09/09/2026

We are glad to announce that on August 31, 2026, Lorenzo Colombo, a POLS PhD student from the 41st cohort, received the Celso Ghini Prize, awarded by SISE (Società Italiana di Studi Elettorali) for the article Do Young People Vote for Younger Parties? Electoral Behavior and Descriptive Representation of Younger Generations in Europe.

This study examines whether the age composition of party candidate lists influences voter behavior, particularly among younger voters, using a novel dataset combining European Election Studies (2019 and 2024) with expert survey and candidate-level data across twelve EU member states. Testing three hypotheses derived from theories of descriptive representation, affinity voting, and post-materialist value change, the analysis finds that younger generations tend to prefer newer and younger parties. However, this effect is shared with other age groups, suggesting that younger voters' electoral behavior may be less distinctly generational than current theoretical models assume.

Well done Lorenzo!