Mauerer, I.; Puy, M.; Urzay-Gómez, S. (2025). “Explaining Preferences for EU Integration: Theory and Empirical Evidence.” European Economic Review, vol. 176, 105038. [Journal]
We present a theoretical framework that explains how European citizens form their preferences on EU integration. Building on theories of nation formation, we consider three ideological cost functions measuring the impact of EU legislation on national politics. Individual-level survey data from EU member states show that European citizens tend to be highly sophisticated: support for integration is driven by citizens who believe EU legislation amends their national policy, while Euroscepticism emerges among those who see it as interference.
Urzay-Gómez, S. (2024). “Wage Patterns in West Berlin: A Synthetic Control Approach after the Fall of the Wall.” Applied Economics Letters vol. 33(4), 626–629. [Journal]
Using the Synthetic Control Method and regional-level data (NUTS-2) from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this paper shows that the collapse of the Berlin Wall led to a sudden stagnation in salaries for West Berliners, compared to a counterfactual scenario where the Wall had remained intact.
Urzay-Gómez, S.; Correa-Lopera, G.; Medina-Rodríguez, D. (2025). “Personal Incentives vs. Institutional Trust: Evidence from the 2009 MEP Pay Harmonisation.” Submitted. [SSRN]
This paper provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the relationship between politicians’ salaries and voters’ trust in institutions. Investigating the 2009 pay harmonisation of MEP salaries, we find a significant decrease in institutional trust following the reform, consistent with a model in which politicians have incentives to approve salary increases that erode public trust.
Urzay-Gómez, S.; Verd-Llabrés, G. (2026). “The Persistent Frontier: The Political Economy of Childcare Provision in East and West Berlin, 1992–2019.”
Urzay-Gómez, S. (2026). “The Political Footprint of EU Transfers: Perception, Identity, and Integration Preferences.”
Urzay-Gómez, S. (2026). “Persistent Welfare Dependence and Disengagement from Mainstream Politics: Evidence from Hartz IV in Germany.”