Sofia Vera

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Kansas

Do female public servants receive a stronger negative public reaction from being involved in corruption than their male counterparts? While there are good theoretical reasons to suggest they do, the empirical evidence on this question to date, which primarily focuses on elected officials, remains inconclusive. To shed new light on this matter, we i...

There is extensive research about how bureaucracies in the developing world depart from the Weberian ideal and the ways in which corruption distorts the provision of public services. However, less is known about how citizens respond to the corruption they encounter in daily life. In this study, we implement a conjoint experiment to investigate how...

Do men and women exhibit different attitudes and behaviors toward COVID-19 public health measures? Is there a gender gap in support for and compliance with government recommendations during a public health crisis? While the disproportionate effect of the pandemic on women suggests that they would oppose burdensome quarantine measures, theories of g...

Research suggests that the coronavirus pandemic disproportionately affected poor communities. However, relatively little is known about how this differential impact affected support for, and compliance with, COVID-19 lockdown policies. This article examines the relationship between socioeconomic inequalities and public opinion towards COVID-19 cont...

Two issue frames quickly emerged in policy and media communications about COVID-19 lockdown measures. Initially, a public health frame advocated for strong quarantine policies to slow the spread of the virus. As the economic costs associated with quarantine measures became clear, an economic frame pushed for an end to (or a relaxation of) these mea...

The literature studying citizen responses to exposed political corruption is rapidly growing. While some studies explore how information credibility and group identities can reduce the electoral impact of the exposure of corruption, this article addresses different mechanisms for weak electoral accountability for corruption: candidate competence in...

The literature studying the behavioral effects of political corruption is rapidly growing. While some studies explore the contextual and institutional factors that can neutralize the effects of corruption, this article addresses a different mechanism for weak electoral accountability for corruption: citizen (de)mobilization. It uses a vignette expe...

More than one million Cubans, representing thirty percent of the country’s labor force, currently make up the nonstate sector. These include self-employed workers and micro-entrepreneurs, sharecropping farmers, members of new cooperatives, and buyers and sellers of private dwellings. This development represents a crucial structural reform implement...

Several problems converged in 2015 to generate uncertainty about the future of Correa's "Citizen's Revolution". The drop in oil prices severely hit the Ecuadorian economy based on the exportation of raw materials and dependent on public spending. Public dissatisfaction was channeled through massive protests against the legislative reforms proposed...

Peruvian Democracy Faces Low Levels Of Institutional Legitimacy, A Weak Party System And The Recurrent Appearance Of Outsiders In The Political Arena. The Performance Of The Economy Presents Better Indicators Than The Latin American Average, And, At The Same Time, The Country Suffers From High Levels Of Social Discomfort, Expressed Through The Pref...

Peruvian democracy faces low levels of institutional legitimacy, a weak party system and the recurrent appearance of outsiders in the political arena. The performance of the economy presents better indicators than the Latin American average, and, at the same time, the country suffers from high levels of social discomfort, expressed through the pref...

2007 in Peru was characterized by a type of "neo-dualism". On the one hand, there is a part of the country that is more urban, modern, and coastal, which is relatively optimistic about the future, that is involved in the expansion of the economy. On the other hand, we have another part of the country that is more rural, in the the highlands, in the...

2007 in Peru was characterized by a type of “ neo-dualism” . On the one hand, there is a part of the country that is more urban, modern, and coastal, which is relatively optimistic about the future, that is involved in the expansion of the economy. On the other hand, we have another part of the country that is more rural, in the highlands, in the a...

2006 was a year of elections in Peru; Peruvians elected all their popular elected authorities. The most important outcome was the election of Alan García as President, and the surprising rise and fall of the outsider candidate, Ollanta Humala, between the April presidential election and the November regional and municipal elections. The anti-system...