Welcome! I am a applied economist with an interest in public economics, political economy as well as behavioral economics. I work as an Assistant Professor (Juniorprofessor W1, tt W3) at Leipzig University. I am affiliated with the KOMKIS centre to study local public finances and service provison. I am also part of the ifo Institute as well as CESifo and EconPol research network and act as a Junior Research Affiliate of the Department of Public Finance and Corporate Taxation at ZEW Mannheim.

My research tries to study which public policies work effectively and how to implement them. In my work I use both quasi-experimental, survey and experimental approaches. 


I am PI of the DFG-funded project "Policy Making in the Tension Between Scientific Evidence and Public Opinion" (2024-2026) as well as the 

Thyssen-funded project "Subsidies for the Energy Transition: Effectiveness and Take-Up Barriers" (2024-2025).

For more information you can contact me at: sebastian.blesse@uni-leipzig.de.

Please also see my ifo webpage and my Google Scholar profile.