Olivier Jacques is an assistant professor in the Department of Management, Evaluation and Health Policy at the University of Montreal. He received his PhD from the Department of Political Science at McGill University in the fall of 2020 and was a postdoctoral researcher at Queen's University. He is interested in the political economy of public policy in Canada and Europe. More specifically, his research has three main axes. The first focuses on the consequences of fiscal austerity for politics and for public policy. The second examines the incentives for governments to propose public policies that are beneficial in the long term, particularly in public health. His third line of research examines citizens' preferences for fiscal policies, including fiscal austerity, willingness to pay taxes, and redistribution. He has also explored the relationship between social policies, income inequalities and population health. Finally, Olivier is developing a new line of research on the political economy of rising health care costs.

Peer-reviewed publications

Jacques, Olivier. 2021. “The Electoral Politics of Long-term Investments.” Party Politics

Jacques, Olivier. 2021. “Austerity and the path of least resistance : how fiscal consolidations crowd out long term investments.” Journal of European Public Policy. 28(4): 551-570.  

Jacques, Olivier and Lukas Haffert. 2021. “Are Governments Paying a Price for Austerity? Fical Consolidations Reduce Government Approval.” European Political Science Review. 13(2): 189-207. 

Jacques, Olivier and Benjamin Ferland. 2021. “Political discretion in infrastructure spending in Canada”. Canadian Journal of Political science. 54(1): 96-117.

Jacques, Olivier and Alain Noël. 2021. "Targeting Within Universalism." Journal of European Social Policy. 31(1): 15-29.

Jacques, Olivier. 2020."Partisan priorities under fiscal constraints in Canadian provinces." Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de Politiques

Jacques, Olivier. 2020. “Funding the state: taxation in Canada from a comparative politics perspective.” In E. Heaman et D. Tough (eds.) Who Pays for Canada, Taxation and Fairness. McGill Queen’s University Press. 58-89

Jacques, Olivier and Alain Noël. 2018. "The case for welfare state universalism, or the lasting relevance of the paradox of redistribution" Journal of European Social Policy. 28(1): 70-85

Arsenault, Gabriel, Olivier Jacques and Antonia Maioni. 2018. “Services de garde subventionnés: pourquoi le Québec continue-t-il de faire cavalier seul.” Institute for Research in Public Policy study. Study no 67.

Zorn, Nicolas, and Olivier Jacques. 2017. “Under the Rising Wave. How Disaggregated Revenue Sources Can Tell Another Story for Québec’s Top Income Share.” Journal of Income Distribution. 25 (1). 1-25

Jacques, Olivier. 2015. “Le compromis fiscal scandinave: la taxation néolibérale d'un État social-démocrate” Revue Politikos Journal 1: 25-39