Research
Here, you can find a list of my publications as well as work in progress.
Publications
2021
- HEALTHDOX health politics in Europe data set2021
- VAPS veto points dataset2021
Work in Progress
Leave for Office? How Parental Leave Frameworks Affect Women’s Representation in Local Politics.
Draft available upon request
Abstract: Institutions, such as proportional electoral systems, can help to mitigate women's under-representation in politics. Yet, recent research has argued that the scarcity of female candidates can also be explained by a heavily male-skewed candidate pool. While scholars pointed to a general lack in women's political ambition, other causes, such as the conditions under which mandate-holders operate, have received far less attention. Since motherhood has been suggested to have a negative effect on women’s political ambitions, this article investigates how the existence of parental leave frameworks for politicians affect women's decision to run for political office. The empirical analysis zooms in on the case of local councils in the United Kingdom. Following a recommendation by the Local Government Association, some councils have decided to introduce parental leave provisions for local councilors. I exploit the unequal roll-out of the policy to identify the causal effect of parental leave frameworks on the share of women among candidates in a two-staged difference-in-differences design. On average, the introduction of parental leave frameworks does not lead to more women running for office. However, the effects vary by party, with centre-left parties experiencing an increase in women candidates after the roll-out of parental leave schemes, indicating that political parties remain crucial actors in fostering women's representation in politics.
The Politics of Language: The Consequences of Banning Gender-Inclusive Language.
with Anica Waldendorf
Abstract: Despite widespread support for gender equality, public opinion on measures addressing existing inequalities has increasingly become polarized. This project investigates how exposure to anti-LGBTIQ+ policy affects citizens’ acceptance of such policies and attitudes towards gender equality. We argue that anti-LGBTIQ+ legislation is not just a targeted form of exclusion but a starting point for a broader rollback of gender equality. We use gender-inclusive language as a case study, given the recent implementation of bans on gender-inclusive language (GIL) targeting non-binary people in multiple countries. In a two-stage research design, we first conduct a text analysis of 72,000 citizen requests to public authorities to assess how GIL bans affect language use by both citizens and officials. Second, we implement two survey experiments in Germany, where citizens and civil servants are randomly exposed to (1) social environments with or without an anti-LGBTIQ+ policy and (2) correspondents who vary in their policy compliance to evaluate changes in attitudes toward LGBTIQ+ and women's rights. With this project, we shed light on how anti-LGBTIQ+ legislation may pave the way for wider backlash against gender equality, including how policies targeting the public sphere may carry over into the private sphere.
How Good Ancestors Make Good Citizens: Norm Legacies and the Activation of Civic Virtue.
with Violeta Haas
Abstract: Collective memories shape political behavior across generations, influencing how groups understand their place in society and their obligations toward others. Related literature concentrates on armed conflicts and histories of victimization, documenting the effects of violence, repression, or genocide. We argue that this work overlooks an important dimension of collective memory: positive historical narratives of in-group norms. In this paper, we introduce the concept of norm legacies, i.e., historically rooted group practices and values that retain their normative force across generations. Unlike conventional norm-based interventions that rely on descriptive or injunctive cues within contemporary reference groups, norm legacies operate through three main mechanisms: historical anchoring, collective pride, and moral continuity. In other words, we propose that pro-social behavior can be effectively induced when framed not merely as what others do now, but as meaningful continuations of a group's historical legacy. We test our argument in two survey experiments that test whether activating memories of past in-group norms can increase both private and public pro-social behavior. Study 1 exposes participants to an intervention highlighting Eastern Germans' pioneering role in recycling as a milestone of early environmental responsibility. The narrative explicitly links recycling behavior with regional pride, aiming to promote sustainable practices among Eastern Germans today. Study 2 presents participants with the Church's critical role in pro-democratic protests during the democratic transition period in South Korea. This intervention frames engagement as a Christian duty rooted in a legacy of faith-driven civic engagement, thereby seeking to raise democratic norms among Christians. We expect that, compared to non-historical, in-group accounts of the targeted behavior (control condition), exposure to past in-group norms (treatment condition) will significantly increase pro-social behaviors among in-group members.
Going Local? How Mainstream Parties React to the Local Framing of Migration by the Radical Right.
