Welcome to my website!

I am a postdoctoral research fellow in the research unit Transformations of Democracy at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany. In addition, I am research associate at the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

What is Democracy? Why do periods of democratization and globalization occur in waves and what drives them? What role does armed conflict play? How can we assess and strengthen democratic resilience?

My research focuses on finding answers to these questions. Below, is an overview of my most recent publications as well as media work. You find more detailed information on my academic output here.

News

Transformation of Democracy" team, fall 2024
New Discussion Paper introducing demstock - an R package to generate democratic stock variables:
Edgell, A.E., Wilson, M.C., & Boese-Schlosser, V.A. (2025) Introducing demstock: An R Package for Calculating Stock Variables Using the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Data, V-Dem Working Paper 153.
- The demstock R package is available on GitHub: https://github.com/vdeminstitute?tab=repositories

New Discussion Paper on the Economic Consequences of the Current Wave of Autocratization:
Boese-Schlosser, V.A. & Eberhardt, M. (2025), ‘DP20146 Democracy in Decline: The Economic Implications of Democratic Collapse‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 20146. CEPR Press, Paris & London.

New Publication on the Economic Effects of Democratization:  Boese-Schlosser, V. A. & Eberhardt, M.  Democracy Doesn't Always Happen Over Night: Regime Change In Stages And Economic Growth. Forthcoming in the Review of Economics and Statistics.~Replication Data
~Podcast on the paper (AI generated)

Recent Publications

Research Articles
Other Publications
Working Paper

Media Outreach

  • Wirtschaftsstarke Demokratien: Vertrauen in das bessere System lohnt sich. Tagesspiegel article on our democracy and growth study (3.11.2023, in German) available here
  • Interview with Neugier genügt/WDR (04.04.2023, in German) available here
  • Interview with fluter (05.08.2022, in German) available here: www.fluter.de/wie-demokratisch-ist-die-welt-podcast
  • Interview with Aus Kultur und Sozialwissenschaften/Deutschlandfunk (28.07.2022, in German) available here