David M. Primo is a senior scholar at the Mercatus Center and an associate professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester. His current research focuses on budget rules, the value of legislative “pork” for re-election, the politics of judicial appointments, and the effectiveness of campaign finance laws. He has published articles in a dozen journals including the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, as well as in several edited volumes.

Primo has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Bloomberg News, and many other media outlets on government spending policy, budget rules, campaign finance law, and other subjects. He has testified before Congress on the subject of Constitutional budget rules, and his campaign finance research was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2011 case addressing public funding of elections.

Primo has written three books. His first book, The Plane Truth: Airline Crashes, the Media, and Transportation Policy (Brookings Institution Press, 2003), co-authored with Roger Cobb, examines governmental responses to plane crashes. His second book, Rules and Restraint: Government Spending and the Design of Institutions (University of Chicago Press, 2007), focuses on the design and enforcement of budget rules and received the 2008 Alan Rosenthal Prize awarded by the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association. His third book, A Model Discipline: Political Science and the Logic of Representations (Oxford University Press, late 2011 release date), co-authored with Kevin Clarke, studies the role of models, both theoretical and statistical, in social science research.

Primo teaches courses in American politics, business and public policy, entrepreneurship, and positive political theory. Primo is a recipient of a 2005 Goergen Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Education, as well as a 2005 Undergraduate Professor of the Year Award given by the University of Rochester Students’ Association.