Alexander Ross
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Research

Publications

Strategic Considerations and Support for Direct Democracy in the United States With Daniel R. Biggers. Electoral Studies, 2023. [DOI]


Current Projects

Naturalistic Data and Political Attitudes

I am currently working on a series of projects that use naturalistic data from online platforms, particularly Yelp and Google Reviews, to capture political attitudes and behaviors as they occur organically, outside of traditional survey settings.

Group Threat and Solidarity: Evidence from Yelp Reviews of Mexican Restaurants (with Adam Hobbs and Loren Collingwood) examines how partisan and racial attitudes manifest in online reviews of Mexican restaurants, using Yelp data to capture affective polarization in everyday consumer behavior. Under review.

BLM Protests and Online Reviews of Black-Owned Businesses (with Adam Hobbs and Deren Onursal) investigates whether Black Lives Matter protests generate solidarity or backlash toward Black-owned businesses, using Yelp and Google Reviews data matched with protest event data from ACLED. We find that Black-owned businesses receive significantly higher ratings following nearby BLM protests, with effects that are temporally proximate and geographically local. In progress.

PASI (Programme d’accompagnement et de soutien à l’intégration)

I am also working with a novel panel dataset on recent immigrants to Quebec, collected during my postdoctoral appointment at Université Laval. This project, funded by MIFI (Quebec’s immigration government agency), surveys participants recruited through administrative data to study the impact of initial experiences on later political and social integration and political attitudes.

This is the first panel dataset on political attitudes composed exclusively of recently arrived immigrants in Canada or the US.

Buying Love? How Government Benefits Shape Immigrant Political Attachment examines how government-provided benefits shape the political attachment of recent immigrants. Under review.


Under Review

Deserving Debtors? The Determinants of Attitudes Toward Federal Student Loan Debtors


Buying Love? How Government Benefits Shape Immigrant Political Attachment


Group Threat and Solidarity: Evidence from Yelp Reviews of Mexican Restaurants With Adam Hobbs and Loren Collingwood


Home Sweet Home? Foreign Real Estate Investment and Redistributive Preferences With Adam Hobbs


Working Papers

Owed Gratitude? The Impact of Attempted Debt Cancelation on Attitudes and Behaviors


Debtors and Democracy: The Impact of Federal Student Loan Debt on Participation and Attitudes among Debtors


Voting and Proactive Social Norm Compliance With Daniel R. Biggers


BLM Protests and Online Reviews of Black-Owned Businesses: Evidence from Yelp and Google Reviews With Adam Hobbs and Deren Onursal


Dropbox Proximity and Voting Propensity With Loren Collingwood and Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien


Conference Presentations

Yelp Stars and Partisan Stripes: Evidence of Affective Polarization in Online Business Reviews With Adam Hobbs and Loren Collingwood Presented at MPSA 2026


Participating in Integration Activities and Participating in Quebec Society: A Study of Integration Programs’ Use and Impacts With Valérie-Anne Mahéo and Thomas Gareau-Paquette Presented at CPSA 2025


Housing Shocks and Redistributive Preferences With Adam Hobbs Presented at MPSA 2024 & APSA 2025


Owed Gratitude? The Impact of Attempted Debt Cancelation on Attitudes and Behaviors Presented at APSA 2024


Deserving Debtors? The Determinants of Attitudes Toward Federal Student Loan Debtors Presented at APSA 2023


Debtors and Democracy: The Impact of Federal Student Loan Debt on Participation and Attitudes among Debtors Presented at MPSA 2023


Voting and Proactive Social Norm Compliance With Daniel R. Biggers Presented at APSA 2023

 
© 2026 Alexander Ross