Dovile Rimkute
Assistant Professor
- Name
- Dr. D. Rimkute
- Telephone
- +31 70 800 9067
- d.rimkute@fgga.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-6184-7868
Dovilė Rimkutė is an Assistant Professor specialising in Regulatory Governance at the Institute of Public Administration. Her research addresses fundamental questions surrounding regulatory governance and risk regulation within the EU’s multi-layered governance system. Organised around three key areas, her work examines bureaucratic decision-making and behavior; citizens’ legitimacy perceptions of regulatory rulemaking processes and outcomes; and the role of emotion in citizen-regulator interactions. Dovilė has been awarded NWO Veni (2019) and Vidi (2024) grants to conduct research at the intersection of regulatory governance and behavioral public administration, integrating insights from emotion science.
Dovilė Rimkutė is an Assistant Professor specializing in Regulatory Governance at the Institute of Public Administration. Her research addresses fundamental questions surrounding regulatory governance and risk regulation within the EU’s multi-layered governance system. Her work is organised around three key research areas: (1) bureaucratic decision-making and behavior (e.g., to what extent bureaucratic responsiveness to grave societal risks is affected by reputational considerations); (2) citizens’ legitimacy perceptions (e.g., what are the effects of expertise-based and reputation-sourced authority on citizens’ perceptions of regulators' legitimacy); (3) the role of emotion in regulator-citizen interactions (e.g., What are the effects of emotions on how regulators issue regulatory rules and how citizens receive them?).
Dovilė has been awarded NWO Veni (2019) and Vidi (2024) grants to conduct research at the intersection of regulatory governance and behavioral public administration, integrating insights from emotion science. In her Veni project, 'Risk Regulation in the European Regulatory State: Science-Based or Reputation-Induced?' (2020-2024), she utilised experimental and qualitative methodologies to examine whether certain risks to society are underregulated or overregulated due to significant reputational risks to regulators, as well as how regulators’ efforts are perceived and legitimized by relevant stakeholders. This project addressed issues of critical societal importance, including: the European Medicines Agency’s legitimacy in authorising vaccines during the global pandemic; the perceived legitimacy of the European Food Safety Authority in authorising the controversial pesticide glyphosate, which is alleged to be carcinogenic; and the European Central Bank’s reputation in light of its expanding mandate, covering sustainability goals and the EU’s green agenda.
In the Vidi project, 'Emotion in Science-Based Risk Regulation' (2025-2030), her research team seeks to challenge foundational assumptions in risk regulation scholarship. By integrating psychological theories of emotion, the team examines the impact of emotions on (1) the decision-making processes of independent regulators and (2) citizens’ compliance with science-based regulatory rules.
Her work has been published in international public administration and political science journals, including Public Administration Review (PAR), Governance, Journal of European Public Policy (JEPP), Public Administration (PA), Journal of Common Market Studies (JCMS), and New Political Economy (NPE), and has received peer recognition (e.g., Majone Prize Honorary Mention, 2023; Jean Monnet Fellowhip at the EUI, 2022-2023).
Dovilė’s scholarly work has a demonstrated policy impact. She, for instance, conducted a study on the risk regulation of pesticides commissioned by The European Parliamentary Research Service to provide the European Parliament (EP) with evidence-based recommendations on how pesticide regulation (Regulation 1107/2009) could be improved. The results were presented and discussed at the EP committee meetings.
Dovilė’s research informs her teaching and supervision. She designed, coordinated, and taugth BA and MA level courses on European and International Governance, Regulatory Governance, International Regulation, Evidence-Based Policymaking, International Institutions, EU politics and policymaking, and Research Design. Additionally, she contributes to the development of the teaching programs at the Insitute in her role as Chair of the Educational Committee (MOLC) for Master of the Public Administration programme, Leiden University.
Dovilė is on the editorial board of the Journal of European Public Policy (JEPP) and serves as a co-director of the 'Politics of Bureaucracy' section at the ECPR General Conference.
