Despina Alexiadou European University Institute, 2005

I joined the department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh in August 2008 after having spent time at the University of Warwick, England, as an ESRC postdoctoral fellow. I received my PhD at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, in December 2005.

The questions that drive my research are centered on the intersection of politics and economics. Why do some governments follow more restrictive monetary policies than others? What is the role of political parties and of politicians over time in economic policy? What types of government are more suitable for welfare state reforms? These questions, which are important for our understanding of how democracies work, have been asked and debated by political economists without much consensus. I approach these questions in a novel way, by bringing together literatures that have been so far disconnected. To answer the question of monetary policy choices I utilize insights from the literature of macroeconomic management and of welfare state development. To answer the question on the role of political parties and politicians on economic policies I utilize insights from the literature of political parties, government formation and economic governance. . 

My book project investigates the role of individual politicians and specifically of cabinet ministers in policy decision-making. . I argue that ministers do not necessarily represent their political parties but their policy priority and loyalty can lie elsewhere: specifically to an ideology, interest groups or themselves. Along these lines I provide a typology of ministers, which predicts different policy outcomes.