Jonas Pontusson holds a BA from Amherst College (1978) and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley (1984).  Prior to moving to Geneva in 2010, he taught at Cornell University (1984-2005) and Princeton University (2005-10).  He has been a visiting scholar at Nuffield College (Oxford), the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Social Sciences (Uppsala), the Russell Sage Foundation (New York), Sciences Po (Paris) and the Hertie School of Governance (Berlin).  Jonas has a long-standing interest in the comparative politics of inequality and redistribution, with an emphasis on labor-market dynamics and the role of trade unions.  He has written extensively on Swedish social democracy and also contributed to the literature on varieties of capitalism.  Alongside Unequal Democracies, Jonas is engaged in a project on post-Fordist growth models with Lucio Baccaro, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.  As principal investigator, Jonas is responsible for the organization and overall coherence of the Unequal Democracies program and implicated in all the research projects that the program encompasses.   

Curriculum Vitae

Publications related to Unequal Democracies:

• "Trade Unions and Left Parties in Sweden 1986-2018", Working paper n°44 (2023). Co-authored with Ari Arundhati Ray (University of Geneva).
• "The Political Puzzle of Rising Inequality", Working paper n°43 (2023). Co-authored with Noam Lupu (Vanderbilt University).
• "Income Growth and Inequality as Joint Determinants of Preferences of Redistribution in Europe", Working paper n°40 (2023). Co-authored with Jérémie Poltier (University of Geneva)and Jan Rosset (Haute École et École Supérieure du Travail Social).
• "Falling Behind Whom?  Economic Geographies of Right-Wing Populism in Europe", Working paper n°39 (2023). Co-authored with Dominik Shraff (University of Aalborg).
• "Varieties of trade unions and support for redistribution", West European Politics (2022). Co-authored with Nadja Mosimann. (doi: 10.1080/01402382.2022.2048344)
• "Preface", West European Politics (2022). Co-authored with Nadja Mosimann and Line Rennwald. (doi: 10.1080/01402382.2022.2048501)
• "Class gaps in perceptions of political voice: liberal democracies 1974–2016", West European Politics (2022). Co-authored with Line Rennwald.
• "Understanding unequal representation", European Journal of Political Research (2022). Co-authored with Brian Burgoon, Noam Lupu and Wouter Schakel.
  
• "Voter preferences as a source of descriptive (mis)representation by social class", European Journal of Political Research (2022). Co-authored with Reto Wuest.
  
• "Unequal Responsiveness and Government Partisanship in Northwest Europe", Working paper n°31 (2021). Co-authored with Ruben Berge Mathisen,Wouter Schakel, Svenja Hense, Lea Elsässer and Mikael Persson.
• "Voter Preferences and Redistributive Policy: Exploratory Analysis Based on a Comprehensive Dataset on Preferences", Working paper n°30 (2021). Co-authored with Konstantin Käppner, Max Joosten and Jérémie Poltier.
• "Social Class, Union Power and Perceptions of Political Voice: Liberal Democracies, 1974-2016", Working paper n°22 (2021). Co-authored with Line Rennwald.
• "Introducing the Inequality and Politics Survey: Preliminary Findings", Working paper n°16 (2020). Co-authored with Nathalie Giger, Jan Rosset and Davy-Kim Lascombes.
• "Heterogeneity of the Trade Union Membership Effect on Support for Redistribution in Western Europe.", Working paper n°12 (2020). Co-authored with Nadja Mosimann.
• “Paper Stones Revisited: Class Voting, Unionization and the Electoral Decline of the Mainstream Left.”, Perspectives on Politics (2020) (first view, doi:10.1017/S1537592720000067).  Co-authored with Line Rennwald.
  
• "The Politics of Growth Models: An Analytical Framework with Germany and Sweden as Illustrative Cases", Working paper n°7 (2019). Co-authored with Lucio Baccaro.
• "Paper Stones Revisited: Class Voting, Unionization and the Electoral Decline of the Mainstream Left", Working paper n°6 (2019). Co-authored with Line Rennwald.
• “The Fed, Finance and Inequality in Comparative Perspective,” PS: Political Science & Politics, v. 51, no. 4 (2018), 743-746.
• "Descriptive Misrepresentation by Social Class: Do Voter Preferences Matter", Working paper n°1 (2018). Co-authored with Reto Wuest
• “Macroeconomic Conditions, Inequality Shocks and the Politics of Redistribution, 1990-2013.” Journal of European Public Policy, v. 25, no. 1 (2018), 31-58.  Co-authored David Weisstanner. 
• “Solidaristic Unionism and Support for Redistribution in Contemporary Europe.” World Politics, v. 69, no. 3 (2017), 448-492.  Co-authored with Nadja Mosimann. 
• “Introduction to the Debate: Does descriptive misrepresentation by class and income matter?” Swiss Political Science Review, v. 21, no. 2 (2015), 207-215.
•  “Unionization, Inequality and Redistribution.”  British Journal of Industrial Relations, v. 51 (2013), 797-825. 
•  “The Structure of Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution.” American Political Science Review, v. 105, no. 2 (2011), 316-336.  Co-authored with Noam Lupu. 
• “Whose interests do unions represent? Unionization by income in Western Europe.” In Research in the     Sociology of Work, v. 22B (2011), 181-211.  Co-authored with Michael Becher. 
• “The Politics of Inequality: Voter Mobilization and Left Parties in Advanced Industrial States.”  Comparative Political Studies, v. 43, no. 6 (2010), 675-705.  Co-authored with David Rueda. 
• “Globalization, Labour Power and Partisan Politics Revisited” Socio-Economic Review, vol. 8, no. 2 (2010), 251-281.  Co-authored with Hyeok Yong Kwon. 
•  “Rising Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution in Affluent Countries.” Perspectives on Politics, v. 3, no. 3 (2005), 449-471.  Co-authored with Lane Kenworthy. 
• “Comparative Political Economy of Wage Distribution: The Role of Partisanship and Labor Market Institutions." British Journal of Political Science, 32 (2002), 281-303.  Co-authored with David Rueda and Christopher Way. 
• “Wage Inequality and Varieties of Capitalism.” World Politics, v. 52 (April 2000), 350-383.  Co-authored with David Rueda.