Irene Menéndez González

Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor in International Political Economy at the IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs at IE University in Madrid. My main research interests lie at the intersection of international political economy and comparative political economy, with special emphasis on the consequences of globalisation for economic and social policy, as well as welfare states and interest representation in Europe and Latin America. I also work on projects exploring the politics of labour market segmentation, and on projects analysing the effects of electoral institutions on political representation.

I obtained my phD at the University of Oxford (Nuffield College) in 2015, and previously studied at the Juan March Institute in Madrid, Sciences Po in Paris and St. Andrews University in Scotland. Before joining the faculty at IE University, I was an Assistant Professor at the University of Mannheim, a research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (2017-2018) and a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Zurich (2014-2017). I am currently also an Associated Researcher at the Cluster of Excellence on "The Politics of Inequality" at the University of Konstanz.

Selected publications

Irene Menéndez González, Erica Owen and Stefanie Walter. “Low-skilled products by high-skilled workers: the distributive effects of trade in developing countries”. Comparative Political Studies, 56(11), 1724-1759. https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140231152800.

Michael Becher, Irene Menéndez González and Daniel Stegmueller (2021). “Proportional Representation and Right-Wing Populism: Evidence from Electoral System Change in Europe.” British Journal of Political Science, 51(1), 261-268. doi:10.1017/S0007123421000703. Available as pre-print version on SSRN.

Irene Menéndez González (2021). “Insiders, outsiders, skills and preferences for social protection: evidence from a survey experiment in Argentina.” Comparative Political Studies (14): 2581–2610. Available as pre-print version on SSRN.

Michael Becher and Irene Menéndez González (2019). “Electoral reform and trade-offs in political representation.” American Political Science Review 113(3): 694-709.

Picot, Georg, and Irene Menéndez (2017). “Political Parties and Non-Standard Employment: An analysis of France, Germany, Italy and Spain.” Socio-Economic Review 17(4): 899–919.

Irene Menéndez (2016). “Globalization and Welfare Spending: how Geography and Electoral Institutions condition Compensation.” International Studies Quarterly 60(4): 665 – 676.

Working papers 

"Between enforcement and forbearance: deferred enforcement and protection against informality during crisis" (with Santiago López-Cariboni, Luciana Cantera, Sarah Berens, Armin von Schiller). 

“Trade and the politics of electoral reform” (with Michael Becher). Presented at IPES 2021, APSA 2022, EPSA. Under review. Available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=4788761.

"Electoral Competition and Parliamentary Debate in the Age of Populism" (with Michael Becher, Alberto de León and Nina Wiesehomeier). Presented at EPSA 2024.

“The politics of non-contributory social policy: labor market institutions and left strategies in the developing world” (with Santiago López-Cariboni). 

Work in progress

“The structure of preferences for conditional cash transfers: experimental evidence from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay” (with Cecilia Rossel, Florencia Antía, Santiago López-Cariboni). 

"Relative exposure to trade and group status threat: the political consequences of the China shock in Brazil" (with Dan Jones and Erica Owen).

"Globalization and support for electoral reform" (with Michael Becher).

Book chapters and other publications

Irene Menéndez and David Rueda (2015). “Labour Market Institutions and Economic Performance.” In (ed.) Gandhi, Jennifer and Rubén Ruiz-Rufino. Handbook of Comparative Political Institutions, Routledge, 304-317.

Sarah Berens and Irene Menéndez González (2020). “Is informal work eroding compliance?” In (ed.) Mansfield, Edward and Nita Rudra, Political Economy of Informality in BRIC countries (Volume 3: The Political Economy of Informality in BRIC countries). 

Baker, Andy, Sarah Berens, Germán Feierherd and Irene Menéndez González (2020). “Labor Informality and its Political Consequences in Latin America.” LAPOP Insights Series #144

Irene Menéndez González and Michael Becher (2022). “Polarización política y cumplimiento de las medidas de salud pública en tiempos de COVID-19.” Informe sobre la Democracia en España 2021, Fundación Alternativas.