Inspiring week at the In_equality Conference 26! Great to share our work, reconnect with colleagues, and enjoy unusually healthy conference food. First-ever conference club night… right before my talk. Luckily, motherhood = advanced training in low sleep. Great conference, thanks to the organizers!
The findings highlight the importance of professional networks and regular engagement for building legitimacy in EU regulatory governance.
🔗 Read the article: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
🔎 The results show that trust is driven mainly by professional proximity and interaction rather than national context. Stakeholders working in regulatory bodies, and those who engage frequently with EFSA, express significantly higher trust than other actor types.
📢 New publication in the JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies
Why do some actors trust EU regulatory agencies more than others? In a new article, I examine trust in the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) using survey data from stakeholders across nine European countries.
The results show that bureaucratic discrimination depends not only on who applicants are, but also on how their efforts are perceived.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
A survey experiment with 2403 bureaucrats across four European countries shows that French applicants are more likely to receive assistance than Bulgarian ones, and that signals of integration, such as language skills or job seeking activities, substantially increase the chances of receiving help.
Do mobile EU citizens receive equal treatment when accessing welfare information? In a new study in @eupthejournal.bsky.social, @evathomann.bsky.social, Anita Manatschal, Xavier Fernández-i-Marín and I analyze how street-level-bureaucrats respond to requests from mobile EU citizens.
Just received the official photos from the @funcas.bsky.social Enrique Fuentes Quintana Award ceremony. It was a real pleasure to travel to Madrid and to learn about the work of the awardees across such diverse disciplines. Moments like these are a great reminder of how exciting research can be.
The ceremony itself was excellent and very well organized... but, as a mother of two small children, the greatest reward for me was undoubtedly spending a night alone in a hotel. 😉
Here is an article covering the event (in Spanish):
elpais.com/sociedad/202...
I would like to thank the jury for the considerable effort involved in reviewing more than 1,000 theses and for seeing potential in mine. My thanks also go to Funcas for its commitment to recognizing and supporting early-career researchers through these annual awards.
It has been an eventful few weeks, and I could not be ending the year on a higher note. After the good news of several articles being accepted for publication, I travelled to Madrid to attend the Funcas Enrique Fuentes Quintana Award ceremony, where my doctoral thesis received an honorable mention.
New early online in @reggovjournal.bsky.social “Trust, Crisis, and Delegation.” Across 28 European countries during COVID-19, trust is higher when public health authority is delegated to fully independent agencies, while “in-between” setups with overlapping authority are linked to lower trust.
@abegomez.bsky.social and I found common research ground. Check it out!
The result is a compelling message for agencies and scholars alike: in the politics of trust, the media’s narrative is powerful enough to influence even those who know the system best.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Negative stories sharply erode confidence, while neutral or positive coverage strengthens it. And more interaction with regulators doesn’t seem to soften or intensify this effect.
Drawing on six years of manual media analysis, more than 10,000 carefully reviewed articles across seven countries and three regulatory sectors, alongside original survey data from diverse stakeholders, the paper shows that media coverage consistently outweighs direct contact in shaping trust.
Regulatory stakeholders aren’t ordinary citizens. They’re experts who enjoy privileged access to agencies and many of them maintain regular direct contact with them. Yet this study uncovers a striking finding: even these insiders rely heavily on the media to form their trust in regulators.
My first thesis article has been published in @reggovjournal.bsky.social 📢 In this original article, we (Heidi Salomonsen, Anna Pikos, Edoardo Guaschino and I) examine the relationship between contact frequency, media coverage, and stakeholder trust in regulatory agencies.
It was a privilege to contribute to this important and timely conversation. Looking forward to what comes next!
Also deeply thankful to my husband, @abegomez.bsky.social, for his incredible dedication and support making this journey to Konstanz with our two kids possible. 💛
Special thanks to Angel Miklashevsky for the outstanding logistical support, and to all participants for their empathy and encouragement, especially as I joined with my 3-month-old and interrupted my maternity leave.
Heartfelt thanks to the organizers: @evathomann.bsky.social, @gabilotta.bsky.social and Steffen Eckhard for the invitation and for creating such a warm and welcoming space. 🙏
Grateful to have been part of this inspiring group of scholars from different countries and career stages. The discussions were intellectually rich, but above all, everyone was incredibly kind and supportive.
Just returned from a workshop on the Micro Foundations of Administrative Inequality, hosted by Zeppelin Universität and Universität Konstanz on the stunning Mainau Island.🌷
Qué bien, Juan, cuánto me alegro! Muy merecido. Te deseo mucho éxito con el proyecto!