein, James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys, Daniel Posner).
Teaching
Graduate Student Instructor (Teaching Assistant) at UC Berkeley
PS231A Quantitative Methods in Political Science (Prof. Dunning, graduate-level), Fall 2021
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award
PS231B Quantitative Methods in Political Science (Prof. Dunning, graduate-level), Spring 2022
Projecting Power (Prof. Wasow, undergraduate-level), Spring 2024
Instructor
Statistical Power in R (in Spanish), EGAP Learning Days Colombia, October 2021
Software
and Applications
Software
[1] 2019. DesignLibrary: Library of Research Designs (with Graeme Blair, Jasper Cooper, Alexander Coppock, Macartan Humphreys, Neal Fultz, and Lily Medina). R package version 0.1.4, URL https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/DesignLibrary/index.html
RShiny Applications
DDWizard (with Sisi
Huang and
Markus Konrad). This web app
allows users to select and customize research designs from a library of templates, simulate
data, and obtain diagnostic statistics such as power, bias, and root mean squared error of
estimates. The app is an interface for using the
DeclareDesign framework
and R packages that does not require knowledge of R and allows easy sharing of designs.
[read more]
[Github
repo]
Metaketa I Meta-Analysis Dashboard. This interface implements the core meta-analyses for the Metaketa I study and allows users to explore sensitivity of results to alternative specifications.