Raphaël Franck
ifo/CESifo Visiting Researcher
Raphaël Franck, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, CESifo Guest from 9 to 16 February 2020.
The Determinants of Reform
In a series of studies with Toke S. Aidt, Raphaël Franck has analyzed the determinants of the Great Reform Act of 1832, which was a watershed for democracy in Great Britain. In particular, in a recent article published in the Journal of Economic History, Toke S. Aidt and Raphaël Franck study the vote on 22 March 1831 in the House of Commons to test three competing theories of democratization: public opinion, political expedience and threat of revolution. Peaceful agitation and mass-support for reform played an important role. Political expedience also motivated some MPs to support the reform, especially if they were elected in constituencies located in counties that would gain seats. Violent unrest in urban but not in rural areas had some influence on the MPs. Counterfactual scenarios suggest that the reform bill would not have obtained a majority in the House of Commons in the absence of these factors.
Raphaël Franck’s primary research interests lie in the areas of political economy and economic growth with regional foci on Western Europe and sub-Saharan Africa from 1800 to the present. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as the American Political Science Review, Econometrica, and the Review of Economics and Statistics.
Raphaël Franck is a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Previously he was a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics at Bar Ilan University (Israel). He was a visiting assistant professor at George Mason University (Virginia) between 2006 and 2008 and a Marie Curie fellow at the Department of Economics at Brown University (Rhode Island) between 2013 and 2015. He holds a BA and a PhD in Economics from the University of Paris (France).
