Open Research Repository
The Open Research Repository (ORR) is the official institutional repository of the Central European University. The repository provides access to the research output of the CEU community by collecting open access versions of scholarly works authored or co-authored by CEU faculty and students.
For more information, please contact us at: scholcom@ceu.edu
Recent Submissions
Item Markets for Children:International Adoption, ART, and U.S. Foster Care(2025-10)This paper examines how access to alternative paths to parenthood-international adoption and assisted reproductive technologies (ART)-affects adoption outcomes in the U.S. foster care system. Using a child-level panel from 1998 to 2010, we exploit major shifts in both channels during this period. To address endogeneity, we implement two instrumental variable strategies: a shift-share design leveraging exogenous supply shocks from key international sending countries, and an interactive instrument based on the timing of state-level fertility insurance mandates. Our results show that increased access to international adoption and ART significantly reduces the likelihood that children, especially younger ones, are adopted from foster care. These findings highlight how developments in global adoption policy and reproductive technology can shape domestic adoption outcomes.Item Ideology and polarization set the agenda on social media(2025)The abundance of information on social media has reshaped public discussions, shifting attention to the mechanisms that drive online discourse. This study analyzes large-scale Twitter (now X) data from three global debates—Climate Change, COVID-19, and the Russo-Ukrainian War—to investigate the structural dynamics of engagement. Our findings reveal that discussions are not primarily shaped by specific categories of actors, such as media or activists, but by shared ideological alignment. Users consistently form polarized communities, where their ideological stance in one debate predicts their positions in others. This polarization transcends individual topics, reflecting a broader pattern of ideological divides. Furthermore, the influence of individual actors within these communities appears secondary to the reinforcing effects of selective exposure and shared narratives. Overall, our results underscore that ideological alignment, rather than actor prominence, plays a central role in structuring online discourse and shaping the spread of information in polarized environments.Item Reimagining collaboration:Degrowth practitioners, scholars and activists(Taylor and Francis, 2025-07-17)In a selective history of the evolution of the degrowth movement, his chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Degrowth (2025) offers a collective and subjective reflection revealing tensions between academics, practitioners and activists. Its four co-authors have lived in and with these tensions, analysing practical experiences in the degrowth cooperative Cargonomia (Budapest, Hungary) and the low-tech ecosystem Can Decreix (Cerbère, France). The chapter aims to launch a formal, respectful and significant dialogue between degrowth academics and practitioners. How did an initial public perception of degrowth as activists who experiment-by-doing based in a radical epistemological critique of traditional academia evolve more and more into an academia-dominated movement? We reflect on the movement's organisation to suggest how deeper collaborative relationships between researchers, activism and practitioners might strengthen degrowth as an academic field, enhance the credibility and robustness of grounded prefigurative activities, and facilitate conditions for diversity within the movement, preventing Identitarian closure. We recommend how academia, activism and the politics of degrowth might be connected with practitioners in mutually beneficial, pluralistic and participatory ways, while re-embracing epistemological considerations in the formation of the original pillars of degrowth and associated challenges.Item Premenstrual dysphoric disorder in online peer support communities: a Reddit case study(2025-10-01)The growing reliance on online communities has reshaped how individuals articulate, validate, and navigate psychological distress. However, the value of online peer support spaces remains insufficiently studied, particularly in the context of underrecognized conditions such as Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). Here we investigated r/PMDD, a Reddit-based peer support community comprising 17,332 participants over a 12-year period (2012–2024), contextualized by their activity across 112 other mental health subreddits. We found a substantial decrease in the association of PMDD with depression and anxiety, evident both in general cross-community activity trends and at the individual level shortly after users become active in r/PMDD. Despite PMDD’s clinical classification as an affective disorder, users frequently discussed both psychological and physical symptoms. These discussions largely aligned with DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria, though substantial heterogeneity was evident across individuals. Users clustered around distinct treatment types, with SSRI antidepressants, contraceptives, and complementary medicine as the most prominent. These three medication types were negatively associated between each other, indicating a compartmentalized approach to treatment. Moreover, users posting about SSRI antidepressants in r/PMDD exhibited higher cross-community activity across most disorders compared to those posting about contraceptives. The findings underscore the value of online peer support communities as a complement to clinical understanding of diagnostically complex conditions like PMDD, particularly in relation to comorbidity patterns, symptomatology, and treatment.Item What Do People Desire in Their Leaders?:An Affordance Management Approach to Trait Desirability Across Domains(2025-10-20)Although research has extensively examined the traits people expect leaders to possess, it has only recently begun to highlight the importance of investigating the traits that followers truly desire in leaders. Applying an affordance management approach, we hypothesized that some traits (i.e., those necessary to accomplish most group goals) would be desired in all leaders. In contrast, other traits (i.e., those relevant to accomplishing competitive vs. cooperative goals) should differ in their desirability depending on the goals of the respective group. In Studies 1 (student sample) and 3 (working adult sample), participants were presented with leaders who were initially lacking 10 positive traits. Participants in Study 2 received leaders who all were at the 100th percentile on 10 corresponding negative traits. We then asked them to use their budgets to increase (Studies 1 and 3) or decrease (Study 2) amounts of these traits with the goal of “building” ideal leaders. Across the three studies, results suggested that participants desired some traits (i.e., intelligence, trustworthiness) across leadership domains while the desirability of other traits (e.g., assertiveness, cooperativeness) was dependent on the goals of the group. We discuss the implications of affordance management on leadership practice.
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