Dr Philippe van Gruisen shortlisted for Els Witte Prize for the best PhD Thesis
Dr. Philippe van Gruisen, Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at Leiden University, is shortlisted for the Els Witte Prize 2019 for the best doctoral dissertation of the Netherlands and Flanders.
This prize is jointly awarded by the Dutch Political Science Association (NKWP) and the Flemish Political Science Association (VPW). A jury of Dutch and Flemish scholars has nominated the best four dissertations.
The Political Economy of Decision-Making in the Council of the European Union
This dissertation presents a political economic, rational choice approach of decision-making in the European Union (EU). Political institutions stipulate specific procedures for reaching agreements among a group of representatives whom have well-defined policy preferences. They define constraints on and opportunities for individual behavior and function as a set of boundaries within which behavior can occur. This dissertation focuses the EU’s most important legislature, the Council of the EU. It studies a number of the Lisbon Treaty reforms with a special focus on (1) the Council’s agenda-setting structure, (2) strategic voting incentives of the Member States, and (3) the efficiency of the decision-making process. It is based on spatial models and empirical tests thereof. In a nutshell, this dissertation presents novel findings on negotiating and bargaining dynamics in the EU’s supreme legislative institution.
Background Philippe van Gruisen
Philippe van Gruisen studied economics at the KU Leuven. In 2018 he obtained his Ph.D. from the same university. His Ph.D. advisor is Prof. Christophe Crombez. During his Ph.D. he spent eight months at Stanford University as a Visiting Scholar. Since 2018 Philippe van Gruisen holds a position as Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at Leiden University.