George MeliosCV & Portfolio
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About

g.melios@lse.ac.uk

Hi! Welcome to my website!


My name is George, I am a Researcher and Lecturer at the Department of Psychological & Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and a Research Advisor at Gallup. In 2019, I founded a company specialising in evaluating and designing policies, the Ethos Lab – Centre for Governance and Sustainability Research

My research primarily focuses on what people think and subsequently do.

I use applied microeconometrics (quasi-experiments) and experimental methods to examine behavioural phenomena in politics and economics with large, naturally occurring data sets.

Research

You can find my current work under Papers as well as on SSRN and OSF, and current projects under Research.

My work has been covered in media such as The Economist, The Nation, The Daily Caller as well as To Vima and Kathimerini (in Greek).

Please also find details about my Fieldwork and Research Team.

Teaching

Currently teaching an M.Sc. course on causal inference for Behavioural Science. You can details on the course website and for older classes under Teaching.

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CV

You can download the latest version of my CV (Octrober 2023)

Current Affiliations
  • 2021
    Present
    London, UK

    Research Officer & Lecturer

    London School of Economics & Political Sciences

  • 2020
    Present
    London, Uk

    Senior Research Fellow (Hon.)

    University College London

  • 2022
    Present
    London

    Research Advisor

    Gallup International

  • 2019
    Present
    Greece

    CEO / Founder

    Ethos Lab – Policy

Education
  • 2016
    2021
    Cardiff, UK

    D.Phil. in Economics

    Swansea University

  • 2015
    2016
    Cardiff, UK

    M.Sc. in Financial Economics

    Cardiff University

  • 2010
    2015
    Athens, GR

    B.Sc. in Economic and Regional Development

    Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences

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Research

Research Themes
  • Political Economy
  • Political Behaviour/ Psychology
  • Public Policy

1. Political Economy

Towards the political economy literature, I have made three key contributions. First, I have studied the causal effect of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests on voting and beliefs about racial disparities. This project allows us, through the largest series of protests recorded, to evaluate the effectiveness of peaceful protests in agenda seeding and subsequent policy design. Second, I have studied the origins of asymmetric partisan biases in the US and the role of education in explaining the sharp increase in affective polarisation. This research, in conjunction with my broader agenda on polarisation, offers insights into potential policies that could foster a more inclusive public discourse and mitigate the behavioural effects of deep-seated polarisation. Furthermore, to provide more causal evidence on the drivers of polarisation in the United States, I have used data on clergy scandals to determine how secularisation lead to increased political competition and affective polarisation. These papers are currently either resubmitted or under review in top political science journals (i.e. Journal of Politics, APSR) and featured in media, such as in The Economist.

2. Political Behaviour/ Psychology

My research also adds to the political psychology literature through four key projects. The first one shows that partisan preferences not only change voters’ beliefs about the normative role of government but also causally affect real-life behaviour such as charitable donations in the United States. These results have significant implications for public policy with respect to understanding the substitution effect between public spending and charitable giving. Building on such partisan preferences, the second project focuses on understanding the role of partisanship in online dating and ways through which it can be mitigated. Similarly, the third project uses an online experiment to understand how emotions in news content affect political information processing and motivated reasoning. lastly, the fourth project focuses on motivated reasoning following the overturn of Row v. Wade and provides suggestions about the limits of confirmation bias in politics.

3. Public Policy

Regarding the literature on public policy, my research focuses on studying individual decision-making in different institutional settings. The overarching goal is to investigate the degree to which theoretical findings from political economy extend to consequential real-world decisions of individuals. I collect and analyse novel survey and experimental data from the field on job preferences, welfare programmes, and migration to study topics such as self-sorting into informal employment, risk aversion under uncertainty, and in-group favouritism. Three of these projects are currently under review in top political science \& development journals.

Research Team

Clemens Bauer-Mitterlehner

Research Assistant

Yara Sleiman

Research Assistant (2021-2023)

Giorgio Maaraaoui

Research Assistant (2021-2022)

Felix Link

Research Assistant (2023)

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Papers

Accepted & Published

Origin of (A)symmetry: The Evolution of Out-Party Distrust in the United States (2024)  — w. B. Klein Teeselink
Journal of Politics – Accepted
Presentation

Weather to Protest: The Effect of Black Lives Matter Protests on the 2020 Presidential Election — w. B. Klein Teeselink
Political Behavior – R&R
Presentation – Covered in The Economist, The Nation, Resilience, and The Daily Caller 

Les Misérables: An analysis of suffering and misery across the world (2023) — w. Laffan K., Kudrna L., & Dolan P.
Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 14, 1107939.

Working Papers

Remnants of civil war: Immediate and long-run effects of electoral oppression in cold war
Greece – w. V. Logothetis
Under Review
Presentation

Sleeping with the enemy: Partisan sorting in online dating — w. Y. Sleiman and P. Dolan
Under Review
Presentation

Partisanship, Government Responsibility, and Charitable Donations — w. B. Klein Teeselink
Under Review – Covered in Marginal Revolution

Who Needs Security in a Crisis? Evidence from an In-the-Field Choice Experiment in Lebanon — w. Y. Sleiman, E. Pietrostefani and H. Moore
Under Review

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Teaching

Academic year 2023-2024

Quantitative Applications for Behavioural Science – MSc in Behavioural Science (PB4A7)

Online Platform – Discord Channel

Lectures: Tuesday 09:00-10:00
Seminars: Tuesday 11:00-14:00
Help Session: Wednesday 16:00-17:00 (by L. Chatzilazarou)
Office Hours: Wednesday 10:00-11:30 – Book on LSE for you



Previous Academic years

2022-2023

Quantitative Applications for Behavioural Science – M.Sc. in Behavioural Science (PB4A7)
M.Sc. Dissertation Supervision – M.Sc. in Behavioural Science (13 students)

2021-2022

Data Science for Social Sciences – B.Sc. in Behavioural Science (DS202)
M.Sc. Dissertation Supervision – M.Sc. in Behavioural Science (2 students)

2020-2021
M.Sc. Dissertation Supervision – M.Sc. in Global Prosperity (12 students)

2017-2019
Macroeconomics II – B.Sc. in Economics

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Data

Replication files for my published work are available on my GitHub.

Please contact me if you require replication files for current working papers and papers under review at g.melios@lse.ac.uk.

Data availability on primary data:

1. Geolocated electoral violence in the 1961 Greek elections – w. V. Logothetis (Available upon request)

2. Informal labour choices in Lebanon – w. Y. Sleiman, E. Pietrostefani and H. Moore (Available through UCL – UK Data Service)

3. Prosperity Index in Lebanon – w. Y. Sleiman, E. Pietrostefani and H. Moore (Available through UCL – UK Data Service)

3. Assessing Welfare Disparities in EU Regions – w. P. Papadimitriou (Available upon Request)

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Contact Me

Feel free to reach out!