The Policy Agendas Project

Impact

Research built on the data. 31 studies, newest first — each entry says what the study does and which series it drew on, and links to the paper itself.

Reading on political attention that does not use the data is on Recommended works. The project's own output is on the publications page.

01

Used the data

Where the paper is open access, the card shows its own front page.

2026
Used the data

Era of mass migration: measuring immigration policy and re-examining thermostatic responsiveness

Grace C. Hartzell — Journal of European Public Policy

Replaces the usual proxies for immigration policy (such as asylum inflows) with a direct measure of legislative activity, then re-tests thermostatic responsiveness in both directions between opinion and policy.

Domain
Surveys
Data
Comparative Agendas Project legislative-agenda series on immigration with public opinion data
Time frame
not stated in the abstract
Journal of European Public Policy ↗
2026
Used the data

Issue Attention in Public Opinion Polls: Pollsters as Agenda Responders and Agenda Setters

Qian Zhang, Christopher Witko, Peter K. Enns — Policy Studies Journal

Treats pollsters as agenda actors: asks which issues polling organisations choose to survey, and whether they follow or lead the congressional and media agendas. Codes poll questions and institutional agendas to a common topic scheme.

Domain
Surveys
Data
Comparative Agendas Project topic coding of poll questions, congressional agenda and New York Times coverage
Time frame
not stated in the abstract
Policy Studies Journal ↗
2025
Used the data

A Measure of Congressional Committee Influence

Stefani Langehennig, Ryan Bell, E. Scott Adler — Legislative Studies Quarterly

Builds a dynamic measure of each congressional committee's influence over federal law by coding US Code sections to CAP topics and scoring committees on their authorship and revision of those sections, 1995-2018.

Domain
Bills & laws
Data
United States Code sections coded to Comparative Agendas Project policy topics; public law series
Time frame
1995–2018
Legislative Studies Quarterly ↗
2024
Used the data

Measuring the stasis: Punctuated equilibrium theory and partisan polarization

Clare Brock, Daniel Mallinson — Policy Studies Journal

Argues that rising partisan polarisation is itself a source of institutional friction, lengthening periods of stasis in the American policy process. Measures stasis and punctuation from CAP-coded US policy output distributions.

Domain
Budget
Data
Comparative Agendas Project US policy-output series (budget and lawmaking distributions)
Time frame
not stated in the abstract
Policy Studies Journal ↗
2024
Used the data

Lobbying responsiveness to congressional policy agendas

E. J. Fagan, Alexander C. Furnas — Policy Studies Journal

Examines how interest groups switch between in-house and contract lobbyists as the congressional agenda lurches toward or away from their issue. Matches lobbying activity to PAP-coded congressional attention by policy area.

Data
US Policy Agendas Project congressional agenda series with lobbying registration data
Time frame
not stated in the abstract
Policy Studies Journal ↗
2024
Used the data

Partisan Think Tanks and Polarization across Issues

E.J. Fagan — The Thinkers

Explains why some issues polarised faster than others in American politics by comparing partisan think tank activity to polarisation across CAP policy topics.

Data
Twenty Comparative Agendas Project policy topics matched to think tank reports, testimony and congressional citations
Time frame
not stated in the abstract
The Thinkers ↗
2024
Used the data

Presidential stories of fear: Focusing congressional climate change mitigation attention in the United States

Holly L. Peterson, Chad Zanocco — Review of Policy Research

Tests whether presidential climate narratives focus congressional attention, distinguishing 'stories of fear' from 'stories of hope'. Uses time-series models linking coded presidential statements to CAP hearings counts.

Domain
Executive
Data
Comparative Agendas Project congressional hearings on climate change with coded presidential statements
Time frame
not stated in the abstract
Review of Policy Research ↗
2024
Used the data

Staying on the democratic script? A deep learning analysis of the speechmaking of U.S. presidents

Amnon Cavari, Ákos Máté, Miklós Sebők — Policy Studies Journal

Asks whether the policy emphases a president sets out in the State of the Union carry over into day-to-day speechmaking. Builds a new database of 16,523 presidential speeches split into nearly two million sentences, each coded to a CAP policy topic with a deep-learning classifier, and finds that occasional remarks track the annual programmatic message closely.

Domain
Executive
Data
Comparative Agendas Project topic coding of State of the Union addresses, extended to a new sentence-level corpus of 16,523 presidential speeches (Truman to Trump)
Time frame
not stated in the abstract
Policy Studies Journal ↗
2023
Used the data

The Breadth and Substance of Collaborative Issues

Alison W. Craig — The Collaborative Congress

Classifies Dear Colleague letters into twenty CAP issue areas to show which issues attract bipartisan versus partisan collaboration in Congress, and why issues off the liberal-conservative dimension collaborate more.

Data
Comparative Agendas Project coding scheme applied to congressional Dear Colleague letters
Time frame
not stated in the abstract
The Collaborative Congress ↗
2023
Used the data

Linking Party and Congressional Agendas: New Datasets on Policymaking During the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

E. J. Fagan, Bryan D. Jones, Brooke Shannon — Journal of Historical Political Economy

Builds two new agenda datasets for a period that previously lacked usable data, coded to the Policy Agendas topic scheme, and uses them to assess whether minor parties forced ignored issues onto the congressional agenda.

Domain
Party manifestos
Data
New CAP-coded datasets of party platform planks and congressional policymaking, Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Time frame
not stated in the abstract
Journal of Historical Political Economy ↗
2023
Used the data

Different governments, similar agendas? Analyzing more than seven decades of Norwegian policy agendas presented in executive speeches

Jens Jungblut, Tuva Marie Kavli, Jon Bøe Valgermo — Scandinavian Political Studies

Codes over seven decades of Norwegian executive speeches to the CAP scheme to track agenda composition, attention diversity, and whether shocks or partisanship drive major shifts.

Domain
Legislative speech
Data
Comparative Agendas Project topic codes applied to Norwegian executive speeches, 1945-2020s
Time frame
1945–2020
Scandinavian Political Studies ↗
2022
Used the data

Conditional Presidential Priorities: Audience-Driven Agenda Setting

Annelise Russell, Rebecca Eissler — American Politics Research

Shows the presidential agenda varies by venue and audience: the publicised State of the Union agenda differs from the policymaker-facing Budget message. Compares both venues on the same PAP topic codes.

Domain
Executive
Data
US Policy Agendas Project topic coding of State of the Union addresses and annual Budget messages
Time frame
not stated in the abstract
American Politics Research ↗