PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
Michael Becher and Irene Menéndez González. 2025. “Trade and the Politics of Electoral Reform.'' International Organization 79(2): 358-379. [Data, Pre-print]
McGillivray award for best paper in political economy
Michael Becher and Daniel Stegmueller. 2025. “Global Competition, Local Unions, and Political Representation: Disentangling Mechanisms.'' American Journal of Political Science, 1-15. [Data, Pre-print]
Michael Becher, Nicolas Longuet Marx, Vincent Pons, Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault, Vincenzo Galasso, Eric Kerrouche, Sandra León Alfonso, and Daniel Stegmueller. 2024. “Government Performance and Democracy: Survey Experimental Evidence from 12 Countries during COVID-19." The Journal of Politics 86(4): 1162-1176. [Data, Pre-print]
JOP blog
Selected media: The Conversation (in Spanish), Maeil Business Newspaper (Korean), The Print (India)
Michael Becher, Sylvain Brouard, Daniel Stegmueller. 2024. “Endogenous Benchmarking and Government Accountability: Experimental Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic.” British Journal of Political Science 54(2): 355-372. [Data]
Galasso, Vincenzo, Vincent Pons, Paola Profeta, Michael Becher, Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault. 2023. “Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy: Experimental Evidence from Nine High-Income Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” BMJ Global Health 8(9): e012658. [Pre-print]
Media: Market Watch
Michael Becher, Irene Menéndez González, Daniel Stegmueller. 2023. “Proportional Representation and Right-Wing Populism: Evidence from Electoral System Change in Europe.” British Journal of Political Science 53(1): 261-268. [Data, Pre-print]
Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault, Elie Michel, Michael Becher, Pavlos Vasilopoulos, Pierre-Henri Bono, Nicolas Sormani. 2022. “Citizens’ Attitudes Under Covid19: A Cross-Country Panel Survey of Public Opinion in 11 Advanced Democracies.” Scientific Data 9(108). [Data]
Michael Becher, Daniel Stegmueller, Sylvain Brouard, Eric Kerrouche. 2022. “Ideology and Compliance in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Perspective.” Social Science Quarterly 102(5): 2106–2123. [Pre-print]
Michael Becher and Sylvain Brouard. 2022. “Executive Accountability Beyond Outcomes: Experimental Evidence on Public Evaluations of Powerful Prime Ministers.” American Journal of Political Science 66(1): 106-122. [Data]
Jean-François Daoust, Éric Bélanger, Ruth Dassonneville, Erick Lachapelle, Richard Nadeau, Michael Becher, Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault, Christoph Hönnige, and Daniel Stegmueller. 2021. “A Guilt-Free Strategy Increases Self-Reported Non-Compliance with COVID-19 Preventive Measures: Experimental Evidence from 12 Countries.” PLOS ONE 16(4): e0249914.
Michael Becher and Daniel Stegmueller. 2021. “Reducing Unequal Representation: The Impact of Labor Unions on Legislative Responsiveness in the US Congress.” Perspectives on Politics 19(1): 92-109. [Data, Pre-print]
Media: Jacobin, Washington Post
Social media: Altmetric score
Vincenzo Galasso, Vincent Pons, Paola Profeta, Michael Becher, Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault. 2020. “Gender Differences in COVID-19 Related Attitudes and Behavior: Evidence from a Panel Survey in Eight OECD Countries.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117(44): 27285-27291. [Pre-print]
Media: Covered by > 80 news outlets (e.g., Fox News, Le Monde, New York Times, US News) according to Dimensions
Sylvain Brouard, Pavlos Vasilopoulos, Michael Becher. 2020. “Sociodemographic and Psychological Correlates of Compliance with the COVID-19 Public Health Measures in France.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 53(2): 253-258.
Michael Becher and Irene Menéndez González. 2019. “Electoral Reform and Trade-Offs in Representation.” American Political Science Review 113(3): 694-709. [Data, Pre-print]
Media: Euronews
Michael Becher. 2019. “Dissolution Power, Confidence Votes, and Policymaking in Parliamentary Democracies.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 31(2): 183-208.
Michael Becher, Daniel Stegmueller, and Konstantin Käppner. 2018. “Local Union Organization and Lawmaking in the U.S. Congress.” The Journal of Politics 80(2): 539-554. [Data, Pre-print]
Michael Becher, Sylvain Brouard, and Isabelle Guinaudeau. 2017. “Prime Ministers and the Electoral Cost of Using the Confidence Vote in Legislative Bargaining: Evidence From France.” West European Politics 40(2): 252-274. [Pre-print]
Frank L. Wilson best paper award
Media mention: The Conversation
Michael Becher. 2016. “Endogenous Credible Commitment and Party Competition Over Redistribution Under Alternative Electoral Institutions.” American Journal of Political Science 60(3): 768-782. [Data, Pre-print]
Michael Becher and Flemming Juul Christiansen. 2015. “Dissolution Threats and Legislative Bargaining.” American Journal of Political Science 59(3): 641-655. [Data, Pre-print]
Michael Becher and Michael Donnelly. 2013. “Economic Performance, Individual Evaluations and the Vote: Investigating the Causal Mechanism.” The Journal of Politics 75(4): 968-979. [Pre-print]
Media mention: Washington Post
Michael Becher. 2010. “Constraining Ministerial Power: The Impact of Veto Players on Labor Market Reforms in Industrial Democracies, 1973-2000.” Comparative Political Studies 43(1): 33-60. [Pre-print]
Michael Becher and Ulrich Sieberer. 2008. “Discipline, Electoral Rules and Defection in the Bundestag, 1983-94.” German Politics 17(3): 293-304. [Pre-print]
BOOK CHAPTERS
Michael Becher and Daniel Stegmueller. 2023. "Organized Interests and the Mechanisms Behind Unequal Representation in Legislatures.'' In: Lupu, Noam and Pontusson, Jonas, eds. Unequal Democracies: Public Policy, Responsiveness, and Redistribution in an Era of Rising Economic Inequality. SSRC Anxieties of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 133-155.
Michael Becher and Irene Menéndez González. 2022. "Polarización política y cumplimiento de las medidas de salud pública en tiempos de COVID-19.'' In: Informe sobre la democracia en España 2021. Eds. A. Penadés de la Cruz and A. Garmendia Madariaga. Fundación Alternativas.
Michael Becher and Jonas Pontusson. 2011. "Whose Interests Do Unions Represent? Unionization by Income in Western Europe.'' In: Comparing European Workers Part B: Policies and Institutions (Research in the Sociology of Work, Volume 22), ed. David Brady, 181-211. Bingley, UK: Emerald Press.
SELECTED WORK IN PROGRESS
Michael Becher and Jonas Pontusson. "Unfair and contestable? What unions do to beliefs about inequality in Europe and the United States.'' Last presented at EPSA 2024; accepted for presentation at APSA 2025.
Michael Becher and Daniel Stegmueller. "Machines Against Workers? Rethinking the Impact of Robotization on Union Power.'' Last presented at APSA 2024, University of Barcelona, U. Toronto.
Michael Becher, Dan Kselman and Carl G. Maier. "Accountability or Representation? Democracy and Trade-Offs in Electoral Engineering."
LINKS