Grants

Why are some societies more educated, richer, and less prone to conflict than others? A puzzle within the social sciences is why such socio-economic differences persist. Religion is one likely explanation. We test the hypothesis that religion influences peoples’ decisions to an extent detectable at societal level. We will estimate the impact of religiosity on the gender gap and conflict in 1200-1700, a period of religious conflict and development. Sascha Becker, Monash University, is a leading scholar in the field and has access to unique data. To identify a causal impact, we will use natural experiments - such as earthquakes - that exogenously distribute high religiosity to some societies. This allows us to disentangle the impact of religion from that of other factors. Introducing religion into macroeconomics is part of a new and growing field called “economics of religion” and will lead to a leap forward in our understanding of the reasons for global socio-economic differences.

Small- and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are considered to be the backbone of EU economy, accounting for 99% of all enterprises. For that reason, EU Directive 2014/24/EU states that contracting authorities may divide contracts into lots but should they choose not to divide the contract, valid reasons for this decision must always be indicated in the contract notice. In the US, the rules are much more specific, i.a. the current government-wide goal for SMEs’ share of contracting dollars is 23%. On this basis, the project will examine whether there are any “lessons to be learned” from American law. The project will be conducted as desk top study of legal texts, policy documents and literature combined with discussions with American colleagues. The research will be conducted on the basis of the legal doctrinal method (de lege lata) as well as the comparative method, which should result in a determination of how the EU law ought to be (de lege feranda).

Since the 1980’s a number of developed countries have experienced a housing wealth boom, as the price of housing has increased at more than twice the rate of other goods. This wealth boom has been extremely unequally distributed. This project develops a theory of how this unequal housing wealth boom shapes mass political behavior, and tests this theory in Denmark and in the US. For this project to realize its ambitious goals, I will need to complete a research stay at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – Dept. of Political Science. The stay at MIT will serve four different purposes: (1) develop international collaboration with world leading scholars of policy feedback effects; (2) conduct survey experiments with US representative samples; (3) build a database of US property data that can be merged to data on political participation and political contributions; (4) prepare joint journal publications with collaborators. The stay is planned for the period July-Dec. 2020.

In a representative democracy, the prospect of voter reward and punishment puts an important constraint on the everyday decisions of politicians. But what do politicians actually believe about voter behavior? And how well do their beliefs match against reality? This project will break new ground in the study of politics by investigating whether politicians overestimate the reactions of v¬oters who are personally affected by policy and whether politicians underestimate their own ability to change people’s minds. Theoretically, the project develops a new framework for understanding how politicians think about voter reactions. Methodologically, the project employs a novel research design that compares the actual reaction of voters to how politicians think voters will react. Empirically, the project will be one the first to provide systematic evidence to a longstanding question in modern democracies: Do politicians fear voter reactions and, if so, are such fears exaggerated?