John Holbein studies political participation, political inequality, democratic accountability, political representation, and education policy.

His work has been published in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and Nature Human Behavior (to name a few). His research has been supported by two National Science Foundation grants.

His book–Making Young Voters: Converting Civic Attitudes into Civic Action–is forthcoming at Cambridge University Press. It explores ways to increase perpetually low rates of voter participation among young people.

His work has been covered by outlets such as the Washington Post, Vox, New York Magazine, the Boston Globe, NPR, Bloomberg, Politico, Fast Company, Salon, Business Insider, the 74, VoxEu, and FiveThirtyEight.