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Robert M. La Follette
School of Public Affairs
1225 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706

Telephone:  608.262.3581
Fax: 608.265.3233


Last updated:
October 6, 2009

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Carolyn Heinrich. La Follette School photo by Bob Rashid taken November 3, 2006

Carolyn J. Heinrich

Director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs

Professor of Public Affairs

Faculty Affiliate, Department of Economics

Office: 109 Observatory Hill Office Building
Phone: 608 262-5443
Fax: 608 265-3233
E-mail:

Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs
University of Wisconsin - Madison
1225 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1211

Carolyn Heinrich is the director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs, professor of public affairs and affiliated professor of economics, and a Regina Loughlin Scholar. Her research focuses on social welfare policy, public management, and econometric methods for social-program evaluation.  She also works directly in her research with governments at all levels, including with the federal government on an evaluation of workforce development programs, the state of Wisconsin on a child-support demonstration program, Milwaukee Public Schools in the evaluation of supplemental educational services, and the governments of Brazil and South Africa on their social and human capital development programs. Other ongoing projects involve the study of labor market intermediaries and labor market outcomes for low-skilled and disadvantaged workers, policy factors that support effective provision of substance abuse treatment services, and the use and impacts of social investment funds in developing countries.

Professor Heinrich co-edited the book, Making the Work-Based Safety Net Work Better: Forward-Looking Policies to Help Low-Income Families (Russell Sage Foundation, 2009) with John Karl Scholz. She is also a co-author of several books on the empirical study of governance and public management, including Improving Governance: A New Logic for Empirical Research and Governance and Performance: New Perspectives. Recent articles have appeared in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Health Services Research, Southern Economic Journal, World Development, Journal of Labor Economics, The American Review of Public Administration, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Labor Research, Journal of Drug Issues, Journal of Human Resources, Public Administration Review, American Journal of Evaluation and other journals. She is a founding board member of the Public Management Research Association and served on the Policy Council of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management from 2004-2007 and as the editor of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory from January 2005 through December 2008. In 2004, Professor Heinrich received the David N. Kershaw Award for distinguished contributions to the field of public policy analysis and management by a person under age 40.

Prior to her appointment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2003, Professor Heinrich was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and held an academic research appointment at the University of Chicago. She received her doctorate in public policy studies from the University of Chicago.

Curriculum vitae

Courses

La Follette School Working Paper Series

Recent research