Welcome!
I am Professor of Political Science at Goethe University Frankfurt.
I am a comparativist. My research lies at the intersection of comparative political economy, public policy, and political sociology. Most of my recent work focuses on welfare state research, education and social investment policy, party politics, and public opinion. More recently I am also stretching out to public administration research, trying to understand the role of ministries (of finance) for policy-making. While I was trained with a focus on the rich, established democracies, my research increasingly covers countries around the globe.
I hold a PhD from the University of Konstanz. Before joining Frankfurt, I was Senior Researcher at the University of Zurich, Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, Duke University, and at Rutgers, as well as a Max Weber Fellow at the EUI, Florence.
I have published five books:
My dissertation on the Political Economy of Higher Education Finance (Palgrave) studies the politics of tuition fees and financial student aid in all rich democracies since 1945. It was the recipient of the German Political Science Association's (DVPW's) Best Dissertation Prize, the ESPAnet/JESP's Doctoral Researcher Prize, and shortlisted for the Deutscher Studienpreis.
In my second book, A Loud But Noisy Signal (Cambridge University Press), Marius Busemeyer, Erik Neimanns, and I study what citizens want when it comes to education policy -- and under what conditions public opinion matters for policy-making. The book was awarded the American Political Science Association's (APSA) Education Politics and Policy secions's best book award and shortlisted for the Stein Rokkan Prize.
In two new volumes with Oxford University Press, Silja Häusermann, Bruno Palier, and I explore the politics of welfare states in the knowledge economy - with a large team of more than 50 experts -, studying social investment reforms around the globe. (Link to WOPSI Volume I & WOPSI Volume II). Open Access version of Vol I here and Vol II here.
My most recent book, Kapitalismus: Zur Einführung, is a German-language introduction to comparative capitalism research. It takes a global perspective and offers insights into the different types of capitalism we find around the globe, their political causes, and socio-economic consequences.
Articles have appeared in Comparative Political Studies (CPS), the European Journal of Political Research (EJPR), in the European Sociological Review (ESR), the Journal of European Social Policy (JESP), Governance, the Journal of European Public Policy (JEPP), the Journal of Legislative Studies (JLS), the Journal of Social Policy (JSP), Political Science Research & Methods (PSRM), PS: Political Science and Politics (PS), Social Policy & Administration (SPA), and in West European Politics (WEP).
A paper on the Power of Oppositions was awarded the Swiss Political Science Association's (SVPW-ASSP) Best Paper Prize.
I co-chair the CES' Political Economy and Welfare Research Network and the Politics of Education Network (PEN) and am a Board Member of RC19, the Research Committee on Poverty, Social Welfare, and Social Policy. Moreover, I am Co-Director (with Daniela Grunow) of InFER, the Institute for Empirical-Analytical Research, a leading social science institute based at Goethe University Frankfurt.