PPE Research Fellow Focus: Binio Binev

Dr. Binio Binev, Assistant Professor of Political Science, held a PPE Research Fellowship with the Kellogg Center during the academic year of 2020-2021. The fellowship helped advance Dr. Binev’s research agenda on the politics and outcomes of economic liberalization in Central and Eastern Europe.

Specifically, as Dr. Binev states: “I used the fellowship in order to begin understanding more concretely the specific dimensions of center-left reformism in the economic sphere, as well as the linkages between center-left incumbency, reformist policies, and electoral outcomes. The motivation to study the relationship between center-left agency and electoral performance drove the central activity towards which I invested fellowship funds – the development of an original and rich dataset detailing domains of market liberalization during periods of ex-communist party incumbency in Central and Eastern Europe.”

To support this goal and assist with the construction of the data set, Dr. Binev was able to hire an undergraduate research assistant, Megan Schaefer, who is a PPE major and PPE undergraduate student ambassador. Although the conversion of the collected data into a systematic dataset is still a work in progress, the project is proving to be quite fertile in terms of research output.

First, a paper based on these research activities was accepted for presentation at two conferences in Fall 2021: the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA), and the 53rd Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). Dr. Binev has also applied to present this research at the 28th International Conference of Europeanists in Lisbon during Summer 2022.

Second, based on feedback from these conferences, Dr. Binev will submit an improved article for publication in 2022 that entails a novel and unique dataset of cabinet composition and domains of economic reform during government periods with center-left participation.

Lastly, Megan Schaefer presented a poster that highlights some of the research in which she engaged with Dr. Binev as part of the “Class of 1970’s 50th Reunion and University Showcase” held at the Inn at Virginia Tech in late October 2021.

Dr. Binev notes: “The PPE fellowship has provided me with an invaluable opportunity to (i) deepen my research agenda and work towards strengthening the scholarly understanding of the relationship between economic policy, cabinet composition, and electoral outcomes, (ii) develop an original dataset and publishable article, which will be disseminated in research networks with interests in the politics of center-left governance and market reform in post-communist Europe, and (iii) collaborate with a highly talented and productive undergraduate research assistant. As the PPE fellowship has produced outcomes with considerable research and pedagogical implications, I am quite grateful for the funding support that it provided.”

To learn more about the Kellogg Center’s research fellowships, please visit this link.