Reto Wüest
Biographic Data
| ID | 4275893 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Reto Wüest |
| GIVEN NAMES | Reto |
| FAMILY NAME | Wüest |
| SIGNATURE | WÜEST R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bergen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7502-6489 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 42 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Are Less Affluent People Less Likely to Run for Political Office
In almost all democracies, elected officials are better off than most of the citizens they represent. Recent research has shown that this descriptive misrepresentation is partly due to voter and party bias against less well‐off candidates. In this paper, we explore a third possible explanation: Are less affluent people less likely to run for political office than well‐off people? To answer this question, we draw on original data from two Swiss su…
Mapping the policy space of public consultations
Public consultations strengthen the informational advantage and policy legitimacy of bureaucracies by allowing them to collect and aggregate information on stakeholder preferences. How well consultations perform this function depends on the dimensional structure and complexity of the policy spaces describing them. Building on the research on spatial models of politics, we derive a set of expectations about the dimensional structure and policy con…
Shared Class, Shared Opinion? Policy Preference Congruence Between Citizens and Legislators
Recent studies have shown that policymakers and policy outcomes in advanced democracies are biased against the preferences of less affluent and working‐class citizens. One reason for this inequality in substantive representation might be that most policymakers are well‐off themselves. In this paper, we explore the effect of shared class background on the congruence between legislators' and citizens' policy preferences. To do so, we rely on origin…
Improved Multilevel Regression with Poststratification through Machine Learning (autoMrP)
Multilevel regression with post-stratification (MrP) has quickly become the gold standard for small area estimation. While the first MrP models did not include context-level information, current applications almost always make use of such data. When using MrP, researchers are faced with three problems: how to select features, how to specify the functional form, and how to regularize the model parameters. These problems are especially important wi…
Voter preferences as a source of descriptive (mis)representation by social class
This paper presents the results of a conjoint survey experiment in which Swiss citizens were asked to choose among parliamentary candidates with different class profiles determined by occupation, education and income. Existing survey‐experimental literature on this topic suggests that respondents are indifferent to the class profiles of candidates or biased against candidates with high‐status occupations and high incomes. We find that respondents…
Are opinion leaders better represented
Few studies have analysed the effect of political engagement on legislators’ responsiveness. This article focuses on opinion leaders defined as citizens who regularly discuss politics and who attempt to persuade others to change their viewpoint. It investigates whether opinion leaders are better represented compared to other voters. Taking advantage of the Swiss institution of direct democracy, the article combines roll-call votes and information…
Parliamentary Voting Procedures in Comparison
Increasingly, scholars of legislative politics propose comparative analyses of parliamentary voting behaviour across different countries and parliaments. Yet parliamentary voting procedures differ dramatically across parliamentary chambers and ignoring these differences may, in the extreme, lead to meaningless comparisons. This paper presents a first glimpse at a comprehensive data collection effort covering more than 250 parliamentary chambers i…
Descriptive and Substantive Representation of Poor Citizens in Switzerland
Over the past decade, a large number of studies have shown that in advanced democracies policymakers are more likely to represent the preferences of high-income citizens than the preferences of low-income citizens (e.g., Gilens 2005, 2012; Bartels 2008; Ellis 2012; Giger, Rosset and Bernauer 2012; Hayes 2012; Rigby and Wright 2013). In a quest to understand this income bias in substantive representation, several authors have recently suggested th…
Voter preferences as a source of descriptive (mis)representation by social class
This paper presents the results of a conjoint survey experiment in which Swiss citizens were asked to choose among parliamentary candidates with different class profiles determined by occupation, education and income. Existing survey‐experimental literature on this topic suggests that respondents are indifferent to the class profiles of candidates or biased against candidates with high‐status occupations and high incomes. We find that respondents…
Parliamentary Voting Procedures in Comparison
Increasingly, scholars of legislative politics propose comparative analyses of parliamentary voting behaviour across different countries and parliaments. Yet parliamentary voting procedures differ dramatically across parliamentary chambers and ignoring these differences may, in the extreme, lead to meaningless comparisons. This paper presents a first glimpse at a comprehensive data collection effort covering more than 250 parliamentary chambers i…
Descriptive and Substantive Representation of Poor Citizens in Switzerland
Over the past decade, a large number of studies have shown that in advanced democracies policymakers are more likely to represent the preferences of high-income citizens than the preferences of low-income citizens (e.g., Gilens 2005, 2012; Bartels 2008; Ellis 2012; Giger, Rosset and Bernauer 2012; Hayes 2012; Rigby and Wright 2013). In a quest to understand this income bias in substantive representation, several authors have recently suggested th…
Improved Multilevel Regression with Poststratification through Machine Learning (autoMrP)
