David Primo

Ani and Mark Gabrellian Professor, Professor of Political Science and Business Administration University of Rochester

  • Rochester NY

An expert in American politics; campaign finance; corporate political strategy, social responsibility & fiscal policy; & airline industry.

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Spotlight

1 min

Companies pay a price for taking a stand on polarizing issues

News that Target’s sluggish first quarter earnings were partly due to consumers protesting the retail giant’s rollback on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, may have some people wondering why any company would take a position on a politically divisive issue. David Primo, a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester, says political polarization across the country has forced the hands of some corporate executives to take a stand. Perhaps not surprisingly, Americans are split on whether they want big business wading into social and political minefields. “It’s pretty straight forward to think that a corporation ought to be taking positions on issues related to its core business operations,” Primo says. “The challenge for an executive, who has a fiduciary responsibility to the company, is knowing where to draw the line.” Primo regularly shares his insights on a variety of topics with business journalists and political reporters. Recently, he spoke to USA Today about consumers boycotting major retailers. Contact him by clicking on his profile.

David Primo

1 min

The Power of Refusal: Socially Conscious Boycotts and Corporate Accountability

In today's world, information travels faster than you can say "Google it!" This hyper-connectivity means companies are more exposed than ever when it comes to taking stances or actions on social issues, And a boycott can be a force to reckon with. With social media as their megaphone, these retail boycott campaigns can quickly capture global attention, asking consumers not to spend money in stores or online for a day or even an extended period of time. It's an increasingly common dilemma for corporations and their bottom line. Says David Primo, professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester: “Companies need to figure out what they will take positions on, what they won’t take positions on, and then stand firm. Holding your finger to the political winds is not an effective way to run a company in a polarized world.” ```

David Primo

1 min

Repairing Boeing's relationship with the FAA

The Boeing Corporation is the recognized pioneer in aviation and aircraft manufacturing, but significant quality control concerns have mounted in light of near disasters associated with Boeing's planes, including notably the Alaska Airlines door flying off in January. David Primo, professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester, is available to tackle some of the regulatory, crisis management and reputational questions related to Boeing's safety and production problems, including regaining the trust of the Federal Aviation Administration: “The challenge Boeing faces is how do they rebuild safety, rebuild the relationship with the FAA, but keep the business going? And that’s a very tough balancing act. The FAA is going to give Boeing much less in the way of the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the design of planes, which could very much constrain its production system. So it’s going to mean that planes might take a little longer to get off the production line and into the hands of airlines."

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Areas of Expertise

Airline Industry
Airline Business
Election Law
Federal Tax Policy
Political Gridlock
Campaign Finance
Government Spending and Budgets
Judicial Appointments
Legislative Rules
Airline Safety and Security
Corporate Political Strategy
Government shutdown
Money in Politics
Airline Operations

Biography

David M. Primo is the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Professor and a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester.

He is the author of three books, including the award-winning Rules and Restraint: Government Spending and the Design of Institutions, and numerous journal articles. His most recent book is Campaign Finance and American Democracy: What the Public Really Thinks and Why It Matters, co-authored with Jeff Milyo. His research has been supported by several organizations, including the National Science Foundation.

Primo has published op-eds in national news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and Los Angeles Times, and he’s been interviewed on radio and television stations including National Public Radio, Bloomberg, and Sirius XM. He has testified before Congress multiple times on the subject of constitutional budget rules and budget process reform, and his campaign finance research was cited in 2011 by Chief Justice John Roberts in a US Supreme Court decision regarding the public funding of elections.

In 2014, Primo created the Politics and Markets Project, which fosters education, research, and debate about the appropriate relationship between business and government in the 21st century. The panel events Primo moderates as part of PMP programming bring together experts from across the political spectrum to debate controversial issues in a civil fashion.

Primo teaches courses in American politics, corporate political strategy, and innovation and global business. He joined the Rochester faculty in 2002 after receiving his PhD in Political Science from Stanford University, where he also received an MA in Economics. He is also a senior affiliated scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Education

Stanford University

Ph.D.

Political Science

2002

Stanford University

M.A.

Economics

2001

Brown University

M.A.

Political Science

1998

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Affiliations

  • The Mercatus Center at George Mason University : Mercatus Affiliated Scholar
  • American Politics Research : Editorial Board
  • Center for Competitive Politics : Board of Academic Advisors

Selected Media Appearances

• Consumers are boycotting major retailers. Here's what they plan for 'blackout' on Feb. 28

USA Today  print

2025-02-13

Target and other companies find themselves under attack from the other side, facing calls for boycotts from DEI supporters angry over the rollbacks.

