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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Some professional news: I submitted my thesis! 🥳

Title page of an Oxford DPhil thesis, titled: Asset Repurposing in the Green Transition: How Polluting Firms Can Become Climate Policy Supporters.

Reposted by Jonas Fischer

Consortium on the American Political Economy (CAPE) @cape-team.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

The 6th Annual CAPE Research Conference program is live! Join us virtually July 27-29 at 12:00 PM ET for the latest (and greatest) in American Political Economy (APE) research. Free registration and full schedule: americanpoliticaleconomy.org/events/annual-conference 👇

americanpoliticaleconomy.org

Annual Conference | Consortium on the American Political Economy

The annual CAPE research conference is a forum for APE-oriented scholars to present work in progress and receive feedback from the broader APE community.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Ryan finds positive feedback effects in communities cross-pressured by globalization and decarbonization: ryan-pike.github.io/files/pike_j...

ryan-pike.github.io

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Spoke to a rewilding scholar once and apparently you can just release beavers all over the Northern hemisphere and everything will be taken care of.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Even staunch defenders of combustion engines, like the German auto sector association VDA, seem uncomfortable with such levels of politicking, simply noting that it is now time to wait for the Commission’s proposal. www.tagesschau.de/ausland/euro...

tagesschau.de

Aus vom Verbrenner-Aus: Was wird aus Webers Plan?

Die EU hat sich laut EVP-Chef Weber darauf geeinigt, dass es nun doch kein Aus für Verbrenner geben soll. Der Zeitpunkt dürfte kein Zufall sein. Aber kommt es überhaupt so? Von Sabrina Fritz.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Party colleague Markus Söder (Bavaria) even topped it off, claiming this was just the beginning. Remind you, all of this is before the Commission has even tabled a proposal.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

In an unprecedented move, Manfred Weber (EPP) announced yesterday night to German tabloid BILD that the 2035 CO2 targets for cars and vans (the combustion engine phaseout) would be weakened.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

We have the data for the 2025 federal election, but did not look at it yet.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Contrary to what we expected when beginning to work on this paper, we do not find the treatment to be heterogeneous across districts with different SES, age structure, or average distance to the polling station. [5/5]

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

We leverage this exogenous variation in voting costs to test irregularities’ impact on turnout in a DiD design. The increased waiting times, although small and unexpected, suppressed turnout by *0.73 pp.* in the affected voting districts (most conservative estimate). [4/5]

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Sunk cost fallacy makes effects unlikely. We look at the 2021 federal election in Berlin, where – thanks to a coincidence of administrative mistakes – in 14% of voting districts long queues formed in front of polling stations, some of which even had to close for a while. [3/5]

Map of Berlin's 2,257 voting districts, those with election irregularities highlighted.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

The costs of voting (e.g., the time it takes to go to the polling station) are usually considered small, but they do show consistent effects on turnout. So far, the literature has focused on costs that are known in advance. What happens if cost hikes are *unexpected*? [2/5]

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

I’m happy to see this short paper with @fluegeldo.bsky.social on unexpected hikes in voting costs out in @thejop.bsky.social ! doi.org/10.1086/739405 [1/5]

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

On the other hand: This income stream to the Crown Estate has stopped anyone in Westminster touching offshore (at least for now), even as onshore got assaulted in the 2010s.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

One issue with offshore in the UK is that all the income from the leases goes to the Crown Estate and not Clacton et al. Having financial benefits distributed more locally might anchor green support in these communities more effectively.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Stellantis opposed the phaseout under Tavares, but once it was a done deal didn't strive to undermine it. Now, with the leadership unclear and the US market going backward on electrification, it is unclear where they are going to stand.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

I contribute to the political economy of climate change literature by introducing asset specificity as a determinant of business behavior, theorizing “convertible industries” (ninakelsey.bsky.social) and the “decarbonizable sector” (nilskupzok.bsky.social & @jonasnahm.com)

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Instead, those with existing plans to go all-in on battery electric supported the phaseout, and those who kept investing in combustion engines opposed it.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Why do chameleons turn green? I argue that they turn green in the hope their repurposed assets provide a competitive advantage in emerging green markets. Manufacturers’ policy positions are not a direct function of their market positions.

Scatterplot of manufacturers' market and political position.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Due to their high asset specificity, suppliers are a brown industry. They are united, do not care about carrots, and focus on averting sticks.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

When they turn green, they become more accommodating of sticks (phaseout) if they get carrots, safeguarding their economic repurposing (public charging deployment) in return.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Car manufacturers are chameleons. Their low asset specificity allows them to repurpose their emissions-intense asset to seek first-mover advantages in the emerging battery electric vehicle market. Hence, we see brown and green behavior in the same industry.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Why did some car manufacturers support the phaseout while others resisted it? And why did parts suppliers stand united in their opposition? I introduce asset specificity as a second dimension besides emissions intensity determining businesses’ political and economic behavior.

Two-dimensional space of asset specificity and emissions intensity with a business typology of green, brown, and chameleon industries.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

New Working Paper! I present findings from my first PhD case study on the auto sector’s engagement with the EU phaseout of the internal combustion engine. doi.org/10.31219/osf...

Title page of the working paper, including abstract and keywords.

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 22/08/2024

While adaptation might currently be overshadowed by mitigation, the increasing need for societies to cope with a changing climate will soon bring it to the forefront of climate politics. 6/6

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 22/08/2024

We also call for scholars to broaden the scope of their studies beyond climate change mitigation to adaptation. 5/6

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 22/08/2024

We argue that understanding climate politics as a two-dimensional conflict space is crucial, as climate policies and climate change itself can create winners and losers independently of one another. 4/6

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 22/08/2024

The aim is to demonstrate the importance of integrating climate change into the field of CPE and to highlight the contributions of CPE to our understanding of the social and political obstacles to effective climate policies. 3/6

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 22/08/2024

In this article, we review recent insights from the blooming Comparative Political Economy (CPE) literature on climate change. 2/6

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Jonas Fischer @jonasfischer.bsky.social · 02/10/2023

I am excited to announce that I have joined Nuffield College and Blavatnik School of Government in pursuit of my PhD.

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