Dr Roland Kappe joined UCL in September 2012 as a Lecturer in Political Economy in a joint appointment between the School of Public Policy and the European Social and Political Studies Programme (ESPS). Prior to coming to UCL, Roland received his PhD in Political Science from Stony Brook University in New York, working on how changing economic tides affect the popularity and survival of incumbent governments. He also holds an MA from the University of Konstanz in his native Germany and has worked for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.

Research

Dr Kappe’s research interests include comparative political economy, public opinion and political methodology. He is especially interested in combining models of economic and retrospective voting with more realistic assumptions about human behaviour based on research from psychology. Dr Kappe’s methodological interests lie in the analysis of time series and panel data, as well as in formal and agent-based modelling. Additional research projects of his include a recent article on how party politics shape higher education spending in Germany’s federal system and an investigation into the robustness of commonly used predictors of the size of the welfare state.

Refereed Journal Articles

"Political Parties and Higher Education Spending in the German Federal System: Who favours redistribution?" (with Antje Kirchner and Christian Rauh). West European Politics, Volume 34, Issue 6, 2011

Under Review and Work in Progress

"A Behavioral Model of Asymmetric Retrospective Voting", working paper, presented at the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Annual Meeting 2012, Chicago, IL

"Voters’ Asymmetric Responses to the Economy: Evidence from Time-Series Analyses”, working paper, presented at the American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting 2011, Seattle, WA

"Wheat from Chaff: A Sensitivity Analysis of Determinants of Social Expenditure Levels in OECD Countries", working paper, presented at the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Annual Meeting 2010, Chicago, IL

Teaching for 2012-13 session

ESPS6101 Political Economy
POLS6019Welfare Politics