I am a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the European University Institute. In Fall 2024, I was a visiting researcher at Princeton University. My research lies at the intersection of comparative political economy and political behaviour, focusing on how citizens experience major structural transformations through housing institutions. In my dissertation, I examine residential decarbonisation as a setting in which governments pursue collective goals through private homes, making households co-responsible actors in the green transition.
Publications
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Mass attitudes towards Russia’s aggression against Ukraine: Tentative support for top-down opinion formation European Journal of Political Research.
Abstract
This paper studies variation in mass attitudes towards the Russo-Ukrainian War. Although most Europeans express dismay at Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, more ambivalent or even pro-Kremlin positions are not rare. Drawing on the literature on foreign policy and war, we hypothesise that support for the aggressor may stem from a quartet of factors: economic interests, ideological preferences, partisan alignment, and disinformation. We examine the role of these factors using two types of survey data. The first is an original survey conducted in five countries (Czechia, France, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia) and spanning over 12,000 respondents. The second is the Solidarity in Europe survey, with more than 24,000 respondents from seventeen countries. The results of three types of analyses reveal that neutral and pro-Kremlin attitudes, held by sizeable segments of European society, are most strongly linked to the positions of respondents’ preferred political parties, followed by disinformation and ideology. Overall, top-down models of public opinion seem to better explain within-country variations in attitudes towards the conflict than bottom-up models. These findings, which should be interpreted with caution, carry important implications for containing Russia’s influence on European public opinion and contribute to the literature on public preference formation in the field of foreign policy.
Working Papers
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The Green Stakeholder R&R.
Abstract
What are the political consequences of housing-linked subsidies in the context of the energy transition? As governments increasingly rely on private citizens to achieve climate goals, many homeowners actively participate in energy markets by investing in renewable technologies. I argue that these subsidies turn recipients into “green stakeholders,” strengthening economic security, deepening policy literacy, and fostering a shared responsibility to act collectively. I examine this argument by leveraging spatial and temporal variation in German rooftop solar adoption via individual-level difference-in-differences designs. I demonstrate that solar ownership increases homeowners’ Green support and environmental group membership, with supplementary surveys exploring the underlying mechanisms. Placebo tests on non-eligible renters and heterogeneity analyses by local solar radiation suggest this effect is driven by the direct policy experience, not unobserved local trends. These findings suggest that political parties can use green subsidies to create durable pro-reform constituencies. -
The Price of Incompetence: Electoral Punishment and the Heating Transition Under Review
Abstract
How does policy mismanagement affect electoral support for Green parties leading the energy transition? We argue that perceived governing incompetence drives electoral punishment against these parties. We test this argument using high-frequency survey and census data in a difference-in-differences design that leverages the unexpected 2023 leak of Germany's Building Energy Act—a proposal banning new carbon-based heating systems that led to a fumbled policy rollout. We find that support for the Greens declined most in counties with more carbon-based heating systems. Using individual-level panel data, we show this punishment came from marginal supporters who, perceiving the Greens as incompetent, switched their allegiance. Our findings suggest that poor governance, beyond its material costs, can undermine the green agenda by shifting voters' priorities toward a party's competence.
Work in Progress
- The Emergence of Green Consumption Norms
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Flood Insurance and Risk Socialization
Abstract
As climate hazards escalate, what explains public support for socializing the costs of environmental risks? This article draws on findings from the psychology of social solidarity and theorizes two explanations: blame attribution for risk exposure and heuristic judgments of deservingness. We study the case of flood insurance in six European countries, where the financial burden of environmental hazards has been on the rise in recent years. Our analysis combines a survey of over 8,800 voters with vignette and conjoint experiments on homeowner deservingness. Leveraging randomized blame cues, we estimate that attributing risk exposure to individual choice decreases support for risk socialization by 0.87 points. Conjoint analyses reveal that a contributory logic of reciprocity and effort drives these preferences more strongly than material need and shared identity. These findings extend conditional solidarity theories to climate policies, which transform diffuse threats into concrete distributive struggles. - Housing Regimes and Residential Decarbonization.
- Decarbonization Under Shared Ownership.