Field of Research

Political Science, Political Economics, Social Epidemiology

Research Topics

Political Behavior, Political Institutions, Suicide Prevention

Overview of Research

My research is principally concerned with the functioning and consequences of the democratic process. A first line of research seeks to explain what types of citizens and under what institutional conditions they are more likely to vote in elections, what types of citizens are more supportive of expanding government’s welfare and education policies, and what leads government officials to produce policies that meet the public’s needs. A second line of research focuses on suicide as a measure of human well-being and explores the importance of politics to prevent suicide worldwide. My research is characterized by two keywords. The first one is “invisible inequality,” meaning that my research seeks to highlight those who are unheard and underrepresented in the democratic political process. The second keyword is “scientific evidence,” meaning that I seek to generate rigorous scientific evidence as much as possible through data analysis for policy-making and institutional engineering in the real world. My seminar aims to offer opportunities for students to learn skills to evaluate the validity of empirical evidence published in academic journals and to generate their own scientific evidence on topics they are interested in.

MATSUBAYASHI, Tetsuya 
Professor
Degree: Ph.D. in Political Science (Texas A&M University)
matsubayashi@osipp.osaka-u.ac.jp