The Department of Public Policy at CEU is delighted to announce that Professor Michael Dorsch's work has been cited in the Nobel Prize in Economics report for 2024. This year’s laureates, Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson were awarded the prize for their research agenda on how institutions are shaped and its relationship with prosperity. Dorsch’s research was recognized in connection with his exploration of the interrelationship between democracy and income inequality.
Dorsch’s work co-authored with Paul Maarek (Universite Pantheon-Assas, Paris), addresses both directions of this relationship between democracy and inequality. In their 2019 paper, they examine how democratization affects income inequality, finding that the impact varies by the initial level of inequality in autocracies: democratization tends to equalize highly unequal autocracies. The study highlights that equalizing effect of democratization works through reshaping economic opportunities rather than direct redistribution. Their 2020 paper investigates the extent to which income inequality affects democratic institutions. For instance they show that during economic downturns, greater inequality increases the likelihood of democratic reform.
This recognition underscores Dorsch’s impactful work on the complex interactions between democracy and economic inequality, and we congratulate him on this distinguished acknowledgment in the Nobel Prize report.