Research

My research is organised around several interconnected themes. Below is an overview of my main areas of inquiry.

Health inequalities and social mobility

A central strand of my research examines how social mobility – both objective and perceived – affects health and mortality at the population level. I use register data, cross-national surveys, and experimental designs to study the relationship between structural inequality, opportunity perceptions, and health outcomes. A key finding is that equality of opportunity is linked to lower mortality across countries, and that subjective social status asymmetrically predicts mortality risk.

Key questions: Does greater equality of opportunity improve population health? How do people’s beliefs about their social position shape their health outcomes? What role does perceived mobility play in wellbeing and mortality risk?

Inequality, political attitudes, and the far right

I study how people’s social origins and mobility experiences shape their political preferences, welfare attitudes, and support for radical parties. Recent work investigates the link between downward class mobility and far-right party support in Western Europe. This comparative programme draws on data from both Western European democracies and post-socialist transition societies.

Key questions: Does downward mobility drive support for far-right parties? How do mobility experiences shape welfare state preferences? What explains cross-national variation in public support for redistribution?

Disability, legislation, and social outcomes

Working with Norwegian register data and cross-national surveys, I investigate the socioeconomic consequences of disability across the life course. This includes studying income attainment among individuals with early-life disabilities, the effects of anti-discrimination legislation on perceived disability discrimination, and whether welfare state regimes genuinely equalise outcomes for disabled individuals.

Key questions: Does disability legislation reduce perceived discrimination? Do social-democratic welfare states deliver on their promise of equalising outcomes for people with disabilities?

Social stratification and intergenerational mobility

I study both objective patterns of intergenerational mobility (using register data and large-scale surveys) and subjective mobility – how people perceive their own position relative to their parents. This work investigates the causes and consequences of mobility perceptions for wellbeing, health behaviours, and political attitudes.

Key questions: What drives people to perceive themselves as upwardly or downwardly mobile? How do mobility perceptions differ from actual mobility trajectories? What are the psychological and political consequences of perceived mobility?

Post-Soviet societies, collective memory, and geopolitics

Drawing on my background and regional expertise, I conduct research on collective memory, national identity, and contemporary perspectives on the Soviet past – particularly regarding Stalin’s legacy. More recently, I have been studying European responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine, including how the war has reshaped perceptions of intergenerational mobility and how Europeans compare Putin and Stalin.

Key questions: How do Europeans perceive the end of war in Ukraine? How does the war reshape social mobility perceptions across the continent? What explains variation in attitudes toward the Soviet past?

Reproducibility and open science

I participate in large-scale collaborative projects that assess the reproducibility and robustness of empirical findings in the social sciences, contributing to ongoing disciplinary conversations about research credibility.