Lindsey Cormack, Ph.D.
lcormack@stevens.edu
Stevens Institute of Technology
Phone: 4028179330
Address: 325 East 80th Street, Apt 3H
City: New York, New York - 10075-0665
Country: United States
About Me:
I am an Assistant Professor in the College of Arts and Letters and Director of the Diplomacy Lab at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. I specialize in American politics, specifically strategic political communication, congressional politics, voter participation, and women in politics. The majority of my research relies on an originally collected dataset of all official e-newsletters hosted at DCinbox.
Research Interests
Political Communication
American Presidency And Executive Politics
Text as Data
Gender and Politics
Health Politics and Policy
Political Participation
Countries of Interest
United States
Publications:
Journal Articles:
In local elections, outcomes can turn on just hundreds of voters. Smallscale political entrepreneurs find it increasingly difficult to wage effective turnout campaigns relying on traditional, costly methods of outreach. Yet a growing literature on social pressure indicates that recasting voting as a socially motivated act increases the likelihood that voters participate. In this article, I present matching analyses of the impact of a new platform that relies on peer-to-peer voter outreach. I find that the intervention is responsible for significant increases in the likelihood that a voter casts a ballot in low-information elections across different sorts of voters
Internet search activity data has been widely used as an instrument to approximate trader attention in different markets. This method has proven effective in predicting market indices in the short-term. However, little attention has been paid to demonstrating search activity for keywords that best grab investor attention in different markets. This study attempts to build the best practically possible proxy for attention in the market for energy commodities using Google search data. Specifically, we confirm the utility of Google search activity for energy related keywords are significant predictors of volatility by showing they have incremental predictive power beyond the conventional GARCH models in predicting volatility for energy commodities' prices. Starting with a set of ninety terms used in the energy sector, the study uses a multistage filtering process to create combinations of keywords that best predict the volatility of crude oil (Brent and West Texas Intermediate), conventional gasoline (New York Harbor and US Gulf Coast), heating oil (New York Harbor), and natural gas prices. For each commodity, combinations that enhance GARCH most effectively are established as proxies of attention. The results indicate investor attention is widely reflected in Internet search activities and demonstrate search data for what keywords best reveal the direction of concern and attention in energy markets.
A New Database of E-newsletters
Legislators approach each election as if they might lose. Electoral insecurity coupled with gender stereotypes held by voters and lawmakers alike may lead female legislators to communicate more voting decisions to voters as a signal of their policy-driven efforts. Using an original data-set of over 40,000 official e-newsletters and Real Simple Syndication feeds sent by members of Congress, I show that women reveal more roll call votes to constituents than their male counterparts. Significant differences exist between male and female incumbents in the frequency of vote revelation despite the fact that male and female legislators use these communication techniques to reach constituents at the same rates and call attention to similar bills. These differences persist after accounting for the effects of party, seniority, district fit, and other potential confounds. Women highlight their ability to fulfill the roles expected of lawmakers by explicitly signaling involvement in lawmaking activities more frequently than men. In a second test, I analyze the types of bills legislators reveal votes on and find no differences between men and women.
I propose a theory of legislator‐to‐constituent communication that describes a relationship between the types of votes a legislator reveals and the partisan composition of her constituency. To test this theory, I use an original data set of 40,000 official communications containing 30,000 vote revelations from the 111th Congress. I find evidence substantiating this theory; the extent to which a legislator endeavors to appear more ideologically extreme in communications varies systematically with the relative amounts of different types of voters in her district. This result is contrasted with an analysis of voting extremism where I find that the ideological preferences of donors better explain voting patterns.
Books Written:
Providing a compelling look at veterans' policy, this book describes why the Republican party is considered the party for veterans despite the fact that Congressional Democrats are responsible for a greater number of policy initiatives.
Book Chapters:
An accessible and impartial survey of the positions of the Republican and Democratic parties on the most pressing environmental issues of our time, from climate change and wilderness preservation to air and water pollution. • Offers a comprehensive collection of essays that explain how party politics affect perspectives on current environmental issues and policies • Provides readers with basic definitions and historical background for understanding the debate on each environmental issue • Supplies an up-to-date and unbiased overview of Democrat and Republican views on a variety of issues
Media Appearances:
TV Appearances:
Companies like Google, Spotify and Netflix are increasingly using A.I. to enhance user experience. So, is it time for the government to step in? NBC News’ Jacob Ward and Lindsey Cormack, Director of the Diplomacy Lab at the Stevens Institute of Technology, go head-to-head to answer that question.
Blog Posts:
(Another) Year of the Woman? New evidence shows that women candidates are favored ahead of the 2018 midterms