Vuk Vukovic

Academic Profile

I am a DPhil student of Politics at Pembroke College. My research topic (a work in progress) is focused on explaining how the legitimate interaction between politicians and interest groups affects certain economic outcomes such as the rise of inequality. I have embarked on this journey in September 2016. 

I hold a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics, in the field of political economy. I received my BA in economics from the University of Zagreb, from which I graduated magna cum laude. During my studies I attended summer schools at the University of California at Berkeley and at Harvard University. I was a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, Clare College during the summer of 2013. I am the co-founder and director of Oraclum Intelligence Systems Ltd, a start-up specialized in election forecasting, big data analysis, data visualization, and market research.

Teaching specialism, interests and experience

Prior to Oxford, I worked as a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM) for four years, where I taught Political economy, Principles of Economics, International Economics and Public Finance. 

Publications

• "To Invest or Not to Invest, That is the Question: Analysis of Firm Behavior Under Anticipated Shocks (with Dejan Kovac, 
  ​Nikola Kleut, and Boris Podobnik), August 2016, PLoS ONE 11(8): e0158782. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158782
• "Voting after war: Legacy of conflict and the economy as determinants of electoral support in Croatia" (with Josip Glaurdic), Electoral Studies, Volume 42 (June 2016) pages 135–145. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2016.02.012 
  
• "Proxy politics, economic protest, or traditionalist backlash: Croatia's referendum on the constitutional definition of marriage" (with Josip Glaurdic), Europe-Asia Studies , Volume 68 (5): 803-825. (July 2016)  dx.doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2016.1186610
  
• "Does the Wage Gap between Private and Public Sectors Encourage Political Corruption?" (with Boris Podobnik and H. Eugene Stanley), 2015, PLoS ONE 10(10): e0141211. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0141211
  
• "Prosperity and peace: Economic interests and war legacy in Croatia's EU referendum vote" (with Josip Glaurdic), 2015, European Union Politics , Volume 16(4): 577-600. (December 2015) 
• "Political Economy of the US Financial Crisis 2007-2009" Financial Theory and Practice 35(1): 91-128. (January 2011) 

Conference Papers and Presentations

• Post-war Voters as Fiscal Liberals: Local Elections, Spending, and War Trauma in Contemporary Croatia (with Josip Glaurdic), September 2016 
• Granting votes: Exposing the political bias of intergovernmental grants using the within-between specification for panel data (with Josip Glaurdic), September 2016 
• Corruption improves re-election chances: How much can politicians steal before being punished?, July 2015 
  
• Persistent electoral success with endogenous rents: Can politicians extract rents and still stay in power?, 2014, Available here
      Paper presented at the 50th annual Public Choice Society Conference in New Orleans, March 2013

Other (Book chapters, research reports, essays)

• ​"The Euro Crisis in the Periphery: Patterns of Contagion, Imported Instabilities, and Political Turmoil" in Central and South Eastern Europe 2017, 17th edition, London, Routledge, 2016. 
• "Croatia: Challenges after EU Accession" (with Luka Oreskovic) in E.E. Zeff and E.B. Pirro (eds.) The European Union and the Member States, 3rd Edition, Lynne Reinner Publishers, USA, 2015
• "What happened to our dream of democracy? And why democracy will, as always, prevail", Essay, May 2014
• "The Global Financial Crisis: A Political Economy Approach" in J.L.Grant (ed.) Perspectives on the Global Financial Crisis From Emerging Managers and Public Policy Makers, JLG Research, February 2014, Boston, MA, pp. 61-85.