Daniel Rubenson
Phone: 4052
Office: JOR729
E-mail: rubensonpolitics.ryerson.ca

 

Daniel Rubenson is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, and a member of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies, at Ryerson University. He is an affiliated researcher at the Research Institute for Industrial Economics (IFN) in Stockholm and at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) in New Haven, and a faculty affiliate with the Centre for Public Opinion and Representation at Simon Fraser University. In addition to a PhD (Government) from the London School of Economics, he holds degrees from Lund University, Sweden.

Dr. Rubenson’s research interests are in comparative politics, generally. Specifically, he works on questions of political behaviour, political participation, campaigns, political communication and the political economy of development. While he employs a variety of methods - including experimentation, econometric analysis, qualitative methods and survey work - he is increasingly interested in using field experiments in cooperation with political campaigns, organizations and policy makers in order to draw causal inferences about politics. Past studies have involved randomized interventions in the 2006 Liberal Party of Canada leadership race, the 2007 Ontario referendum on electoral reform and the 2009 British Columbia referendum on electoral reform. Current studies include a SSHRC funded project on the effects of perceptions of the racial and ethnic diversity of communities on political participation and attitudes in Canada, a randomized evaluation of the effects of property rights on economic and environmental outcomes in Mongolia, a project on local government reform in Tajikistan and a project on trade, norms and economic growth in east and west Africa. His research has been featured in various media including the CBC, Maclean's, the Toronto Star, the National Post, TVO's “The Agenda,” CTV, and the Canadian Press. 

Before joining Ryerson in 2006, Daniel Rubenson held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at l'Université de Montréal with the Canadian Election Study and the Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies. He teaches courses in comparative politics, political behaviour and research methods.

Publications include:

  • “The Source of Turnout Decline: New Values or New Contexts?” [with André Blais, (Université de Montréal)]. Comparative Political Studies 46:1 (January 2013): 95-117.
  • “Geographic Mobility, Social Connections and Turnout” [with Keith Dowding (Australian National University) and Peter John (University College London)].  Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties: 22:2 (April 2012): 109-22.
  • “Testing the Power of Arguments in Referendums: A Bradley-Terry Approach” [with Peter Loewen (UofT) and Arthur Spirling (Harvard)]. Electoral Studies 31 (2012): 212-21.
  • “Experiments.”  In Explorations: Conducting Empirical Research in Canadian Political Science, 2nd ed., ed. Keith Archer and Loleen Berdahl, 200-211.  Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  • Entry on “Social Capital” in Encyclopedia of Power, ed. Keith Dowding.  Thousand Oaks CA: Sage, 2011.
  • "For want of a nail: Negative persuasion in a party leadership race" [with Peter John Loewen (UofT)].  Party Politics 17:1 (January 2011): 45-65.   
  • “Help me help you: Conducting field experiments with political elites” [with Peter Loewen (UofT) and Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton)].  Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 628:1 (March 2010): 165-75.
  • “Strategies for dealing with nonoverlapping units of assignment and outcome measurement in field experiments” [with Ana De La O (Yale)].  Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 628:1 (March 2010): 189-99.
  • “Does Low Turnout Matter? Evidence from the 2000 Canadian General Election”[with André Blais (UdeM), Patrick Fournier (UdeM), Elisabeth Gidengil (McGill), and Neil Nevitte (UofT)]. Electoral Studies 26:3 (September 2007): 589-97 .
  • “Accounting for the Age Gap in Turnout” [with André Blais (UdeM), Patrick Fournier (UdeM), Elisabeth Gidengil (McGill), and Neil Nevitte (UofT)]. Acta Politica 39:4 (2004): 407–21.
  • “Tennis och Politik: Är Deltagadande en Dygd?” (“Tennis and Politics: Is Political Participation a Virtue?”) [with Andreas Bergh (Lund)]. In En Uthållig Demokrati? Sju Repliker till Demokratiutredningen, ed. Jesper Strömbäck, 12-41. Uppsala: Uppsala Publishing House, 2001.

Working Papers:

  • “Democratic Competition Increases Voter Participation” [with Peter Loewen(UofT) and Ryan Moore (WUSTL)].

  • “Elements of Political Persuasion: Content, Contact or Cue” [with Torun Dewan (LSE) and Macartan Humphreys (Columbia)].

  • “The Impact of News Photos on Support for Military Action” [with Stuart Soroka (McGill), Peter Loewen (UofT) and Patrick Fournier (UdeM)].

  • “Does the Context Fit the Outcome: When (or Where) Context Should Affect Politics” [with Cara Wong (Illinois@U-C), Jake Bowers (Illinois@U-C), Mark Fredrikson (Illinois@U-C) and Ashlea Rundlett (Illinois@U-C)].

  • “Canadian War Deaths in Afghanistan: Costly Policies and Support for Incumbents” [with Peter Loewen, UofT].

  • “The End of Majorities: The Transformation of Cleavage Politics in Advanced Democracies” [with Marc André Bodet (Laval)].

  • “Interaction and Malefaction: A Formal Theory of Harmful Social Capital” [with Richard Walker (Northwestern)].

For more information, see: http://www.politics.ryerson.ca/rubenson/