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. I am currently also an Associated Researcher at the Cluster of Excellence on "The Politics of Inequality" at the University of Konstanz.

My main research interests lie at the intersection of international political economy and comparative political economy, with special emphasis on the political consequences of globalisation, as well as welfare states and interest representation in Europe and Latin America. In recent work, I focus on the politics of informality and public goods provision. I also work 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).

Selected publications

Becher, M. and Menéndez González, I. “Trade and the politics of electoral reform.” International Organization 79(2):358-379. Link to paper here.

Menéndez González, I., Owen, E. and Walter, S. (2023). “Low-skilled products by high-skilled workers: the distributive effects of trade in developing countries”. Comparative Political Studies, 56(11), 1724-1759. Link to paper here.

Becher, M., Menéndez González, I. and Stegmueller, D. (2021). “Proportional Representation and Right-Wing Populism: Evidence from Electoral System Change in Europe.” British Journal of Political Science, 51(1), 261-268. Link to paper here. Also available as pre-print version on SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3795175 

Menéndez González, I. (2021). “Insiders, outsiders, skills and preferences for social protection: evidence from a survey experiment in Argentina.” Comparative Political Studies (14): 2581–2610. Link to paper here. Available as pre-print version on SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3821466 

Becher, M. and Menéndez González, I. (2019). “Electoral reform and trade-offs in political representation.” American Political Science Review 113(3): 694–709. Link to paper here. 

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

Menéndez, I. (2016). “Globalization and Welfare Spending: how Geography and Electoral Institutions condition Compensation.” International Studies Quarterly 60(4): 665 – 676. Link to paper here.

Working papers 

“Between enforcement and forbearance: deferred enforcement and protection against informality during crisis.” With Santiago López-Cariboni, Sarah Berens and Armin von Schiller. Presented at APSA, EPSA and REPAL.

“Electoral Rules, National identity, and Political Responses to Trade Wars.” With Michael Becher. Presented at APSA, EPSA, UToronto. 

“Supply chains and the China shock in emerging economies: unbundling the electoral consequences of trade exposure in Brazil.” With Erica Owen and Daniel Jones. Presented at EPSA, APSA, Civica/Madrid workshop.

“State capacity and deformalizing social policy.” With Santiago López-Cariboni, Florencia Antía, Cecilia Rossel. Presented at APSA, REPAL.

Work in progress

“Electoral Competition and Parliamentary Debate in the Age of Populism.” With Michael Becher, Alberto de León and Nina Wiesehomeier. Presented at EPSA.

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

Book chapters and other publications

Menéndez, I. and Rueda, D. (2015). “Labour Market Institutions and Economic Performance.” In (ed.) Gandhi, J. and Ruiz-Rufino, R. Handbook of Comparative Political Institutions, Routledge, 304-317.

Berens, S. and Menéndez González, I. (2020). “Is informal work eroding compliance?” In Mansfield, E., Rudra, N., Abraham, B., Ray, P., Kim, S.Y. and López-Cariboni, S. (ed.). “The Political Economy of the BRICS countries” (Volume 3), World Scientific Books. https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/11330-vol3#t=aboutBook 

Baker, A., Berens, S., Feierherd, G. and Menéndez González, I. (2020). “Labor Informality and its Political Consequences in Latin America.” LAPOP Insights Series #144. Link here.

Menéndez González, I. and Becher, M. (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. Link here.

Menéndez González, I. (2022). “Skill Levels, Job Security and Policy Preferences in Latin America.” Working Inequality, In_equality Magazine #4, University of Konstanz. Link here.