Shrestha is an associate professor of public administration and policy. His research focuses on understanding the problems of developing and sustaining collaborative solutions to institutional collective action problems, emphasizing the role of self-organizing networks and collaborative programs in the governance and management of local public goods and water systems. Other related research interests include inter-local collaboration, and social-ecological interaction and community sustainability. He is also affiliated with Bioregional Planning & Community Design and Water Resources Program.

Social Network Analysis (SNA) Lab helps with social network research design, visualization, and statistical analysis (e.g. Exponential Random Graph Models) of social network data. Our goal is to create a community of researchers and scholars interested in social network research or apply social network methodology in their research. 

Interested faculty members, researchers, and graduate students of any discipline are welcome.

• Local government
• Water governance
• Self-organizing networks
• Inter-local collaboration
• Social-ecological interaction
• Community sustainability
• Networks and Community Advancement
• Water Governance Networks
• Inter-Local Contract Networks and Public Service Provision

• Shrestha, Manoj K. 2021. Development Program Intervention and Network Building – Application of Bipartite Exponential Random Graph Models. Franco Angeli Series in Computational Social Sciences, Methods and Applications in Social Network Analysis, Special Issue.
• Trebitz, Karen I., and Manoj K. Shrestha. 2021. Suite of Roles as A Driver of Core-Periphery Patterns in Water Resource Governance Networks. Franco Angeli Series in Computational Social Sciences, Methods and Applications in Social Network Analysis, Special Issue.
• Shrestha, Manoj K., and Richard C. Feiock. 2020. Toward a Multiplex Network Theory of Interlocal Service Contracting. Public Administration Review, https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13337
• Shrestha, Manoj K. 2020. Development Assistance, Networks, and Community Self-Help Development. In: Farazmand A. (ed.) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. 
• Shrestha, Manoj K. 2020. Network Structures and Performance: Evidence from Post-Project Spinoff Activities of a Collaborative Public Program. International Journal of Public Administration. DOI: 10.1080/01900692.2020.1715426
• Shrestha, Manoj K. 2019. Network Structures and Spinoff Effects in a Collaborative Public Program. Public Performance and Management Review 42 (4): 976-1003.
• Shrestha, Manoj K. 2017. Network Structure, Strength of Relationships, and Communities’ Success in Project Implementation. Public Administration Review. DOI: 10.1111/puar.12787.
• Shrestha, Manoj K., and Richard C. Feiock. 2017. Local Government Networks. In The Oxford Handbook on Political Networks, edited by Jennifer Nicoll Victor, Alexander H. Montgomery, and Mark Lubell, 537- 558. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Shrestha, Manoj, Ramiro Berardo and Richard C. Feiock. 2014. Solving Institutional Collective Action Problems in Multiplex Networks. Complexity, Governance, and Networks 1 (1): 49-60.
• Shrestha, Manoj K. 2013. Self-Organizing Network Capital and the Success of Collaborative Public Programs. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 23 (2): 307-329.
• Shrestha, Manoj K. 2013. Internal versus External Social Capital and the Success of Community Initiatives: A Case of Self-Organizing Collaborative Governance in Nepal. Public Administration Review 73 (1): 154-164.
• Shrestha, Manoj K. and Richard C. Feiock. 2011. Transaction Cost, Exchange Embeddedness and Interlocal Cooperation in Local Public Goods Supply. Political Research Quarterly, 64 (3): 573-587.
• Shrestha, Manoj K. 2010. Do Risk Profiles of Public Goods alter Contractual Patterns? A Comparison across Multiple Metropolitan Services. In Richard C. Feiock and John Scholz (ed) Self-Organizing Federalism: Collaborative Mechanisms to Mitigate Institutional Collective Action, Cambridge University Press.
• Shrestha, Manoj K. and Richard C. Feiock. 2009. Governing U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Self-Organizing and Multiplex Service Networks, American Politics Research, 37: 801-823.
• Carr, Jered, Kelly LeRoux, and Manoj K. Shrestha. 2009. Institutional Ties, Transaction Costs, and External Service Production. Urban Affairs Review, 44 (3): 403-427.
• Feiock, Richard C., James Clingermayer, Manoj K. Shrestha, and Carl Dasse. 2007. Contracting and Sector Choice for Municipal Service Production: A Transaction Cost Approach. State and Local Government Review, 39 (2):72-83.
• Shrestha, Manoj K. 2002. An Overview of Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in Nepal, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Working Paper Number 02-5, Georgia State University.