My work
I have always tried to be innovating in my work as a political scientist whether it be in the design, approach or data applied. A lot of my inspiration has come from my longer research trips abroad at top universities around the world.
As a student I conducted the first Deliberative Poll in Denmark, first at the regional level (1998) and later nationally (2000, 2006, 2015, 2024).
Since then, Deliberative Polls have become a recurrent part of the parliament’s activities to inform the public and stimulate debate.
I was among the first in Denmark to apply the logic of experimental split sampling design to nationally representative samples and conjoint analysis (2005), now the design is ubiquitous in political science.
During the 2011 national election campaign, I applied a six-wave panel-design including several survey experiments — a design that is applied throughout the field today.
During the Danish municipal elections in 2009, I managed to collect the first wave of Danish voter lists that include validated turnout for almost all current voters.
This was the start of the Danish Turnout Project, which has collected turnout at every election since and now stands as a tenth-wave individual panel with the entire population merged with detailed socio-demographics from Statistics Denmark.
In 2013 I introduced larger field experiments to Danish political science, applying various types of Get-Out-The-Vote experiments to the entire electorate. I have been part of the Danish National Election Study (DNES), since 2005 and principal investigator since 2014.
Under my leadership new variables, approaches and designs have been applied to the study, and the project has provided a consistent flow of books and analyses in both in Danish and English.
Under my presidency of the Danish Association of Political Science I managed to renew the organization and the annual meeting became a gathering for quality feedback on new papers for the entire Danish political science community.
Privately, I enjoy many different recreational sports, e.g., our “super-veteran” soccer team, biking and tennis. I also like outdoor activities whether it is hiking, boating and spearfishing.
Media
I have been the most cited researcher in Danish media for several years. I usually give interviews on Danish elections and public opinions, mostly to Danish media outlets and occasionally to international media.
Visiting scholar
I was a visiting fellow at the University of Bergen in 1998, at Stanford University in 2001, and at the Australian National University in 2007. In 2010 I was visiting professor at European University Institute (EUI) - Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), in 2016 I was visiting scholar at Columbia University. In the academic year of 2021/2022, I was visiting scholar at Stanford University.
Publications
I have published a number of articles in Journal of Politics, Political Behavior,
Political Analysis, Nature Human Behavior, PLoS ONE, British Journal of Political Science, American Journal of Evaluation,
European Journal of Political Research, Public Choice, Electoral Studies, West European Politics,
Political Science Research and Methods, World Political Science, European Union Politics, Social Science & Medicine,
International Migration Review, Party Politics, Social Forces, Political Communication, Acta Politica,
Journal of Elections, Political Studies, Local Government Studies, Public Opinion and Parties, International Journal of Public Opinion Research,
Journal of Information Technology & Politics, Scandinavian Political Studies, Public Administration, Politica, Økonomi & Politik, and Metode & Data.
