Hi, and thanks for visiting my website!
I’m an applied micro economist interested in a broad set of topics. My work aims to combine insights from political economics, labor economics, and law and economics to better understand policy questions I consider important. Some of my recent papers study political polarization between college and non-college voters and how this affects economic growth, political polarization and attitudes on police reform, strategies to retain police officers and how they affect the composition of the Swedish police, and partisan politics in funding of police departments in France. Some of my ongoing work studies inequality in police salaries across localities in the same area, how restrictions to Medicaid access shape political attitudes, the effects of public sector wage changes on private sector wages, and how political polarization interacts with supermajority rules in legislatures.
My most controversial opinion is that St. Louis is a cool city, I know more about the history of Swedish death metal than most other topics, and my kids are more fun and more interesting than any economics paper I've met yet.
I am an Assistant Professor at the IIES at Stockholm University. I have a Bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri, St. Louis, and a PhD from the University of California, San Diego, both in economics. If you're interested in my work, I'd love to hear from you! I can be reached at mitch.downey [at] iies.su.se.