Professor Mikael Persson
About me
Professor at the Department of political science, University of Gothenburg.
My research focuses on political behavior, public opinion, and political representation,
Co-Head of The Gothenburg research group on Elections, Public opinion and political behavior (GEPOP).
Co-organizer of the annual Nordic Workshop on Political Behavior.
My CV can be downloaded here
My Google Scholar profile can be found here.
Current projects
Co-Principal Investigator for the Swedish National Election Study 2026
Principal Investigator for the Swedish part of POLPOP III (led by Stefaan Walgrave, University of Antwerp), supported by the ERC Advanced Grant How politicians evaluate public opinion
Principal Investigator for the project Debtors as voters: How does rising household debt impact political behaviour?, financed by Vetenskapsrådet (The Swedish Research Council)
Education and Positions
Professor, Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (since May 2020)
Vice Head of Department (responsible for the graduate studies program), Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg (2018–2024)
Co-Head, Gothenburg Research Group on Elections, Public Opinion and Political Behavior (GEPOP) (since October 2019)
Associate Professor (Docent), Political Science, University of Gothenburg (March 2015)
Research Fellow, Department of Government, Uppsala University (2014–2016)
Visiting Researcher, Department of Economics, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles (Fall 2015)
Visiting Associate, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (Spring 2014)
PhD, Political Science, University of Gothenburg (December 2013)
MA, Practical Philosophy, Lund University (March 2007)
MA, Political Science, Lund University (March 2006)
Working Papers
Processing
Macroeconomic Signals: Voter Responses to Growth, Unemployment,
Inflation and Stock Markets
Love Christensen, Mikael Persson, and Jana Schwenk
Articles in Refereed Journals
[Is it the Quantity or the Quality of Public Opinion that
Counts? Elected Representatives’ Criteria to Evaluate Public
Opinion] West European Politics (Forthcoming)
Anne Rasmussen, Mikael Persson, Frédéric Varone, Emmi Verleyen, and
Stefaan Walgrave
[Blocking the Poor: Status Quo Bias in Policy
Congruence]
Policy Studies Journal (Forthcoming)
Mikael Persson and Anders Sundell
Ideological
Bias in Policy Implementation: Public Opinion and Policy Outcomes in 43
Democracies
West European Politics (Forthcoming)
Mikael Persson and Anders Sundell
Poor
Choices? Examining the electoral connection behind unequal policy
representation
European Journal of Political Research (Forthcoming)
Jesper Lindqvist, Mikael Persson, Wouter Schakel, and Anders Sundell
Politicians’
Theories of Voting Behavior
American Political Science Review (2025) 119(3):1304-1321
Jack Lucas, Lior Sheffer, Peter Loewen, Stefaan Walgrave, Karolin
Soontjens, Eran Amsalem, Stefanie Bailer, Nathalie Brack, Christian
Breunig, Pirmin Bundi, Linda Coufalová, Patrick Dumont, Sarah Lachance,
Miguel Pereira, Mikael Persson, Jean-Benoit Pilet, Anne Rasmussen,
Maj-Britt Sterba, and Frédéric Varone
The Economic
and Cultural Dimensions of Unequal Representation
Socio-Economic Review (2024) 22(1): mwae043.
Wouter Schakel, Mikael Persson and Anders Sundell
Is
Opinion-Policy Congruence Rewarded at the Ballot Box?
Electoral Studies (2024) 90: 102793.
Jesper Lindqvist, Mikael Persson and Anders Sundell
Lacking
Incentives, not Information: Why politicians are less responsive to
lower income citizens
Legislative Studies Quarterly (2024) 49(2): 815–834.
Karolin Soontjens and Mikael Persson
A
Man’s World? The Policy Representation of Women and Men in a Comparative
Perspective
Perspectives on Politics (2024) 22(1): 11–27.
Mikael Persson, Wouter Schakel and Anders Sundell
The
Rich Have a Slight Edge: Evidence from Comparative Data on Income Based
Inequality in Policy Congruence
British Journal of Political Science (Forthcoming) (2024) 54(2):
514–525.
Mikael Persson and Anders Sundell
Who
Got What They Wanted? Investigating the Role of Institutional Agenda
Setting, Costly Policies, and Status Quo Bias as Explanations to Income
Based Unequal Responsiveness
Journal of European Public Policy (2023) 31(7):
1879–1901.
