Starting summer 2025, I will join the
University of Warwick as an Assistant Professor in Political Science.
I do research at the intersection of political economy, political behavior and comparative politics. I am also interested in questions on public opinion, social policy, group identity, and the political consequences of the housing market. Methodologically, I have a keen interest for causal inference and experimental methods.
The Implications of Cohabitation Between Working Age Children and Parents on Political Opinions
Alexandra Jabbour,
European Journal of Political Research
Abstract
Paper
Code
A large number of young adults still live with their parents because they have difficulties entering the job market, because of low wages, or the cost of housing. Despite much research in social science on the consequences of this salient social trend, we lack an understanding of its implications for public opinion. This research note fills this gap by investigating whether such living arrangements between working age children and their parents is correlated with household members' political stances. Specifically, I expect that the anxiety induced by seeing their children having difficulties to become independent will lead parents to hold more negatives political stances, while the same outcome is expected from working age children who failed to fly the nest compared to their independent peers. Using data from the European Social Survey in 32 countries covering the period between 2002 and 2016, I show that, for both parents and young adults, cohabitation is associated with negative evaluations of the national economy and of the government's performance. Studies that do not take into account the situation of other household members might miss an important part of the opinion formation puzzle.
Party Responsiveness Over Time: From Left-Right to Issue Specific Dimensions
Ruth Dassonneville,
Nadjim Frechet,
Alexandra Jabbour,
Benjamin Ferland and
Jonathan Homola,
Party Politics
Abstract
Paper
Parties’ ideological responsiveness to public opinion is a key finding in the party politics literature. Leveraging the longitudinal coverage of public opinion and party position data, this research note shows that findings of left-right ideological responsiveness are limited to a specific time period. We find that since the mid-1990s, left-right shifts in public opinion are no longer significantly associated with party position changes on the same dimension. By examining over-time changes in responsiveness on more specific issue dimensions, we also uncover that at about the same time, a pattern of responsiveness on issues related to nationalism/immigration has emerged. These findings highlight the need to move beyond a focus on a single left-right dimension for studying public opinion and party behavior.
More ‘Europe’, less Democracy? European integration does not erode satisfaction with democracy
Ruth Dassonneville,
Alexandra Jabbour, and
Michael S. Lewis-Beck,
Electoral Studies
Abstract
Paper
Code
The process of European integration, through institutions such as the European Union, the Eurozone, or Schengen, implies a shift in political decision-making away from the national governments and towards international institutions. This gradual shift in the balance of power, furthermore, is increasingly debated by citizens. As a result, European integration might lead to an erosion of satisfaction with democracy in European countries. By means of a longitudinal analysis of the determinants of satisfaction with democracy in European countries, we test this expectation. We find no indication that the shift in the balance of power, and the trend towards more European integration indeed have eroded satisfaction with the functioning of (national) democracy.
An extraordinary election? A longitudinal perspective of the Québec 2018 election
Jean-Francois Daoust and
Alexandra Jabbour,
French Politics
Abstract
Paper
From 1970 to 2018, either the Québec Liberal Party or the Parti Québécois won the elections in Québec. The Coalition Avenir Québec ended this long period of bipartisan alternation by winning a majority of seats in the 2018 election. Using datasets that cover five elections (2007, 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2018) over a period of 11 years, we provide a unique longitudinal perspective of citizens’ vote choice calculus. More specifically, we analyse long-term factors that are known to be crucial to make sense of electoral outcomes. Do factors such as generations, sex, attitudes towards Québec sovereignty and party identification have the same weight in voters’ calculus over time? Our results show a relative stability, but also several interesting variations, especially regarding the effect of support for Québec independence. This perspective deepens our understanding of recent political developments in Québec politics.
Working papers
[Title redacted for peer review]
Alexandra Jabbour,
Çakir Semih,
Coulombe, Maxime,
Gareau Paquette, Thomas,
Leblanc, Juliette,
Liang, Baowen,
Pautonnier, Valentin,
Rafie, Thomas,
Taylor, Matthew,
Vandewalle, Virginie,
Bergeron, Maxime,
Kostelka, Filip, and
Ruth Dassonneville (
R&R at Journal of Politics)
Abstract
[Redacted for peer review.]
Local Housing Prices and Economic Anxiety
Alexandra Jabbour (
Under review)
Abstract
Paper
Do housing prices influence how individuals perceive their economic standing? Recent research linking housing prices to electoral outcomes suggests that they do. The theoretical expectation is that individuals update their economic perceptions based on housing costs and vote accordingly. However, it remains empirically untested whether housing prices trigger an economic reaction, and if so, whether this pertains to individual economic standing or sociotropic ones such as the national economy or the level of inequality. Testing this expectation is essential since other theoretical paths could explain the assumed link between housing prices and political reactions. This paper interrogates this key assumption by testing whether renters and owners react differently to housing market information. In two experiments conducted in the United States and Canada, treatments inform participants about local housing costs. Informing respondents about the cost of home ownership in their locality triggers economic anxiety among renters, but not all homeowners since only economically at-risk owners exhibit attitudes akin to renters. The results are important for our understanding of the political consequences of surging housing prices and its potential link with anti-establishment vote. The study shed light on the economic anxiety this may generate and identify the groups most affected.
Work in progress
Incumbency Advantage and Social Housing
draft available upon request
Does Social Spending Moderate Economic Voting? Revisiting the Economic Voting - Welfare State Nexus
w/
Ruth Dassonneville
Economic Perception in Motion: The Role of Commuting from Home to Work
draft available on request
Teaching
Graduate (at
EUI):
- Introduction to Quantitative Methods (Instructor) — Fall 2024
- Survey Experiments (Instructor) — 2024, 2025
Undergraduate (at
Université de Montréal):
- POL 2050: Political Representation (Lecturer) — Fall 2022
- POL 3015: Elections (Lecturer) — Fall 2021
