I am an associate professor of Political Science at the Department of Social Sciences at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), a member of the Carlos III-Juan March Institute (IC3JM) and the Co-director of the Master in Sustainable Development and Global Governance (MASUS) at UC3M.
Broadly situated in comparative political economy, my research focuses on the politics of institutional change, its diverse determinants and outcomes mostly (but not solely) in middle-income countries and Southern Europe.
I am interested in the making, evolution and politics of–both economic and political–institutions as well as their links with larger trajectories of economic development . Tackling diversity of institutions across countries and regions within those, my work focuses on several policy areas, particularly entailing education and skill development, market regulation and social policy.
In a current research project (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) that I co-direct with Salvador Parrado, I examine demand and supply sides of education and skill formation institutions in Spain from a political economy perspective. Enquiring about diverse preferences of individuals regarding education tracks (general vs. vocational); school types (public, private and mixed); and spending, this project, this project looks at the prevalent discrepancy between preferences and choices. Furthermore, it embarks on an analysis of supply side, exploring the evolution of education institutions in Spain based on a series of reforms since the 2010s. It scrutinizes the increasing political interest in reforming vocational education and training as well as its puzzling variation across different autonomous regions of Spain.
Linked to this ongoing project, I will be examining the institutional changes in vocational education and training in Spain along with the alliances formed to advocate those changes, based on a comparison with the respective processes in Mexico and Chile. In the context of this comparative analysis, I’ve been awarded with a research grant (funded by Becas Iberoamérica-Santander Investigación ) to conduct fieldwork in Mexico.
My work so far has appeared in Socio-Economic Review, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, South European Society and Politics, Review of International Political Economy, Regulation & Governance, the Journal of European Public Policy, and Democratization, among others. My book State-Business Alliances and Economic Development, Turkey, Mexico and North Africa came out of Routledge in 2014.
Prior to joining UC3M, I was an Associate Professor at Sabancı University, Istanbul. In addition, I’ve held research and teaching fellowships at several institutions including the Hertie School of Governance (Berlin), Instituto de Empresa (Madrid), the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE, Mexico City), El Colegio de México (COLMEX) and Freie Universität Berlin.
I received my PhD in Political Science at the University of Washington, Seattle and was granted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI). I hold a BS in Economics (Middle East Technical University) and an MA in Economic History (Bosphorus University). You can access my CV here.
Işık D. Özel 