Mikael Persson
Issue
Voting and Government Responsiveness to Policy
Preferences
Political Behavior (2021): 1–24.
Eric Guntermann and Mikael Persson
From Opinions to
Policies: Examining the Links Between Citizens, Representatives, and
Policy Change
Electoral Studies 74 (2021): 102413.
Mikael Persson
Does
Deliberative Education Increase Civic Competence? Results from a Field
Experiment
Journal of Experimental Political Science (2020) 7(3):
199–208.
Mikael Persson, Klas Andersson, Pär Zetterberg, Joakim Ekman and Simon
Lundin
Reconsidering
the Role of Procedures for Decision Acceptance
British Journal of Political Science (2019) 49(1):
291–314.
Peter Esaiasson, Mikael Persson, Mikael Gilljam and Torun Lindholm
Access to
Education and Political Candidacy: Lessons from School Openings in
Sweden
Economics of Education Review 69 (2019): 138–48.
Karl-Oskar Lindgren, Sven Oskarsson and Mikael Persson
Enhancing
Electoral Equality: Can Education Compensate for Family Background
Differences in Voting Participation?
American Political Science Review (2019) 113(1): 108–22.
Karl-Oskar Lindgren, Sven Oskarsson and Mikael Persson
Patrimonial
Economic Voting and Asset Value–New Evidence from Taxation Register
Data
British Journal of Political Science (2018) 48(3):
825–42.
Mikael Persson and Johan Martinsson
Digging
into the Pocketbook: Evidence on Economic Voting from Income Registry
Data Matched to a Voter Survey
American Political Science Review (2017) 111(4): 771–85.
Andrew J. Healy, Mikael Persson and Erik Snowberg
Responsiveness
Beyond Policy Satisfaction: Does It Matter to
Citizens?
Comparative Political Studies (2017) 50(6): 739–65
Peter Esaiasson, Mikael Gilljam and Mikael Persson
How Does
Education Affect Adolescents’ Political Development?
Economics of Education Review (2016) 53 182–93.
Mikael Persson, Karl-Oskar Lindgren and Sven Oskarsson
Personality
Traits and Party Identification over Time
European Journal of Political Research (2015) 54(2):
197–215.
Bert N. Bakker, David Nicolas Hopmann and Mikael Persson
Classroom Climate and Political Learning:
Findings from a Swedish Panel Study and Comparative
Data
Political Psychology (2015) 36(5): 587–601.
Mikael Persson
Education and Political
Participation
British Journal of Political Science (2015) 45(3):
689–703.
Mikael Persson
Different Surveys, Different Results? A
Comparison of Two Surveys on the 2009 European Parliamentary
Election
West European Politics (2014) 37(1): 204–21.
Stefan Dahlberg and Mikael Persson
Does Studying Political Science Affect
Civic Attitudes?: A Panel Comparison of Students of Politics, Law, and
Mass Communication
Journal of Political Science Education (2014) 10(4):
375–85.
Peter Esaiasson and Mikael Persson
Does Survey Participation Increase Voter
Turnout? Re-Examining the Hawthorne Effect in the Swedish National
Election Studies
Political Science Research and Methods (2014) 2(2):
297-307.
Mikael Persson
Social Network Position Mediates the
Effect of Education on Active Political Party
Membership
Party Politics (2014) 20(5): 724–39.
Mikael Persson
Testing the Relationship Between Education
and Political Participation Using the 1970 British Cohort
Study
Political Behavior (2014) 36(4): 877–97.
Mikael Persson
Measuring Political Participation—Testing
Social Desirability Bias in a Web-Survey Experiment
International Journal of Public Opinion Research (2014) 26(1):
98–112.
Mikael Persson and Maria Solevid
Voter
Turnout and Political Equality: Testing the Law of Dispersion in a
Swedish Natural Experiment
Politics (2013) 33(3): 172–184.
Mikael Persson, Maria Solevid, and Richard Öhrvall
The Effects of Direct Voting and
Deliberation on Legitimacy Beliefs: An Experimental Study of Small Group
Decision-Making
European Political Science Review 2013 5(3): 381–99.
