Dr Eva Heims
Senior Lecturer

Profile

Biography

Eva’s research interests lie in transnational and comparative public policy, with a particular focus on regulation. She joined the Department of Politics and International Relations as Lecturer in September 2016.

Previously, she was a Fellow in Public Policy and Administration in the Department of Government of the LSE and taught at the Department of Political Economy of King’s College London.

She holds a BA from Maastricht University and an MSc degree from the European Institute of the LSE, where she also completed her PhD. Her PhD was awarded in 2015 and was funded by the Foundation of German Business.

Research

Overview

Eva’s research interests are in the fields of comparative public policy and administration, with a particular focus on German, British, EU and international regulation. She has research expertise in a variety of policy sectors, including the regulation of banking, pharmaceuticals, utilities, maritime and food safety. More specifically her research interests include:

• Industry influence on regulation
• Citizen and consumer participation in regulation
• Cross-border coordination of regulation in EU agencies and international organisations
• Historical development of regulation and regulatory bodies

Eva is currently the Principal Investigator of the UKRI-funded research project ‘Re-evaluating Regulatory Capture: The Limits of Industry Influence in Pharmaceutical and Consumer Financial Regulation’. The main objective of the project is to demonstrate that excessive industry influence on regulatory agencies is not inevitable and to provide a hitherto missing understanding of the conditions under which it can be prevented. The project tests its novel theory of regulatory capture by comparatively tracing regulatory decision-making processes in two fields of regulation that are widely assumed to be vulnerable to industry influence: pharmaceutical market approvals and financial product consumer protection over four decades (from 1970 to 2010) in the United Kingdom.

External activities

Memberships

Eva is the Co-Convenor of the PSA Specialist Group on Executive Politics and Governance. She is also a member of the IPSA research committee on the Structure and Organisation of Government and a Research Associate of the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation (LSE).