Research

I study how people and organizations collaborate to address public problems that cross political and functional boundaries.

Overview

My work asks how individuals and organizations collaborate to solve problems no single actor can solve alone. Public problems rarely respect organizational charts or jurisdictional lines, so the people and agencies working on them have to build relationships across those boundaries, and the structure of those relationships shapes what gets accomplished. I study how these networks form, what sustains them, and whether they actually improve outcomes, combining social network analysis with experimental, longitudinal, and causal inference methods.

This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Transit Administration, and USAID.

Complete publication list on my CV, Google Scholar, and ORCID.

Book

Networks in the Public Sector: A Multilevel Framework and Systematic Review Siciliano, M. D., Wang, W., Hu, Q., Medina, A., & Krackhardt, D. (2022). Cambridge Elements in Public and Nonprofit Administration. Cambridge University Press. Available here.

Research Themes

Advice, learning, and performance

How informal ties inside public agencies and schools shape learning, commitment, and outcomes.

Interlocal collaboration and regional governance

When and how local governments work across their borders, and whether it pays off.

Network theory, methods, and causal inference

Measuring network structure well and making credible causal claims about it.

Crisis, disaster, and emergency response

How response networks form and adapt under severe time pressure.

Networks, health, and community wellbeing

Network methods applied to population health and environmental equity.

Advice, learning, and performance inside organizations

Who do public employees actually turn to for advice, and does it matter? This strand examines how informal networks inside schools and public agencies shape learning, performance, and commitment — often diverging sharply from the formal structures meant to govern them.

  • De Voto, C., Pitvorec, K., Cosner, S., & Siciliano, M. D. (2025). Agents of Change? How District Leaders Shape Absorptive Capacity Within Research–Practice Partnerships. Journal of Educational Administration, 63(4), 344–362. doi:10.1108/JEA-08-2024-0275

  • Siciliano, M. D., & Thompson, J. R. (2021). A Field Experiment on the Impact of Beneficiary Contact on Federal Employee Perceptions of Prosocial Impact and Social Worth. International Public Management Journal, 25(1), 120–139. doi:10.1080/10967494.2021.1887985

  • Siciliano, M. D. (2017). Ignoring the Experts: Networks and Organizational Learning in the Public Sector. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 27(1), 104–119. doi:10.1093/jopart/muw052

  • Siciliano, M. D. (2017). Professional Networks and Street-Level Performance: How Public School Teachers’ Advice Networks Influence Student Performance. American Review of Public Administration, 47(1), 79–101.

  • Siciliano, M. D. (2016). It’s the Quality Not the Quantity of Ties That Matters: Social Networks and Self-Efficacy Beliefs. American Educational Research Journal, 53(2), 227–262.

  • Siciliano, M. D. (2015). Advice Networks in Public Organizations: The Role of Structure, Internal Competition, and Individual Attributes. Public Administration Review, 75(4), 548–559. doi:10.1111/puar.12362

Interlocal collaboration and regional governance

Local governments face complex problems — transportation, flooding, climate adaptation, service delivery — that spill across their borders. This work examines when they choose to collaborate, who they partner with, how those arrangements are structured and contracted, and whether the resulting networks perform.

  • Siciliano, M. D., Zehra, M. E., Gutiérrez-Meave, R., Deslatte, A., & Krause, R. M. (2026). Local Governance and Green Ties: Assessing the Relationship Between Functional and Institutional Collective Action. State and Local Government Review. doi:10.1177/0160323X251410491

  • Gutiérrez-Meave, R., Zhang, S., Carr, J. B., & Siciliano, M. D. (2025). Integrating Formal and Relational Contracting: The Link Between Network Structure and Contract Design in Interlocal Collaboration Agreements. Public Administration, 103(4), 1080–1096. doi:10.1111/padm.13050

  • Deslatte, A., Siciliano, M. D., & Krause, R. M. (2025). Applying Collective Action Frameworks to Analyze Local-Level Collaboration for Electric Vehicle-Related Policies. Policy & Politics, 53(3), 443–463. doi:10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000034

  • Sánchez, J., Li, J., Ranjha, A. S., & Siciliano, M. D. (2024). With a Little Help from My Friends? A Longitudinal Network Analysis on Fiscal Stress and Collaboration for Public Service Delivery. Urban Affairs Review, 60(4). doi:10.1177/10780874231205464

  • Deslatte, A., Siciliano, M. D., & Krause, R. M. (2023). Local Government Managers Are on the Frontlines of Climate Change: Are They Ready? Public Administration Review, 83(6), 1506–1511. doi:10.1111/puar.13726

  • Siciliano, M. D., Carr, J. B., & Hugg, V. G. (2021). Analyzing the Effectiveness of Networks for Addressing Public Problems: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study. Public Administration Review, 81(5), 895–910. doi:10.1111/puar.13336

  • Whetsell, T. A., Siciliano, M. D., Witkowski, K. G. K., & Leiblein, M. J. (2020). Government as Network Catalyst: Accelerating Self-Organization in a Strategic Industry. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 30(3), 448–464. doi:10.1093/jopart/muaa002

Network theory, methods, and causal inference

Network data is expensive to collect and network claims are notoriously difficult to make causally. This strand develops approaches to measuring structure and asks how network science can support credible inference and pragmatic intervention.

