Research interests and approach

My primary research interests are political elites and their attitudes and behaviour. My work lies, therefore, at the intersection between legislative studies, party politics, and political economy. In particular, during my Ph.D. I studied the determinants of legislative party switching. Later, during my post-doc, I have focused on elites' perception of economic inequality. Methodologically, I combine historical and comparative analysis with experimental research.


Economic Inequality

My current work looks at the perception of economic inequality by elites as well as by citizens. The central motivation of this line of research is to uncover the mechanisms that affect the way people and politicians see the economic reality around them and what are the consequences of this perception. Indeed, if citizens hold a distorted view of economic inequality, they might not feel that income disparities are worrisome and they might not demand more redistribution. Similarly, if politicians do not believe that economic inequality is widespread, they might not take any action to reduce it. My research studies the psychological mechanisms (in particular, the ideological bias) that affect the perception of economic inequality by citizens and elites. I have also looked at the consequences that biases have for redistribution preferences and party choices. Moreover, I have also examined the potential ways to overcome these biases, especially when it comes to citizens' populist attitudes.

Working papers

  • "A Distorting Mirror: Partisan preferences and mis-perceptions of economic inequality", with Nathalie Giger [Conference paper] [Current version].

  • "Who owns economic inequality? How left parties compete over the issue and how it matters for their electoral support", with Nathalie Giger and Davy-Kim Lascombes [Conference paper].

  • "Not visible enough? Politicians’ explanations of economic inequality and their consequences", with Nathalie Giger [Conference paper].

  • "Looking for cues? A survey experiment on citizens’ information seeking behavior", with Nathalie Giger [Conference paper] [Pre-Analysis Plan].


Party Switching

Legislative party-switching occurs when elected politicians change party affiliation during a parliamentary term. This behaviour is potentially problematic, as it endangers accountability and representation. Despite the normative and empirical relevance of this phenomenon, there are few studies analysing it. For my Ph.D. thesis, I created the most extensive comparative data set on the topic and I analysed the determinants of this behaviour. In particular, I developed a new theoretical argument looking at the benefits as well as at the costs of the decision to switch. Most importantly, I argued that to understand the drivers of party switching, we should also take into consideration the modality of the defection, that is, whether politicians change parties individually or as a group. While the thesis focuses on the determinants of party switching, I have also worked on the consequences of this behaviour for politicians and party strategies.

Thesis

  • Volpi, Elisa (2019). "The Politics of Turning Coat. A Comparative and Historical Analysis of Party Switching". EUI PhD thesis. Link: https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/62404 [Book manuscript in preparation].

Working papers

  • "Dancing alone or waltzing together? On different party switching strategies in Western Europe" [Conference paper] [Current version].

  • "The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? Policy Preferences and Legislative Party Switching", with Laura Gatto and Pirmin Bundi [Conference paper].


Party Politics

The topic of party switching is related to the issue of party change. As a consequence, one of my other research interests is to understand how political parties have been changing over time.

Working papers

  • "Searching for the Cartel Party: Inter-party Collusion and Legislative Activity", with Felix-Christopher von Nostitz and François Briatte. [Conference paper].