Mind the ‘voting gap’: An econometric analysis of disability and political participation

The successful candidate will be enrolled on the Economics PhD Programme at Cardiff Business School.


As part of the ESRC research centre WISERD (https://wiserd.ac.uk/) I am undertaking a programme of work on disability and political participation. This project will apply econometric methods to existing large scale secondary data for the UK, including from Understanding Society and the British Election Study, to understand the extent to which disabled people’s electoral participation and wider political engagement differs from otherwise comparable non-disabled individuals. It will build on a more established literature in the US where a significant and persistent disability ‘voting gap’ has been identified and produce evidence to inform concerns in relation to the barriers to political participation for disabled individuals (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2014; House of Lords Select Committee, 2016) with implications for their participation and influence in the policy development process.

Applicant profile:
The ideal candidate will have a Masters Degree in Economics from an internationally renowned University. Applicants with a strong first degree in Economics will also be considered. Previous experience and skills in the analysis of large scale data e.g. using STATA would be an advantage. An interest in disability inequality in the UK is also essential.