  • Whetsell, T. A., & Siciliano, M. D. (2025). Applied Causal Inference in Public Sector Networks. Public Administration Review, 85(6), 1771–1787. doi:10.1111/puar.70009

  • Ertan, G., & Siciliano, M. D. (2024). A Cognitive Perspective for Public Administration and Policy. Public Administration Review, 84(1), 11–20. doi:10.1111/puar.13639

  • Siciliano, M. D., & Whetsell, T. A. (2023). Network Interventions: Applying Network Science for Pragmatic Action in Public Administration and Policy. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 6(2–3), 67–79. doi:10.1093/ppmgov/gvad003

  • Ertan, G., Siciliano, M. D., & Yenigun, D. (2019). Cognitive Social Structures Over Time: Perception Accuracy, Biases, and Path Dependency. PLOS ONE, 14(6), e0218607. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0218607

  • Siciliano, M. D., Yenigun, D., & Ertan, G. (2012). Estimating Network Structure via Random Sampling: Cognitive Social Structures and the Adaptive Threshold Method. Social Networks, 34(4), 585–600. doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2012.06.004

Synthesis and review

  • Hu, Q., Medina, A., Siciliano, M. D., & Wang, W. (2023). Network Structures and Network Effects Across Management and Policy Contexts: A Systematic Review. Public Administration, 101(3), 953–972. doi:10.1111/padm.12835

  • Medina, A., Siciliano, M. D., Hu, Q., & Wang, W. (2022). Network Effects Research: A Systematic Review of Theoretical Mechanisms and Measures. American Review of Public Administration, 52(7), 513–528. doi:10.1177/02750740221118825

  • Siciliano, M. D., Wang, W., & Medina, A. (2021). Mechanisms of Network Formation in the Public Sector: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 4(1), 63–81. doi:10.1093/ppmgov/gvaa017

Crisis, disaster, and emergency response

Extreme events force organizations that have never worked together to coordinate under severe time pressure. This research traces how response networks form in the moment, how information moves through them, and what distinguishes systems that adapt from those that fail.

  • Comfort, L. K., Kapucu, N., Ko, K., Menoni, S., & Siciliano, M. D. (2020). Crisis Decision-Making on a Global Scale: Transition from Cognition to Collective Action Under Threat of COVID-19. Public Administration Review, 80(4), 616–622. doi:10.1111/puar.13252

  • Wukich, C., Hu, Q., & Siciliano, M. D. (2019). Cross-Sector Emergency Information Networks on Social Media: Online Bridging and Bonding Communication Patterns. American Review of Public Administration, 49(7), 825–839.

  • Siciliano, M. D., & Wukich, C. (2017). Network Formation During Disasters: Exploring Micro-Level Interorganizational Processes and the Role of National Capacity. International Journal of Public Administration, 40(6), 490–503.

  • Comfort, L. K., Siciliano, M. D., & Okada, A. (2011). Resilience, Entropy, and Efficiency in Crisis Management. Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy, 2(3), 1–25.

Networks, health, and community wellbeing

Recent collaborative work applies network methods to population health and environmental equity: how safety practices spread through farmworker crews, how social ties shape adolescent wellbeing, and how environmental burden concentrates in particular communities.

  • Carver Martin, M., Forst, L., Siciliano, M. D., Xiuhtecutli, N., & Monaghan, P. (2025). Dissemination of Heat Safety Practices Among Florida Farmworker Crews. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 67(8), e518. doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000003421

  • Schultz, K., Ivanich, J. D., Whitesell, N., Siciliano, M. D., & Zacher, T. (2024). Social Networks of American Indian Youth on a Northern Plains Reservation. Connections.

  • Becerra, M., Liang, J., Siciliano, M. D., Fusi, F., Miranda, F., Sambanis, A., Boda, P., Derrible, S., & Cailas, M. (2024). Putting the Environment Back in “Environmental Justice”: A Dual Approach for Area Identification. Environmental Justice. doi:10.1089/env.2023.0028

  • Boda, P. A., Fusi, F., Miranda, F., Palmer, G. J. M., Flax-Hatch, J., Siciliano, M. D., Sambanis, A., Johnson, L., Derrible, S., & Cailas, M. (2023). Environmental Justice Through Community-Policy Participatory Partnerships. Journal of Environmental Protection, 14(8), Article 8. doi:10.4236/jep.2023.148036

Book Chapters

  • Siciliano, M. D., Comfort, L. K., Kapucu, N., Lee, S., & Li, J. (2022). Same Country, Different Stories. In L. K. Comfort & M. L. Rhodes (Eds.), Global Risk Management: The Role of Collective Cognition in Response to COVID-19. Routledge.

  • Li, J., Sanchez, J., Carr, J. B., & Siciliano, M. D. (2021). Local Governments and Shared Services: Insights on Institutional Mechanisms, Partners, and Purpose. In J. W. Meek (Ed.), Handbook on Collaborative Public Management. Edward Elgar.

  • Carr, J. B., & Siciliano, M. D. (2019). Beyond Political Consolidation: Prospects for Effective Local Governance Through Self-Organized Collaborative Networks. In M. A. Pagano (Ed.), The People’s Money: Pensions, Debt, and Government Services (pp. 130–158). University of Illinois Press.

  • Wukich, C., David, J. J., & Siciliano, M. D. (2015). Managing for Resilience Across Multiple Scales of Action in Joplin, Missouri. In D. C. Downey (Ed.), Cities and Disasters. CRC Press.

  • Comfort, L. K., Siciliano, M. D., & Okada, A. (2012). Evolving Systems in Crisis Management. In I. Helsloot, A. Boin, B. Jacobs, & L. K. Comfort (Eds.), Mega-Crises. Charles C. Thomas Press.

For the full list, including policy reports and reviews, see my CV or Google Scholar profile.