Michael Bechtel is Professor of Political Economy at the Institute for Political Science and European Affairs, faculty member in the Cologne Center for Comparative Politics, and senior researcher in the cluster of excellence ECONtribute: Markets and Public Policy at the University of Cologne. His research explores how countries can address global economic and environmental sustainability problems. Current projects analyze mass support for international climate cooperation, the politics of natural disasters, and policy responses to economic crises. Bechtel’s articles have appeared in journals such as American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, International Organization, Nature Climate Change, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His research has been featured in media outlets in the United States and Europe and in animated movies. Bechtel has provided testimony in legal proceedings that require expertise in social science research including survey design, conjoint analysis and experiments, and statistical estimation. Before becoming a first-generation college student, he served as an infantry soldier and reserve officer in the German Army where his deployments included the 2002 Elbe flood disaster response.

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Multilateral Climate Policy

International cooperation and stable costs increase public support for domestic carbon taxation.

Social Norms in Mass Surveys

We provide ready-to-use survey modules (including Java script) to offer quasi-beahvioral measures of social norms and attitudes toward time and risk in mass surveys:

Designing Institutions and Public Policy

Over the past decade, we have applied and refined conjoint experiments to explore institutional and policy design questions.