The central focus of Professor Balla's research is the structure and process of policy making in China and the United States. He is specifically interested in the ways in which public officials solicit feedback on policy proposals from individuals and organizations outside of government, as well as the nature of the feedback that is received and the responsiveness of decision makers to this feedback. He has published articles in such journals as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, and Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and is the co-author (with William T. Gormley, Jr.) of Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance (CQ Press). During the 2008-2009 academic year, he served as a Fulbright Scholar at the Peking University School of Government in Beijing.