Draft available upon request
Abstract: The radical right has played a crucial role in the politicization of migration, particularly on the national level. Despite stark regional differences in the electoral appeal of radical right parties, there is a lack of research of the local dynamics of this phenomenon. Consequently, this article challenges the prevailing national perspective on party competition by investigating how the discourse on migration plays out at the local level. In a first step, this paper analyses whether radical right parties adjust their communication to the local context. While these parties portray migration mainly as a cultural threat, it is expected that they highlight economic aspects of migration in economically deprived constituencies. In a second step, this paper zeroes in on the consequences of radical right’s communication on migration for local party competition. I contend that the more electorally threatening radical right candidates are, the more centre-left and centre-right candidates adopt the cultural ‘master’ frame of the radical right. The empirical analysis draws on a newly compiled dataset consisting of Twitter posts by candidates running in the 2017 and 2021 German parliamentary elections, as well as state-level members of parliament. The framing of these posts is identified with the help of large language models and matched with contextual data of candidates’ constituencies. The results show that the radical right often relies on a nationalist and identity-based framing of migration, which becomes more pronounced in districts with high migration levels. While the cultural context affects their framing of migration, radical right parties do not react to economic grievances by using more economic frames of migration. In constituencies where the radical right has become electorally successful, centre-left parties put more salience on migration whereas centre-right parties increasingly adopt cultural frames of migration. The findings of this article contribute to the literature by emphasizing the importance of local party competition in an era of growing party system fragmentation.
Who should tell them? The effect of social group cues on political persuasion
Draft available upon request
Abstract: Can parties shape the acceptance of a policy by selecting spokespersons who are presumably affected by the decision? Although policy justifications take an important role in political communication, we know relatively little about how the politicians issuing them influence public opinion formation. Against this background, I contend that citizens are more willing to accept policy justifications if they are delivered by a representative of a social group that is directly affected by a proposed policy (e.g., politicians with a migration background justifying migration policy). Moreover, I expect that this effect is conditional on an individual’s view about the group and the policy under debate. Following a 2×2×3 factorial experiment in Germany, this article finds that social group cues shape how citizens react to policy justifications. While there is no general effect of a politician being affected by a policy, for some issues, the politician’s background influences citizens’ opinion formation. Further analyses of heterogeneous effects demonstrate that the influence of social group cues hinges on group affect and issue salience. Group sympathizers are more likely to support policies whenever a policy is believed to extend group’s rights and a politician affected by it serves as a spokesperson. In contrast, group adversaries support policies they consider harmful for the group if they are exposed to an affected politician. Furthermore, the salience individuals put on an issue moderates the effect of being affected by a policy. The more important citizens consider an issue, the less persuasive are politicians affected by the proposed policy. Overall, these findings directly speak to our understanding of descriptive representation in policy justifications and its potential for strategic manipulation.
Reminiscing the good old days. How far-right parties deter the female losers of technological change.
Draft available upon request
Abstract: Being considered the losers of technological change, parts of male industrial workers have become an important vote base for far-right parties. Contrarily, although female routine occupations such as office clerks have also shrunk, female routine workers have not voted for the far-right to the same extent as their male counterparts. The dominating explanation for this gendered voting pattern is a greater societal status loss among male routine workers. Our paper tests an alternative explanation arguing that far-right parties have unequally addressed male and female routine workers. Therefore, we ask the following question: Is the effect of technological change on far-right voting for female workers moderated by far-right parties? We test our theoretical arguments with a measure of state-level party strategies constructed from politicians’ social media data in Germany. These data are combined with longitudinal GSOEP data and occupation-level measures of technological change. Our findings indicate that women in general and female routine workers in particular refrain from supporting the radical right when it uses traditionalist gender appeals. Instead, they are mobilized by the center-left when it campaigns on a more progressive gender portfolio. Consequently, our results demonstrate the importance of taking supply-demand side interactions into account when studying the political outcomes of technological change and gender differences in political behavior more broadly.
The Things That Unite Us. Intra-Party Cohesion and Issue Engagement.
Draft available upon request
Abstract: This article investigates how niche parties’ intra-party cohesion affects their divergent issue engagement in social policy issues. Following theories on party cohesion, this article argues that parties take their internal disagreements into account before engaging into an issue. Relying on survey data from the Comparative Candidate Survey and parliamentary speeches from the ParlSpeech dataset to measure intra-party cohesion, the analysis establishes that radical right parties behave contrarily to expectations of existing theories on the role of intra-party cohesion for issue engagement. While Green and mainstream parties avoid social policy issues once they are characterized by higher levels of preference heterogeneity, internal preference heterogeneity does not prevent the Radical Right to engage in welfare-related issues. Furthermore, the empirical analysis indicates that radical right parties use their speeches in parliament strategically to appeal broadly. By showing that Green and radical right parties extend their narrow issue set in different internal contexts, this article contributes to the understanding of niche parties’ issue diversification.