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Master’s thesis supervision (Prof. Aya Kachi): Analyzing public attitudes and/or national emissions in relation to climate policies using quantitative data
I'm inviting applications for master’s thesis supervision (2024). You probably agree that (useful) research must evolve faster to catch up with the current rate of climate change progression. There are several empirical themes through which I believe you could contribute to this path with me and my team.
What are ‘true’ drivers of resistance to stringent climate policies—cost perceptions or ideological leanings? Using methods like latent profile analyses (LPA) on policy proponents and opponents might help us assist policymakers better in the future. But wait, what are the kinds of socio-political identity driving policy resistance anyway—beyond the familiar left-right divide? Speaking of a divide, have you noticed that some people are punishing each other by their climate policy stances these days? What are individual characteristics linked to the degree of this issue-based affective polarization? Economic contexts matters, too. Considering economies characterized by both fossil fuel reliance (providing jobs and revenues) and climate disasters (looking at you, Australia!), how do these ‘competing factors’ affect public attitudes toward climate policy? Spatial regression analyses, for example, could reveal these ties by combining location, industry, and opinion data. Nationally, we still need to clarify public opinion’s role in policy adoption and emission reductions. Do countries adopt policies faster if there is greater public support, and does that actually lead to more emissions reduction? What’s the relationship with the industry influence? Here, you can consider running a duration analysis(event history analysis) and a diff-in-diff analysis to advance our understanding. By now there are many existing micro and macro datasets (both our team’s own and publicly available) that allow us to answer these questions step by step.
For those interested in quantitative climate policy research (not limited to the topic listed here), please follow the application instructions: https://shorturl.at/bovS7