Multilevel regression with post-stratification (MrP) has quickly become the gold standard for small area estimation. While the first MrP models did not include context-level information, current applications almost always make use of such data. When using MrP, researchers are faced with three problems: how to select features, how to specify the functional form, and how to regularize the model parameters. These problems are especially important wi…
Are opinion leaders better represented
Few studies have analysed the effect of political engagement on legislators’ responsiveness. This article focuses on opinion leaders defined as citizens who regularly discuss politics and who attempt to persuade others to change their viewpoint. It investigates whether opinion leaders are better represented compared to other voters. Taking advantage of the Swiss institution of direct democracy, the article combines roll-call votes and information…
Mapping the policy space of public consultations
Public consultations strengthen the informational advantage and policy legitimacy of bureaucracies by allowing them to collect and aggregate information on stakeholder preferences. How well consultations perform this function depends on the dimensional structure and complexity of the policy spaces describing them. Building on the research on spatial models of politics, we derive a set of expectations about the dimensional structure and policy con…
Shared Class, Shared Opinion? Policy Preference Congruence Between Citizens and Legislators
Recent studies have shown that policymakers and policy outcomes in advanced democracies are biased against the preferences of less affluent and working‐class citizens. One reason for this inequality in substantive representation might be that most policymakers are well‐off themselves. In this paper, we explore the effect of shared class background on the congruence between legislators' and citizens' policy preferences. To do so, we rely on origin…
Parliamentary Voting Procedures in Comparison
Increasingly, scholars of legislative politics propose comparative analyses of parliamentary voting behaviour across different countries and parliaments. Yet parliamentary voting procedures differ dramatically across parliamentary chambers and ignoring these differences may, in the extreme, lead to meaningless comparisons. This paper presents a first glimpse at a comprehensive data collection effort covering more than 250 parliamentary chambers i…
Descriptive and Substantive Representation of Poor Citizens in Switzerland
Over the past decade, a large number of studies have shown that in advanced democracies policymakers are more likely to represent the preferences of high-income citizens than the preferences of low-income citizens (e.g., Gilens 2005, 2012; Bartels 2008; Ellis 2012; Giger, Rosset and Bernauer 2012; Hayes 2012; Rigby and Wright 2013). In a quest to understand this income bias in substantive representation, several authors have recently suggested th…
Are opinion leaders better represented
Few studies have analysed the effect of political engagement on legislators’ responsiveness. This article focuses on opinion leaders defined as citizens who regularly discuss politics and who attempt to persuade others to change their viewpoint. It investigates whether opinion leaders are better represented compared to other voters. Taking advantage of the Swiss institution of direct democracy, the article combines roll-call votes and information…
Improved Multilevel Regression with Poststratification through Machine Learning (autoMrP)
Multilevel regression with post-stratification (MrP) has quickly become the gold standard for small area estimation. While the first MrP models did not include context-level information, current applications almost always make use of such data. When using MrP, researchers are faced with three problems: how to select features, how to specify the functional form, and how to regularize the model parameters. These problems are especially important wi…
Voter preferences as a source of descriptive (mis)representation by social class
This paper presents the results of a conjoint survey experiment in which Swiss citizens were asked to choose among parliamentary candidates with different class profiles determined by occupation, education and income. Existing survey‐experimental literature on this topic suggests that respondents are indifferent to the class profiles of candidates or biased against candidates with high‐status occupations and high incomes. We find that respondents…
Shared Class, Shared Opinion? Policy Preference Congruence Between Citizens and Legislators
Recent studies have shown that policymakers and policy outcomes in advanced democracies are biased against the preferences of less affluent and working‐class citizens. One reason for this inequality in substantive representation might be that most policymakers are well‐off themselves. In this paper, we explore the effect of shared class background on the congruence between legislators' and citizens' policy preferences. To do so, we rely on origin…
Mapping the policy space of public consultations
Public consultations strengthen the informational advantage and policy legitimacy of bureaucracies by allowing them to collect and aggregate information on stakeholder preferences. How well consultations perform this function depends on the dimensional structure and complexity of the policy spaces describing them. Building on the research on spatial models of politics, we derive a set of expectations about the dimensional structure and policy con…
Are Less Affluent People Less Likely to Run for Political Office
In almost all democracies, elected officials are better off than most of the citizens they represent. Recent research has shown that this descriptive misrepresentation is partly due to voter and party bias against less well‐off candidates. In this paper, we explore a third possible explanation: Are less affluent people less likely to run for political office than well‐off people? To answer this question, we draw on original data from two Swiss su…
Electoral Systems and Political Participation (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Politics (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Geography (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Mathematics (3 works)