In the third episode of podcast series, Benjamin Ashworth and Stephen Ramsay (University of Strathclyde) discuss politicians' occupational backgrounds in Latin America and Europe, exploring which professions they come from and how career paths differ across regions. wealthpolicies.eu/podcast-no-3...

1/6 📰🧐 Research Digest October 2025 - Left parties and working class support - Tax base inequality in 🇺🇸 - Revolving door in 🇯🇵 - Tax Compliance in 🇨🇱 - framing budget cuts in 🇩🇰

6/6 🧵In @electoralstudies.bsky.social, @joshgoddard98.bsky.social studies influence of homeownerhip on voting behavior. Housing & election data from 14 countries. Results show homeowners are increasingly more likely to vote for center-right parties & renters for radical left parties. doi.org/qh8v

5/6 🧵 In @ejprjournal.bsky.social Pitsch & Wenzelburger estimate MP response to lobbying using randomized response technique to elicit honest answers by ensuring anonymity. Anonymity ensured by lumping answers with yes answers to other questions. Find small response to lobbying doi.org/qh8r

1/6 📰🧐 Research Digest November 2025 - Politician background and biased perceptions in 🇨🇭 - Redistribution and Deservingness between places/people 🇳🇴 - Ideological capture in the 🇺🇸 - Honest MP responses to lobbying in 🇩🇪 - Homeownership & voting behavior

Last week we welcomed @heikekluever.bsky.social to talk about "Who Becomes a Lobbyist?" — a comparative look at career pathways, networks, and the role of institutional differences that shape political influence in Germany & the U.S. Thanks to everyone for the lively Q&A!
inq-dp.eu/index.php/ev...

Politicians' financial interests shape policy but transparency varies wildly. Our blog post compares disclosure rules & lobbying regulations in DE, UK, BR & SA. Who's hiding what - where's democratic accountability? 🔍 wealthpolicies.eu/money-power-...

Do politicians' backgrounds shape policy? Prof Pimenta & Dr Lima underline lawmakers come from privileged backgrounds and this bias influence which policies get passed. In their PoWER research, they explore how policy-makers' career influence income concentration wealthpolicies.eu/how-politici...

In our new blogpost, Prof Vimal Ranchhod and Dr @arindamjana.bsky.social
(University of Cape Town) explain why wealth inequality is much more persistent and harder to measure compared to income inequalitity: wealthpolicies.eu/blog-4-the-g...

Politics and wealth: a lopsided alliance? | VolkswagenStiftung A small, rich minority is becoming increasingly wealthy. Eva Wegner and Miquel Pellicer ask: How does politics contribute to growing economic inequality – and whose interests do MPs actually represent...

Prof Eva Wegner & Prof Miquel Pellicer (Principal Investigators based at the University of Marburg) introduce the PoWER project and explain the significance of their research - why policies/politicians favor wealthy & how wealth bias work in politics www.volkswagenstiftung.de/en/news/stor...

Money, money, money – Regiert Geld die Welt? YouTube video by VolkswagenStiftung

Our Principal Investigator, Prof @evawegner.bsky.social introduces and discusses the signifance of the PoWER project - reproduction of wealth through politics and policies. Possible to achieve democracy in the age of heightened social divides and wealth inequality? www.youtube.com/live/qe57FPi...

Dr Kuran reviewed *The Triumph of Injustice* (Saez & Zucman, 2019) for the PoWER blog. The book presents an excellent empirical analysis of tax inequality in the USA. wealthpolicies.eu/book-review-...

Kickoff done! “Marburger Stadtgespräch” & Future of Democracy (Mon, 20 Oct). @leaelsaesser.bsky.social on working-class political careers, the role of trade unions, and contrasts with uni graduates. Thanks also to our engaged audience for a great discussion! More: tinyurl.com/e3pyhstd

Thanks to Mayor Dr. Thomas Spies for hosting, to Prof. Dr. Susanne Buckley-Zistel & Prof. @mqpellicer.bsky.social fro the @zfk-mr.bsky.social for opening remarks, and Stéphane Voell / @st3phm4rb.bsky.social for the great pictures.

