This text is translated from Norwegian using GPT UiO.
We need trust to solve societal problems such as financing welfare goods, reducing human-induced climate effects, and combating pandemics.
This is the basis for questions Maryna Povitkina, an associate professor at the Department of Political Science, aims to explore. She receives 8 million NOK for the project INTRUST: Establishing causal links between institutional quality and social trust.
Povitkina will investigate how the quality of institutions – essentially how well a country's governance structures and institutions function – affects people's trust in each other.
– The FRIPRO funds are a fantastic opportunity to study important questions about our society, which I am passionate about. I will benefit from the synergy of collaborating with other disciplines, says Maryna Povitkina. She explains that the funds will be used to conduct large-scale experiments in several countries to understand how political institutions influence people's trust.
– Without these funds, it is not practically possible to carry out such large-scale experiments, she says.
Povitkina will research how the quality of political institutions – including the effectiveness of public administration, freedom from corruption, and transparency – affects trust among people.
– Knowing how people react to institutional dysfunctions is crucial for designing appropriate political measures and finding solutions to societal challenges that depend on social trust, she says. Povitkina notes that such challenges include environmental issues, welfare systems, antibiotic resistance, and combating pandemics, to name a few.
– I will use large-scale experiments in several countries to evaluate whether the relationship between institutional quality and social trust is generalizable and causal, she says.
– This is very good news for the entire Department of Political Science. Being awarded FRIPRO funds is highly prestigious and gives Mayina and her team the opportunity to advance the international research frontier through several experimental studies, says Elin Haugsgjerd Allern, head of the department at ISV.
The department head says that the project will address a fundamental question in political science and thereby strengthen research in field that is central to the discipline and the department.
Relevant in the last wave of inflation
How do wage contracts and wage determination affect macroeconomics, such as inflation, unemployment, and economic growth? These are questions Karl Harmenberg, an associate professor at the Department of Economics, received eight million NOK to further explore in the project WaCoMacro: Wage contracts and macroeconomics.
– The latest wave of inflation we've seen makes my research question more important than ever, says Harmenberg.
– Receiving FRIPRO funds makes me happy and motivated to get started with the research. For me, it means four to five years of leeway to dive deep into these important questions, he says.
– We are happy and proud! The awarding of research funds to our staff is both a recognition of our researchers and of the department as a research environment, says Karen Helene Ulltveit-Moe, Head of the Department of Economics.
A total of 17 different projects are receiving 164 million NOK through the FRIPRO scheme (read in Norwegian). The common denominator for the projects is that "they maintain high scientific quality and have great potential to advance the research frontier in their fields," according to the Research Council's justification.
FRIPRO is the Research Council's open, national competitive arena for all disciplines and topics.