Welcome

I’m an assistant professor in political science at the University of Iceland. I also serve on the steering committee for the Icelandic National Election Study. I received a PhD in political science from The Ohio State University in 2015.

My research is at the intersection of comparative political economy and political behavior, with an emphasis on the politics of redistribution and taxation, on the one hand, and on the political consequences of economic context, on the other hand.

I teach courses on positive political economy, research design, and applied data analysis.

Recent Publications

Agnar Freyr Helgason, Vittorio Merola (2017). Employment Insecurity, Incumbent Partisanship, and Voting Behavior in Comparative Perspective. Comparative Political Studies, (50), 7, pp. 1489–1523, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414016679176.

Agnar Freyr Helgason (2017). Unleashing the Money Machine: The Domestic Political Foundations of VAT Adoption. Socio-Economic Review, (15), 4, pp. 797–813, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwx004.

Vittorio Merola, Agnar Freyr Helgason (2016). Are We in the Same Boat or Not? The Opposite Effects of Absolute and Relative Income Shifts on Redistributive Preferences. Journal of Politics, (78), 4, pp. 1107–1123, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1086/686254.

Agnar Freyr Helgason (2016). Fractional Integration Methods and Short Time Series: Evidence from a Simulation Study. Political Analysis, (24), 1, pp. 59–68, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/mpv026.

Agnar Freyr Helgason (2016). Income-Based Voting and Polarization Over Redistribution Under Alternative Electoral Systems. Electoral Studies, (42), pp. 22–32, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2016.01.005.

Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, Agnar Freyr Helgason (2016). Introduction to Symposium on Time Series Error Correction Methods in Political Science. Political Analysis, (24), 1, pp. 1–2, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/mpv033.

Teaching

I teach or have taught the following courses:

University of Iceland:
- STJ108G: Research Methods in Political Science. Taught in Fall 2019
- STJ336G: Economic Approaches to Politics. Taught in Fall 2018 and 2019.
- STJ201F: Practical Statistics (Master’s level). Taught in Spring 2018 and 2019.
- STJ204G: Introduction to Statistical and Research Methods. Taught in Spring 2018 and 2019.
The Ohio State University:
- PS4781: Data Analysis in Political Science I (Online). Taught over six terms, 2013-15.