That's an increasingly common dilemma for corporations and one of their own making, said David Primo, professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester in New York, who blames years of "haphazard policymaking" by companies on contentious issues like DEI.

“Companies need to figure out what they will take positions on, what they won’t take positions on, and then stand firm," Primo said. "Holding your finger to the political winds is not an effective way to run a company in a polarized world.”

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Philadelphia DA Sues Elon Musk Over Voter Sweepstakes: 'Illegal Lottery'

Newsweek  print

2024-10-31

An expert has told Newsweek that Musk's offer seems to be in a "gray area." The original offer for voters to receive $47 is based on referring people so there are "multiple layers of complexity here," according to David Primo, political science and business administration professor at the University of Rochester.

"It could be viewed as implicitly encouraging individuals to convince others to register and sign the petition in order to collect the referral fee," Primo told Newsweek. "For both state and federal laws, I think this is a gray area and could easily be something decided by the courts."

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Boeing Can Bounce Back. Here's How

Quartz  online

2024-10-02

“The challenge Boeing faces is how do they rebuild safety, rebuild the relationship with the FAA, but keep the business going? And that’s a very tough balancing act,” said David Primo, a professor at the University of Rochester and author of a book on aviation regulation. The Alaska Airlines door panel has raised major concerns about production line quality controls.

“The FAA now is going to put Boeing on a very short leash,” said Primo. “They’re going to give them much less in the way of the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the design of planes, which could constrain the ability of the manufacturer to move quickly. So it’s going to mean that planes might take a little longer to get out of the production line and into the hands of airlines.”

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Selected Articles

Risky Business: Do Disclosure and Shareholder Approval of Corporate Political Contributions Affect Firm Performance?

Business and Politics

Saumya Prabhat and David M. Primo

2018

The role of corporations in the US political process has received increased scrutiny in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, leading to calls for greater regulation. In this paper, we analyze whether policies mandating greater disclosure and shareholder approval of political contributions reduce risk and increase firm value, as proponents of such rules claim. Specifically, we examine the Neill Committee Report (NCR), which led to the passage of the United Kingdom’s Political Parties, Elections, and Referendums Act 2000 mandating new disclosure and shareholder approval rules. We find that politically active firms did not benefit from the NCR in the days after its release and suffered a decline in value in the months and years that followed. Politically active firms also suffered an increase in risk, as proxied by stock return volatility, following the release of the NCR. We theorize that these findings are due to the reduced flexibility these rules impose on corporate strategy as well as the potential for these rules to facilitate political activism against corporations.

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Policy dynamics and electoral uncertainty in the appointments process

Journal of Theoretical Politics

Jinhee Jo, David M Primo, Yoji Sekiya,

2016

By incorporating electoral uncertainty and policy dynamics into three two-period models of the appointments process, we show that gridlock may not always occur under divided government, contrary to the findings of static one-shot appointments models. In these cases, contrary to the ally principle familiar to students of bureaucratic politics, the president or the confirmer is willing to move the court away from his or her ideal point as a way to insulate against worse outcomes in period two. By demonstrating how a simple set of changes to a workhorse model can change equilibrium outcomes significantly, this paper provides a foundation for reconsidering the static approach to studying political appointments.

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Using Item Response Theory to Improve Measurement in Strategic Management Research: an Application to Corporate Social Responsibility

Strategic Management Journal

Robert J. Carroll, David M. Primo, Brian K. Richter

2016

This article uses item response theory (IRT) to advance strategic management research, focusing on an application to corporate social responsibility (CSR). IRT explicitly models firms’ and individuals’ observable actions in order to measure unobserved, latent characteristics. IRT models have helped researchers improve measures in numerous disciplines. To demonstrate their potential in strategic management, we show how the method improves on a key measure of corporate social responsibility and corporate social performance (CSP), the KLD Index, by creating what we term D-SOCIAL-KLD scores, and associated estimates of their accuracy, from the underlying data. We show, for instance, that firms such as Apple may not be as “good” as previously thought, while firms such as Walmart may perform better than typically believed. We also show that the D-SOCIAL-KLD measure outperforms the KLD Index and factor analysis in predicting new CSR-related activity.

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