1/6 📰🧐 Research Digest March 2025 - lockdowns and support for Trump in the US - left parties and redistribution - electoral role of candidate education - tax preferences in Latin America - City councillors’ roll-call voting in Chicago and Toronto

2/6 🧵In @cpsjournal.bsky.social, @alicexu.bsky.social & Iversen ask if economic, rather than cultural factors, drive support for right-wing populists. Staggered DiD in the US & covid lockdowns. In states with less educated people (cannot work from home) lockdowns increase Trump support doi.org/pft7

3/6 🧵 In EJPR, @alexanderhorn.bsky.social @klueserthan.bsky.social & Martin Haselmayer study the priorities of left parties in 12 OECD countries. While they find no evidence for a crowding out of redistribution generally, they show that some Social Democrats abandoned economic equality.doi.org/pft9

4/6 🧵 In @thejop.bsky.social‬ @elizabethsim0n.bsky.social & @turnbulldugarte.com do a meta-analysis of role of candidate education in conjoint experiments. More educated candidates preferred by all, but more so by more educated respondents, suggesting a possible in-group bias https://doi.org/pft8

5/6 🧵 In @cpsjournal.bsky.social Heilbrun studies tax preferences in the Latinobarometro. High perceived inequality associated with a preference towards a narrower tax base. Suggests a reason why revenue from direct taxes in LA is low https://doi.org/pfvd

6/6 🧵In @thejop.bsky.social @bigcitypolitics.bsky.social & Armstrong study elite conflict using councilors' roll-call votes. Original dataset over many terms in Chicago & Toronto. Against a pluralist expectation, councilors’ conflict is low-dimensional but durable across terms doi.org/pfvb

New Blog Post! 📝 Oliver Platt writes about the concept of class and its importance for regional inequality and voting behavior. To illustrate, the post includes interactive maps and data plots 🗺️📊 Read more: inq-dp.eu/index.php/20...

Maps upgrade! 🗺️ We expanded our maps of inequality page to include additional data on the spatial distribution of election results, rent prices, and education levels across Marburg. Explore: inq-dp.eu/index.php/ma...

1/6 📰🧐 IDP Research Digest January 2025 - Political responsiveness in 🇩🇰 & 🇳🇱 - Populist parties & congruence in 🇩🇪🇳🇱🇮🇹🇸🇪 - Effect of income on turnout in 🇳🇴 - Returns to office in 🇩🇰 - Electoral effects of coal phase-outs in 🇩🇪

2/6 🧵In @jeppjournal.bsky.social, @annerasmussen.bsky.social & @simonotjes.bsky.social ask: are politicians more responsive to interest groups or public opinion? Vignette experiments in 🇩🇰 & 🇳🇱 with politicians. Effect of public opinion positive, stronger, and more general doi.org/n6sf

3/6 🧵 In @electoralstudies.bsky.social, Zhirnov, @drphilphil.bsky.social, and co-authors study congruence b/w populist parties & their voters. VAA data from 🇩🇪🇳🇱🇮🇹🇸🇪. Show populist parties are best choice for their voters, but congruence is not higher compared to other parties. doi.org/n6sd

4/6 🧵 In @bjpols.bsky.social, Geys & Sørensen compare current & former lottery winners in the whole 🇳🇴 to estimate the effect of income on turnout. They find a small effect when gains are close to election date https://doi.org/n6sh

5/6 🧵 In @psrm.bsky.social, Dahlgaard, @fkjoeller.bsky.social and Kristensen research whether political careers are economically attractive. Using administrative data they find that based on total income all 🇩🇰 MPs experience short-term economic gains during their first term. https://doi.org/n6sg

6/6 🧵IN EJPR, @slstutzmann.bsky.social studies electoral effects of coal phase-outs in 🇩🇪 with admin data & DID design. Punishment of issue owners (left parties) and abstention increase. Not caused by real economic decline but perceived deprivation & loss of status. https://doi.org/n6sj

New blog post series! 📝 As the federal elections in Germany approach, we’re excited to share a series of three blog posts on topics related to the election. All three posts are written by students from one of Eva Wegner’s courses. Read more: inq-dp.eu/index.php/bl...