Research and policy
Reports, papers, testimony, and policy work. Much of my analysis goes to legislators, regulators, and coalition partners rather than into journals.
Forthcoming
Reports from my work at Texas Appleseed.
- 2026Trojahn, Kyle. Rights on Paper, Barriers in Practice: How Data Brokers and Controllers Respond When Texans Try to Exercise Their Privacy Rights. Report 1. Texas Appleseed.Author. A field study of the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act.
- 2026The Texas Debt-Collection Court Landscape, 2019 to 2025. Debt Collection Report 1. Texas Appleseed.Author. A county-by-county analysis of debt lawsuits and default judgments in Texas justice courts.
Papers and publications
- 2024Trojahn, Kyle, Sara M. Constantino, Alicia Cooperman, and Manuela Muñoz. Changing City Limits: How Annexation Shapes Social and Political Outcomes. Working paper.First author. Case studies of the city of Galveston and Cameron County. Built the Census block dataset and conducted field interviews in Brownsville and Harlingen.
- 2023Karner, Alex, Minyu Situ, Kyle Trojahn, Gian-Claudia Sciara, and Destiny Deguzman. Guidance for Implementing Equitable Transportation Decision-Making: Technical Memorandum. National Cooperative Highway Research Program, NCHRP 08-162.Co-author. Designed the equity-evaluation framework and reviewed 32 state and regional transportation agencies.
- 2023Code.org, CSTA, and ECEP Alliance. State of Computer Science Education 2023.Contributor. Collected school-level course data and aggregated it to district and state levels.
Testimony and presentations
- 2026Texas House Committee on Delivery of Government Efficiency, invited written and oral testimonyAugust 19 hearing on the implementation of the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act. Presented preliminary field study findings and three recommendations.
- 2026Small Business Finance Forum, panelistHow a coalition engaged the public comment process on Texas's new commercial financing rules.
- 202589th Texas Legislature, committee testimony and legislator briefsDistrict-specific briefs and testimony on school funding, accountability, and readiness for E3 Alliance.
- 2024Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference, sole presenterHow living inside or outside city limits shapes political participation in Texas.
Policy work
Work written for decision-makers.
- 2026Public comment on Chapter 398 rules, Texas Finance CommissionLead author. Proposed replacement rule language for commercial sales-based financing and convened a five-organization coalition to co-sign.
- 2026Toll-debt collection memo, for local officialsWrote the data and equity analysis: the data needed to test whether penalties fall hardest on low-income areas.
- 2026Policy scans, Texas AppleseedRent credit reporting and surveillance pricing legislation across states, with recommendations for Texas.