Research

My research addresses two core dimensions of the politics of healthcare. First concerns the policymaking dimension and examines effects of political competition, institutions and ideas on healthcare policy making. Second dimension of my research analyses attitudes toward healthcare, in particular how policy feedback effects and factors such as political ideology and discourse shape these attitudes.

Current research projects:

Co-PI (with A. Moise) on the project ‘Public Responses to Austerity in Healthcare: The Role of Ideology & Government Rhetoric’, funded by The British Academy (BA) and The Leverhulme Trust, 2024-2026.

Summary: Despite the growing body of literature examining public responsiveness to social policies, we have limited comparative knowledge of: (a) how citizens respond to austerity in healthcare, (b) which individual characteristics moderate their responses, and (c) how government’s rhetoric shapes citizens’ reactions to austerity. The lack of knowledge exists because past research relied on health expenditure to measure austerity and used static models of healthcare attitudes. This research project aims to examine dynamic public responsiveness to policies introducing austerity in healthcare in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 28 European countries between 2008 and 2016. Relying on the existing dataset of austerity measures in healthcare, the project: (a) gathers data on government’s narratives to explain these measures to the public, (b) merges and analyses the newly collected data with existing data on attitudes toward healthcare, and (c) produces research outputs that will be disseminated to academic and non-academic audiences.

Previous research projects:

PI on the project ‘Government Discourse in the Context of Austerity-Driven Health Policy Reforms in Portugal, Ireland and Greece’, funded by the European University Institute. (EUI) and Queen Mary University London (QMUL), 2021-2023.

Co-PI (with E. Immergut and D. Burlacu) on the project ‘Responding to COVID-19: Government Action, Government Rhetoric, and Public Trust‘, EUI COVID-19 Knowledge Hub, 2020.

Datasets:

Immergut, E. M., Burlacu, D., Roescu, A., Wegemann, M., Popic, T., Stolarov-Demuth, G. HEALTHDOX Health Politics in Europe Dataset.

This dataset covers healthcare reforms enacted in European countries between 1989 and 2019, including changes in healthcare financing and provision, especially establishing new healthcare programs, privatisation and public management reforms, as well as patient rights. This legislative dataset includes; date of law (or decree or legislative proposal or white paper, etc), number of law, name of law in country language, name of law in English, date of passage, date of entry into force, description of main provisions, link to web site if available.