Hello!
I’m Dr. E. Keith Smith, a Senior Researcher (Oberassistent) at the Chair of International Political Economy and Environmental Politics at ETH Zürich. I study how we can identify and implement feasible, effective solutions to urgent environmental challenges.
My research explores how governance shapes environmental outcomes, economic development, political feasibility, and social equity, often adopting a global and comparative perspective. I work across a wide range of issues, including air pollution, climate change, energy transitions, and sustainable mobility. My approach is interdisciplinary, combining diverse theoretical frameworks with innovative, mixed-methods research designs.
My recent work has appeared in journals such as PNAS, Nature Communications, Nature Climate Change, and Nature Sustainability, with emphasis on topics such as the political feasibility of climate policy, air pollution in developing countries, political polarisation, sustainable supply chain governance, and social tipping dynamics.
Recent News and Announcements
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Media coverage of “Conditional Middle” paper
Several outlets have covered our new paper on climate policy feasibility in Europe and the role of the “conditional middle” (voters whose support depends on policy design and perceived costs/benefits): Swissinfo (interview), nau.ch, bluewin.ch, RTS La 1ere.
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Climate policy feasibility across Europe relies on the conditional middle
Climate politics sounds increasingly polarised. But in Europe, support for climate isn’t driven by die-hard supporters or opponents. It tends to be shaped by a large “conditional middle” (33%). Our paper identifying the conditional middle was released today in Nature Climate Change (link). The paper was also featured in ETH News Also, an article on…
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Who really determines majority support for climate policies in Europe?
Our paper “Climate Policy Feasibility across Europe Relies on the Conditional Middle” has been accepted in principle at Nature Climate Change (pre-print). This paper identifies a crucial group of Europeans, the Conditional Middle, those who neither always in support for in opposition to climate policies, and whose views vary substantially by policy design. We estimate…
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WU “Best Paper” awarded to “Stringent sustainability regulation”paper
Our paper “Stringent sustainability regulations for global supply chains are supported across middle-income democracies” in Nature Communications has won the “WU Best Paper Award” awarded by the Vienna University for Economics and Business in the category “Business Communication, Legal Studies, Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary Work and Economic Geography”. Super congrats to my co-authors Dennis Kolcava and…
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What drives views on sustainable supply chain regulations?
Our paper “Voter perceptions and the politics of hidden costs in unilateral sustainable supply chain regulations” was just published in the European Journal of Political Research (open access). We explore how information disclosure rules enable governments to implement market access restrictions compliant with binding trade liberalisation commitments while (a priori) obscuring their costs to voters…