Björn Bremer

Björn Bremer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Central European University (CEU) in Vienna. During the 2024/25 academic year, he is also a John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University. Previously, he was a Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne.

• PhD in Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, Florence
• MA in International Relations and International Economics, Johns Hopkins SAIS
• BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE), University of Oxford
• UWC Atlantic College

His research lies at the intersection of comparative politics, international political economy, and political behavior. He focuses on the politics of macroeconomic policies, welfare state politics, and the political consequences of economic crises. He is the author of Austerity from the Left: Social Democratic Parties in the Shadow of the Great Recession (Oxford University Press, 2023), which examines how social democratic parties adopted orthodox fiscal policies during the Great Recession due to electoral and ideational pressures.

His recent publications analyze public opinion on fiscal integration in the EU, welfare state recalibration, social investment, and the political dynamics of austerity. Using survey experiments and comparative data, his work reveals how citizens prioritize spending, taxation, and debt, and how elite cues shape support for contentious policies. His research spans Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and broader European contexts.

• John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow, Harvard University (2024/25)

Bremer has taught courses such as Economic and Political Inequality, Democratic Theory, and The Politics of Macroeconomic Policies at CEU and the University of Cologne. He has supervised postgraduate and PhD seminars and has been involved in major research projects including the ERC-funded POLCON project on the political consequences of the Great Recession. His current work explores the politics of green transitions, sovereign debt, and public opinion on unconventional monetary policies. He collaborates with leading scholars across Europe and the US and contributes to policy debates through research briefs with PPRNet.