In an election, protest voters signal their discontent with the party they traditionally support in different ways. This paper examines a specific form of protest voting in which voters choose an anti-mainstream party over their true first preference, the mainstream party, as a way to signal...

We study how far-right mass rallies affect people’s views about a city and thus location choices of nationals. To this end, we first exploit that the city of Dresden (Germany) unexpectedly experienced such rallies at the turn of the year 2014/15. Results from dyadic difference-in-differences...

This paper examines how network ties between local social leaders influenced the diffusion of mass protests in an autocracy. We focus on the Protestant Church and the Peaceful Revolution in East Germany. To quantify the role of leader networks in protest diffusion, we compile biographical...

In Germany, pro-Palestine protests in the form of camps and institute occupations have occurred and continue to take place at universities. Antisemitic incidents have been reported at many of these protests. Following the initial data collection in December 2023, this report provides a new,...

We study how far-right mass rallies affect people's views about a city and thus location choices of nationals. To this end, we first exploit that the city of Dresden (Germany) unexpectedly experienced such rallies at the turn of the year 2014/15. Results from dyadic difference-in-differences and...

Social media allows a wider, faster diffusion of protests, without the need of traditional organizers and established media. The speed, scale, and decentralization of social media-enabled protests also bring fragility: big turnout, weak strategy, and modest policy wins. Social media-driven...

Protest mobilisation and coordination require competences that extend beyond political leadership and communication. Technology, which has become a daily part of humanity, pushes protest leaders to obtain skills in navigating social media to achieve effective communication and leadership. Labour...

We propose a theory of protest dynamics with heterogeneous protest technology and intensity. The ability to mobilize online reduces the likelihood of coordination failures at both the extensive (engagement) and intensive (violence) margins. Social media can initially help launch massive...

Seit Jahresbeginn 2024 finden deutschlandweit Proteste gegen Rechtsextremismus großen Zulauf. Doch ist es tatsächlich eine "schweigende Mehrheit", die hier für Demokratie aufsteht? In diesem Policy Paper stellen wir die Ergebnisse einer Befragung dreier Protestveranstaltungen vor und...

During recent crises in Europe, new heterogeneous protest movements have emerged that are difficult to label and classify. Existing studies suggest that the common denominator of these protesters is primarily the lack of political trust. Therefore, these new protest movements offer favorable...

Do sudden weather disasters in cities of the Global South increase the likelihood of anti-government protests? In cities of the Global South, floods, storms, and landslides strain already fragile infrastructure, often leading to destruction and hardship. While urban residents occasionally...

Environmental degradation, ranging from air and water pollution to land degradation and climate change, often generates discontent and grievances among affected populations. Such dissatisfaction with living conditions can foster political unrest, as individuals may protest publicly to voice...

Can citizen-led protests lead to meaningful economic redistribution and nudge governments to increase redistributive fiscal transfers? We study the effects of protests on fiscal redistribution using evidence from Nigeria. We digitized twenty-six years of public finance data from 1988 to 2016 to...

Um die Treibhausgasneutralität bis 2045 zu erreichen, wird unter anderem erforderlich sein, dass die Industrie klimaneutrale Produktionsweisen entwickelt und umsetzt. Damit einher gehen gesellschaftliche Aushandlungsprozesse darüber, welche neuen Technologien eingesetzt werden und welche...

The Protestant missionaries started the trend to educate women in the 19th century China, paving Chinese women’s way into higher education and professional services. Using various measures of Protestant activities by 1920 and a hand-collected dataset of college students from 1928-1938, we show...

We examine individuals' decisions to attend Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations calling for less stringent COVID-19 public health measures (e.g., for swifter reopening of businesses) during the summer of 2020 in the US. We find that attending one type of protest strongly predicts...

We examine individuals' decisions to attend protests during the summer of 2020. Our analysis examines two simultaneous movements: Black Lives Matter along with protests calling for less stringent public health measures to combat the COVID-19 (e.g., for swifter reopening of businesses). Our...

This paper studies how social media affect protest dynamics in China during 2009-2017. Based on 13.2 billion microblog posts, we use tweets and retweets to measure social media communication across cities and exploit its rapid expansion for identification. We find that despite strict government...

We study the relative effectiveness of exit (divestment and boycott) and voice (engagement) strategies in promoting socially desirable outcomes in companies. We show that in a competitive world exit is less effective than voice in pushing firms to act in a socially responsible manner....

This paper develops a model to investigate the interaction between policymaking and strategic protest. Protesting citizens demand policy reforms by protesting against the status quo, but differ in their preference for the directions of the reform. The size of the protest informs policymaker...

We study the relative effectiveness of exit (divestment and boycott) and voice (engagement) strategies in promoting socially desirable outcomes in companies. We show that in a competitive world exit is less effective than voice in pushing firms to act in a socially responsible manner....

We examine individuals' decision to attend Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations calling for less stringent public health measures to combat COVID-19 (e.g., for swifter reopening of businesses). Our analysis is facilitated by a unique staggered panel data set originally constructed to...