I am principal investigator of a project that collects and analyzes leader speeches (primarily of EU prime ministers) as part of the EU-ENGAGE project. This is paid for by a Horizon 2020 research grant. We have now collected over 18,000 speeches from leaders of 10 different countries in approximately the period 2007-2015. The goal is to track issue attention and sentiment over time. When do leaders talk more or less about the economy, and how much sentiment is conveyed in these speeches?
In this project I cooperate with Martijn Schoonvelde (postdoc VU), and Tanushree Dahiya & Erik de Vries (student-assistants UvA).
We are preparing a working paper for the MPSA Annual Conference (April 2016).
We are also organizing a workshop (21/22 June in Amsterdam). More information will follow.