Assistant Professor
- Faculty Governance and Global Affairs
- Instituut Bestuurskunde
- Cerdeira A. & Rimkutė D. (2024), Reputational pragmatism at the European Central Bank: preserving reputation(s) amidst widening climate interventions, New Political Economy : 1-17.
- Rimkutė D. & Voet J. van der (2023), When do bureaucrats respond to external demands?: A theoretical framework and empirical test of bureaucratic responsiveness, Public Administration Review : .
- Rimkutė D. & Mazepus H. (2023), A widening authority–legitimacy gap in EU regulatory governance?: An experimental study of the European Medicines Agency’s legitimacy in health security regulation, Journal of European Public Policy : .
- Rimkutė D. (2022), Reputation and bureaucratic politics. In: Ladner A. & Sager F. (Eds.), Handbook on the politics of public administration. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing . 255-265.
- Rimkutė D. (2022), Chapter 32: Expertise and regulatory agencies. In: Maggetti M., Di Mascio F. & Natalini A. (Eds.), Handbook of regulatory authorities. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. 487-502.
- Voet J. van der & Rimkutė D. (2022), A behavioral view on responsibility attribution in multi-level governance: : upward and downward responsibility attribution in response to performance below aspirations, Public Administration : 1-20.
- Rimkutė D. (2021), European Union agencies: explaining EU agency behaviour, processes, and outputs. In: Hodson D., Puetter U., Saurugger S. & Peterson J. (Eds.) The institutions of the European Union . The New European Union Series Oxford: Oxford University Press. 203-223.
- Rimkutė D. (2020), Strategic silence or regulatory talk? Regulatory agency responses to public allegations amidst the glyphosate controversy, Journal of European Public Policy 27(11): 1636-1656.
- Busuioc M. & Rimkutė D. (2019), Meeting expectations in the EU regulatory state? Regulatory communications amid conflicting institutional demands, Journal of European Public Policy 27(4): 547- 568.
- Shyrokykh K. & Rimkutė D. (2019), EU Rules Beyond its Borders: The Policy‐specific Effects of Transgovernmental Networks and EU Agencies in the European Neighbourhood, Journal of Common Market Studies 57(4): 749-767.
- Rimkutė D. (2019), Building organizational reputation in the European regulatory state: An analysis of EU agencies' communications, Governance : 1-22.
- Rimkutė D. & Shyrokykh K. (2019), Transferring the acquis through EU agencies: the case of the European neighbourhood policy countries. In: Hofmann H.C.H., Vos E. & Chamon M. (Eds.), The External Dimension of EU Agencies and Bodies. Law and Policy. London: Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Busuioc E.M. & Rimkute D. (2019), The Promise of Bureaucratic Reputation Approaches for the EU Regulatory State, Journal of European Public Policy 27(8): 1256-1269.
- Rimkutė D. (2018), Organizational reputation and risk regulation: The effect of reputational threats on agency scientific outputs, Public Administration 96(1): 70–83.
- Rimkutė D. (2018), Mapping the practices of scientific (risk assessment) evaluation of active substances used in plant protection products. Brussels: European Parliament Think Tank.
- Breeman G.E., Giest S.N. & Rimkute D. (2017), Food security governance and the sustainability of GMOs in the United States and the European Union. In: Barling D. (Ed.), Advances in Food Security and Sustainability no. Volume 2: Elsevier. 165-193.
- Rimkute D. & Shyrokykh K. (2017), The Role of EU Agencies in the Acquis Transfer: The Case of the European Neighbourhood Policy Countries. TARN Working Paper Series. [working paper].
- Rimkute D. (19 October 2016), Science and Risk Regulation in the European Union: The Case of the European Food Safety Authority (Dissertatie, Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). Munich: LMU. Supervisor(s): Rittberger Berthold.
- Rimkute D. (2015), Explaining Differences in Scientific Expertise Use: The Politics of Pesticides, Politics and Governance 3(1): 114-127.
- Rimkute D. & Haverland M. (2015), How Does the European Commission Use Scientific Expertise? Results From a Survey of Scientific Members of the Commission’s Expert Committees, Comparative European Politics 13(4): 430–449.