Research in political economy is about understanding interactions among multiple actors and institutions in international and domestic policy processes, as well as understanding the effect of such interactions on policy-related outcomes. Political economy research also investigates the institutions per se, paying close attention to the role of markets and the state.

1. Interests and influences of stakeholders

The field has long focused on explaining policy outputs as aggregated interests of policymakers, institutional stakeholders, and voters. One of our team’s current empirical goals is to convey a more nuanced understanding of (i) how heterogeneous policy preferences and policy-related behavior emerge among stakeholders, and (ii) under what conditions some stakeholders succeed in attaining their policy goals more than others.   

2. Improving the quality of public policy making

The second area of research relates to understanding citizens’ policy-related attitudes and behavior. Our goal is to move beyond the traditional notion of the public’s policy acceptance, by identifying what shapes an individual’s willingness to engage in policy discussions with those oppose to his opinions, and similarly, one’s tendency to seek factual information that may or may not be congruent with his original beliefs. We believe that such topics are particularly important in times of increasing technicality and politicization of salient policy domains.