Project Description
Aims and Central Research Question
We aim to understand how financial crises affect political polarization and economic inequality. We study how societies mobilize in the aftermath of financial stress, and how policy responses affect economic inequality and polarization.
In order to do so, we investigate
- different types of financial crisis and their effects;
- how fiscal and monetary anti-crisis measures affect economic inequality and political polarization; and
- how social conflict and mobilization are triggered by policy responses, by national governments as well as international institutions such as the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Background
In the wake of the global financial crisis, political polarization is on the rise. Therefore, we must learn to better understand the link between economic crises, policy responses, economic inequality, and political polarization. Anti-crisis policies interact with inequality and polarization in many and complex ways. They have been studied extensively by both economists and political scientists – but largely in isolation of each other. We will use our complementary areas of expertise to develop a politico-economic theory to help us understand the interrelationship between financial crises, political polarization, and economic inequality . And we will conduct systematic empirical tests using economic and political data.
Methods
We use a broad range of appropriate empirical methods, ranging from longitudinal models over time series approaches to detailed case studies. To arrive at theoretical predictions, we develop a dynamic general equilibrium framework, in which we explicitly account for the macroeconomic and distributional consequences of the interplay between politics and economics. This theoretical framework serves as a laboratory to conduct counterfactual policy experiments, and to perform welfare analyses.
Project Partners
Federica Genovese (University of Essex)
Federica Genovese is a political scientist at the Department of Government at the University of Essex. Before coming to the UK, she spent a year at Stanford University. She has a PhD from the University of Konstanz, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a B.A. from University of Toronto. In her work, she focuses on international and comparative political economy, with particular attention to environmental policy, economic interdependence, international organizations and the politics of international crises. Find more information about Federica Genovese here.
Roberto Pancrazi (University of Warwick)
Roberto Pancrazi is an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick, which he joined in 2012. He worked at the Toulouse School of Economics as an Assistant Professor (Junior Chair) for two years, from 2010-2012. He graduated in 2010 at the Department of Economics at Duke University. His primary field is Macroeconomics. His area of concentration is Macroeconomic Theory, Quantitative and Applied Macroeconomics, and International Macroeconomics. Find more information about Roberto Pancrezi here.
Christian Rauh (WZB Berlin Social Science Center)
Christian Rauh is a political scientist in the Global Governance unit of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. His research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of EU studies, international relations and comparative politics. Besides decision-making in the European Commission, he isparticularly interested in the public political debates about European and international institutions. Find more information about Christian Rauh here.
Thomas Sattler (University of Geneva)
Thomas Sattler is an Associate Professor in International Relations at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Before moving to Geneva in summer 2015, he was an Associate Professor at the London School of Economics & Political Science. He also taught at the University College Dublin, was a post-doc at Princeton University and New York University and held research fellowships at Central European University, Budapest, and Trinity College Dublin. He got his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Find more information about Thomas Sattler here.
Christoph Trebesch (Kiel Institute for the World Economy)
Christoph Trebesch is a Professor and Head of Research Area "International Finance and Global Governance" at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and Department of Economics at Kiel University. He is also a Research Affiliate of CEPR, a Research Fellow of CESifo and a member of the Academic Advisory Board for the German Ministry of Finance. Find more information about Christoph Trebesch here.
Stefanie Walter (University of Zurich)
Stefanie Walter is full professor for international relations and political economy at the Department of Political Science at the University of Zurich and Director of the Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS). She studied public policy and economics in Konstanz, Montréal, and Barcelona and graduated from ETH Zurich in 2007 with a PhD in Political Science and a dissertation on the political economy of currency crises in 2007. In 2008-09, she held a Fritz-Thyssen-Fellowship at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and then joined the department of political science at the University of Heidelberg as Junior Professor for International and Comparative Political Economy. She has been working at the University of Zurich's institute for political science (IPZ) since 2013.
Literature
Publications and Working Papers
Genovese, F., & Schneider, G. (2020b). Smoke with fire: Financial crises
and the demand for parliamentary oversight in the European Union. The
Review of International Organizations, 15(3), 633-665.
doi:10.1007/s11558-020-09383-0
Hermann, T. & Scholl, A. (2023). The Political Economy of Domestic and External Sovereign Debt, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 18510. CEPR Press, Paris & London.
https://cepr.org/publications/dp18510
Prein, T. M. & Scholl, A. (2021). The Impact of Bailouts on Political
Turnover and Sovereign Default Risk. Journal of Economic Dynamics and
Control 124, 2021. doi.org/10.1016/j.jedc.2020.104065
Rübsam, F., & Schneider, G. (2020). Casino Capitalism?: The Impact of
Financial Crises on Inequality, 1970 to 2016. APSA Preprints.
doi:10.33774/apsa-2020-32hdt
Schneider, G., & Shevchuk, O. (2020). Falling Apart or Flocking
Together?: Financial Crises, Inequality and Left-Right Polarization in
the OECD. APSA Preprints. doi:10.33774/apsa-2020-rwc7j
Scholl, A. (2024). The Politics of Redistribution and Sovereign Default.
Journal of International Economics 148, 103876, 2024.
doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2023.103876
Outreach
Genovese, F., & Schneider, G. (2020a). Explaining the uneven demand for
EU parliamentary oversight during the Eurozone crisis. LSE Europp blog.