His background spans both planning and law, and includes work in land use, housing, and tax policy. Broadly, he studies policy implementation and governance, focusing especially on explaining variation in the effectiveness and equity of land use and housing policies at the local, interlocal, and regional levels in the United States. Currently, Thomas is researching how deeply held values about solidarity and equality help explain the preferences of local elected officials toward interlocal cooperation in land use and economic development, a process he terms the cultural cognition of governance.