Mikael Persson, Peter Esaiasson and Mikael Gilljam
Is the Effect of
Education on Voter Turnout Absolute or Relative? A Multi-Level Analysis
of 37 Countries
Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties (2013) 23 (2):
111–33.
Mikael Persson
Which Decision-Making Arrangements
Generate the Strongest Legitimacy Beliefs? Evidence from a Randomised
Field Experiment
European Journal of Political Research (2012) 51 (6):
785–808.
Peter Esaiasson, Mikael Gilljam and Mikael Persson
The
Generational Effect in Turnout in the Swedish Parliamentary Elections
1960–2010
Scandinavian Political Studies (2013) 36(3): 249–269.
ersson, Mikael, Hanna Wass, and Henrik Oscarsson
Representatives’
Attitudes Toward Citizen Protests in Sweden: The Impact of Ideology,
Parliamentary Position, and Experiences
Legislative Studies Quarterly (2012) 37 (2): 251–68.
Mikael Gilljam, Mikael Persson, David Karlsson
Does
Type of Education Affect Political Participation? Results from a Panel
Survey of Swedish Adolescents
Scandinavian Political Studies (2012) 35 (3): 198–221.
Mikael Persson
An
Empirical Test of the Relative Education Model in
Sweden
Political Behavior (2011) 33(3): 455–478.
Mikael Persson
The
Swedish Pirate Party and the 2009 European Parliament Election: Protest
or Issue Voting?
Politics (2011) 31(3): 121–128.
Gissur Erlingsson and Mikael Persson
Did
the Egalitarian Reforms of the Swedish Educational System Equalise
Levels of Democratic Citizenship?
Scandinavian Political Studies (2010) 33(2): 135–63.
Mikael Persson and Henrik Oscarsson
Selected Book Chapters
The
socialization effect of education on authoritarian-libertarian
values
in Research Handbook on Education and Democracy Janmaat, J.G.,
and Dijkstra, A.B. (Eds.). (2005). pp. 45–68. Cheltenham: Edward
Elgar.
Hilma Lindskog and Mikael Persson
Education
and political participation revisited
in Research Handbook on Education and Democracy Janmaat, J.G.,
and Dijkstra, A.B. (Eds.). (2005). pp. 69–92. Cheltenham: Edward
Elgar.
Mikael Persson and Hilma Lindskog
Which
teaching practices promote students’ democracy learning? A systematic
review
in Research Handbook on Education and Democracy Janmaat, J.G.,
and Dijkstra, A.B. (Eds.). (2005). pp. 93–118. Cheltenham: Edward
Elgar.
Pontus Wallin, Maria Olsson, and Mikael Persson
Unequal
Responsiveness and Government Partisanship in Northwest
Europe
in Unequal Democracies: Public Policy, Responsiveness, and
Redistribution in an Era of Rising Economic Inequality Lupu, Noam,
and Pontusson, Jonas (Eds.). (2024). pp. 29–53. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. Ruben Mathisen, Wouter Schakel, Svenja Hense, Lea
Elsässer, Mikael Persson, and Jonas Pontusson
Political Support in the Wake of Controversial Policy
Proposals – A Fire House Study of Protesters in Suburbia
in Myth and Reality of the Legitimacy Crisis: Explaining trends and
cross-national differences in established democracies van Ham,
Carolien, Thomassen, Jacques, Aarts, Kees, and Andeweg, Rudy (Eds.).
(2015). pp. 172–192. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Peter Esaiasson, Mikael Gilljam, and Mikael Persson
Religion and Political Participation in Sweden
in Stepping Stones: Research on Political Representation, Voting
Behavior, and Quality of Government Dahlberg, Stefan, Oscarsson,
Henrik, and Wängnerud, Lena (Eds.). (2013). pp. 85–104. Gothenburg:
Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg.
Donald Granberg and Mikael Persson
Communicative Responsiveness and other Important Concepts in
Between-Election Democracy
in Between-Election Democracy: The Representative Relationship after
Election Day Esaiasson, Peter, and Narud, Hanne Marthe (Eds.).
(2013). pp. 21–45. Colchester: ECPR Press.
Peter Esaiasson, Mikael Gilljam, and Mikael Persson
Textbook
Den allmänna opinionen: En introducerande
handbok
Stockholm: Liber (2015)
Mikael Gilljam and Mikael Persson