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.

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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