Max Bradley
I am a PhD Researcher in Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute (EUI). My research sits at the intersection of political economy and political behaviour. In my doctoral work, I study the politics of the green transition, focusing on how different actors respond to and are shaped by decarbonization policies. I emphasize the role of economic geography, human capital, and education in shaping these dynamics. More broadly, my work connects the literatures on distributive conflict, climate politics, and comparative political economy. Methodologically, I employ causal inference techniques with observational data, field and survey experiments, and qualitative interviews.
During my doctoral studies, I was a Junior Visiting Scholar at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, and served as a co-organizer of the Political Behavior Colloquium (PBC) at the EUI (2023–24). I hold an MSc in Political Science from Leiden University and a BA in Economics from Trinity College Dublin.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
The Ethnic Origins of Affective Polarization: Statistical Evidence from Cross-National Data (with Simon Chauchard).
Frontiers in Political Science, 4, 920615 (2022). Journal link
Revise & Resubmit
Mass Attitudes towards Russia’s Aggression against Ukraine: It Is Not the Economy (with Filip Kostelka, Martín Alberdi, Toine Fiselier, Alexandra Jabbour, Nahla Mansour, Eleonora Minaeva, Silvia Porciuleanue, and Diana Rafailova).
European Journal of Political Research, Revise & Resubmit (2025).
Under Review
Cost, Risk, and Threat: The Material & Contextual Factors Driving Climate Policy Preferences.
Educational Policies Can Strengthen Climate Coalitions (with Rens Chazottes, Susanna Garside, and Nina Lopez-Uroz).
Working Papers
Adapt or Perish: How the Spatial Distribution of Human Capital Shapes the Economic and Political Effects of the Green Transition.
Flood Insurance and Risk Socialization (with Martín Alberdi, Alexandra Jabbour, and Filip Kostelka).
Taking Out the Trash: Political Implications of Door-to-Door Waste Management in Catalonia (with Cèlia Estruch-Garcia and Pau Grau).
Reducing Gender-Based Polarization: A Field Study in UK Schools (with Henri Pozsar, Marica Miglio, Beth Ginsburg, and Simon Hix).
Together with Jeff Colgan at Brown University’s Climate Syllabus Bank, I recently designed an approach for teaching the political economy of decarbonization which emphasizes the different theories of change underlying climate action.
Our project introduces a framework that emphasizes different Theories of Decarbonization (see above image) which helps instructors: a) build structured and balanced syllabi, b) map existing theories of change (e.g., Kyoto, Carbon Taxes, Green New Deal), and c) develop hands-on exercises where students trace their own theory of change.
The framework is presented in our short explainer video and detailed in a companion working paper that reviews the literature on the political economy of decarbonization and offers practical guidance for instructors.