Elizabeth Linos

Dr. Elizabeth Linos is the Emma Bloomberg Associate Professor for Public Policy and Management, and Faculty Director of The People Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The majority of her research focuses on how to improve government by focusing on its people and the services they deliver. Specifically, she uses insights from behavioral science and evidence from public management to consider how to recruit, retain, and support the government workforce, how to reduce administrative burdens that low-income households face when they interact with their government, and how to better integrate evidence-based policymaking into government.

Her research has been published in various academic journals including The Journal for Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, Econometrica, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Behavioural Public Policy, and others. Her work has also been highlighted in media outlets including The New York Times, The Economist, BBC, NPR, Slate, and the Harvard Business Review. As the former VP and Head of Research and Evaluation at the Behavioral Insights Team in North America, she worked with government agencies in the US and the UK to improve programs using behavioral science and to build capacity around rigorous evaluation. Prior to this role, Dr. Linos worked directly in government as a policy advisor to the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, focusing on social innovation and public sector reform.

Selected Publications

Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles

• Linos, Elizabeth, Allen Prohofsky, Aparna Ramesh, Jesse Rothstein, and Matthew Unrath. "Can Nudges Increase Take-Up of the EITC? Evidence from Multiple Field Experiments." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 14.4 (November 2022): 432-452.
• Linos, Elizabeth, Krista Ruffini, and Stephanie Wilcoxen. "Reducing Burnout and Resignations among Frontline Workers: A Field Experiment." Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 32.3 (July 2022): 473-488.
• Linos, Elizabeth, Jessica Lasky-Fink, Meghan Halley, Urmimala Sarkar, Christina Mangurian, Hala Sabry, Eleni Linos, and Reshma Jagsi. "Impact of Sexual Harassment and Social Support on Burnout in Physician Mothers." Journal of Women's Health 31.7 (July 2022): 932-940.
• Sciepura, Brenda, and Elizabeth Linos. "When Perceptions of Public Service Harms the Public Servant: Predictors of Burnout and Compassion Fatigue in Government." Review of Public Personnel Administration (April 2022).
• Bertelli, Anthony, Norma Riccucci, Paola Canterelli, Maria Cucciniello, Christian Grose, Peter John, Elizabeth Linos, Anjali Thomas, and Martin Williams. "The (Missing?) Role of Institutions in Behavioral Public Administration." Journal of Behavioral Public Administration 5.1 (April 2022): 1-25.
• Linos, Elizabeth, Vikash Reddy, and Jesse Rothstein. "Demystifying college costs: how nudges can and can't help." Behavioural Public Policy (March 2022): 1-22.
• DellaVigna, Stefano and Elizabeth Linos. "RCTs to scale: Comprehensive evidence from two nudge units." Econometrica 90.1 (January 2022): 81-116.

Book Chapters

• Linos, Elizabeth. "When Governments Use Nudges: Measuring Impact “At Scale”." Behavioral Science in the Wild. Ed. Nina Mažar and Dilip Soman. University of Toronto Press, 2022, 20-28.

HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series

• Linos, Elizabeth, Jessica Lasky-Fink, Chris Larkin, Lindsay Moore, and Elspeth Kirkman. "The Formality Effect." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP23-009, January 2023.
• Lasky-Fink, Jessica, and Elizabeth Linos. "It’s Not Your Fault: Reducing Stigma Increases Take-up of Government Programs." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP22-022, November 2022.

Research Papers/Reports

• Linos, Elizabeth. "Translating Behavioral Economics Evidence into Policy and Practice." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Report, May 2023.
• DellaVigna, Stefano, Woojin Kim, and Elizabeth Linos. "Bottlenecks for Evidence Adoption." NBER Working Paper Series, June 2022.
• Commentary
• Linos, Elizabeth, Meghan C. Halley, Urmimala Sarkar, Christina Mangurian, Hala Sabry, Kristan Olazo, Kusum S. Mathews, Lisa Diamond, Monika K. Goyal, Eleni Linos, and Reshma Jagsi. "Anxiety Levels Among Physician Mothers During the COVID-19 Pandemic." The American Journal of Psychiatry, 178.2, February 1, 2021, 203-204.