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Dr Eleanor Woodhouse

Ellie
Lecturer in Public Policy
Room:
3.04, 36-38 Gordon Square
Email: eleanor.woodhouse@ucl.ac.uk
Website

Biography

I am a Lecturer in Public Policy. I joined the Department in 2020 from the European University Institute (EUI), where I was a Max Weber postdoctoral fellow. I received my PhD in Public Policy and Administration (cum laude) from Bocconi University in 2019, before joining the Department of Economics at the EUI for my postdoctoral fellowship.

I hold a Master’s degree in Modern European Studies from UCL and a Bachelor’s degree in French and Italian from Balliol College, Oxford University. I received a Fulbright-Schuman fellowship in 2016/2017 to conduct research at Harvard University’s Department of Economics.

I spent two years working for the European Commission’s Directorate-General of Education and Culture. This experience shaped the direction of my research, which lies at the interface between political institutions and public administration.

Research

My research spans comparative politics, public administration and public policy. I aim to better understand how agency relations function in modern governance.

My current projects fall into three strands. In the first, I explore the political determinants of the adoption of public-private partnerships (PPPs). In a series of papers and a Cambridge Element manuscript (under contract), I theorise and analyse the distributive patterns of PPPs, the way in which their networks are modelled, and their effect on voters.

In the second, I investigate how national politics can affect local bureaucratic outcomes. Using data on a political scandal in Italy, I provide evidence that a sudden increase in electoral accountability for national deputies can increase corruption amongst local public officials.

In the third, I use a novel within-country research design to show that changing the national electoral rule from majoritarian to proportional increased the number of women elected, while not decreasing the overall quality of politicians.

Uncovering Politics logo showing people with raised banners and hands in silhouette

Podcast: UCL Uncovering Politics

Hear Dr Woodhouse speak about her research on the following podcast episode:
S6 Ep2 | Voting Systems and the Representation of Women

Publications

Journal articles
Books
  • Bertelli, A. M., Woodhouse, E. F., Castiglioni, M. and Belardinelli, P. (2021) Partnership Communities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Book chapters
Policy papers
  • Woodhouse, E., Ortega Nieto, D. and Alves de Albuquerque Tavares, R. (Forthcoming) ‘Using Microdata for Strategic Human Resource Management and Fiscal Planning in the Public Sector’, in D. Rogger and C. Schuster (eds.) Government Analytics: An Empirical Guide to Measurement in Public Administration.
  • Woodhouse, E., Rogger, D. and Williams, M. (Forthcoming) ‘Government Analytics Using Data on Task and Project Completion’, in D. Rogger and C. Schuster (eds.) Government Analytics: An Empirical Guide to Measurement in Public Administration.

Teaching

I teach on the undergraduate Policy Making module, and on the postgraduate Theories and Actors of the Policy Process module.