Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics

Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics
Name	Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics
Formation	2008
Type	Research institute
Headquarters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Leader title	Director

Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics is an interdisciplinary research institute affiliated with a major private university in Philadelphia. Founded in 2008, the Center combines scholarship in political science and economics with public-facing programs that engage policymakers, journalists, and civic leaders. Its activities include funded research, visiting scholar appointments, conferences, and graduate training collaborations that connect to broader academic networks.

History

The Center was established in 2008 following philanthropic gifts modeled on initiatives associated with donors such as Ronald Perelman and institutional precedents like the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Early milestones included partnerships with the Russell Sage Foundation, grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and hosted symposia that featured scholars from the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Institute for Advanced Study. In its first decade the Center expanded programming by creating links to departments and schools including the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Department of Political Science at Columbia University, and the Department of Economics at Harvard University. Notable hosted speakers have included figures from the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and former officials from the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Treasury Department.

Mission and Focus

The Center’s mission emphasizes interdisciplinary analysis informed by comparative and quantitative methods with applied attention to public policy debates. Emulating models from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Center promotes research on topics such as electoral behavior, fiscal policy, regulatory design, and international trade with ties to case studies involving the European Union, NATO, ASEAN, and BRICS. Its focus areas reflect engagement with contemporary issues addressed by institutions like the Council on Foreign Relations, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Human Rights Watch community. The Center aims to bridge scholarship and practice through collaborations with the Supreme Court of the United States alumni, think tanks such as RAND Corporation and CATO Institute, and media partners including the New York Times and The Economist.

Research Programs and Centers

The Center houses multiple research programs modeled on centers such as the Hoover Institution and the Center for Economic Policy Research. Core programs have included Comparative Politics, Public Finance, Political Economy, and International Political Economy, each fostering collaborations with units like the Stigler Center and the Kennedy School of Government. Project-based initiatives have produced working papers in partnership with the National Bureau of Economic Research, datasets harmonized with the European Social Survey, and policy briefs circulated to bodies including the U.S. Congress and the European Commission. Specialized centers within the Center have focused on Urban Governance in collaboration with the National League of Cities, Trade and Development in dialogue with the World Trade Organization, and Technology and Public Policy in conversation with the Federal Communications Commission and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

Academic and Public Events

Programming includes seminars, lecture series, and conferences that mirror events at institutions like the Cannes Film Festival (for public engagement formats), the American Political Science Association annual meeting, and the Allied Social Science Associations gatherings. Distinguished lecture series have hosted fellows from the Royal Society, laureates from the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, and recipients of awards such as the John Bates Clark Medal and the MacArthur Fellowship. The Center organizes public panels with participants from the Philadelphia City Council, the Office of the Mayor of Philadelphia, and international delegations from the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Washington, D.C., the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C., and consular officials. Collaborative events have been co-sponsored with the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on themes intersecting history, policy, and law.

Faculty and Staff

Affiliated faculty include tenured professors drawn from units comparable to the Department of Political Science at Yale University, the Department of Economics at Princeton University, and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Visiting scholars have included fellows from the Fulbright Program, recipients of the Humboldt Research Fellowship, and pre-doctoral researchers previously at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Administrative leadership has included directors with prior appointments at the Brookings Institution, the Hudson Institute, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Research staff often transition to roles at organizations such as the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Affiliations and Funding

The Center maintains formal affiliations with academic partners such as the University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School, and regional institutions including Drexel University and Temple University. Funding sources mirror those of comparable centers, including charitable foundations like the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, corporate sponsorship from multinational firms, and competitive research grants from agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Philanthropic endowments and project-specific donations have enabled collaborations with international bodies including the United Nations Development Programme and programmatic partnerships with private funders linked historically to benefactors like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.

Category:Research institutes in Philadelphia