Pablo Beramendi Álvarez

Pablo Beramendi Álvarez- Duke University. USA

Pablo Beramendi is a Professor of Political Science (Political Economy) at Duke University. He completed his doctorate (D.Phil.) at the University of Oxford in 2003 and was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Science Center, Berlin. Prior to Duke, he has been a faculty member at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University (2004-2007) and the University of Oxford (2009-2011), where he was also a fellow of University College.  His work focuses on the political economy of inequality and redistribution. In particular, he has worked on three areas: the link between economic and political geography and the politics of fiscal integration in federations, the origins and consequences of states’ fiscal capacity, and the connection between economic and political inequality. He is the author of multiple publications in each of these three lines of inquiry, including The Political Geography of Inequality (2012, CUP) and Economic and Political Inequality: Competition, Spending, and Turnout, co-authored with Francesc Amat, and soon to be published as well by CUP.

Research stay at UC3M: DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

Project:

Why do some states have stronger fiscal states than others? Within this broad research question, my project aims to place the Spanish experience in comparative context and understand the origins and implications of different degrees of fiscal capacity. I plan to focus on two interrelated factors: the timing and type of industrialization and how its spatial distribution shapes political conflicts between elites and the politics of institutional reform. The project involves extensive data collection of subnational patterns of industrialization across countries, a micro level analysis of economic and political elites, and an in-depth study of key policy decisions bearing on legal fiscal innovations and, especially, investments in stronger fiscal bureaucracies. This historical focus will help understand recent developments, in particular why Spain is, among European democracies, one that has seen very sharp increases in inequality and poverty.