When politics is personal: How background influences behaviour
Monash Business School PhD candidate Tze Yong Tan.
25 August 2025
Monash Business School PhD candidate Tze Yong Tan is investigating how hometown ties affect political decisions - and what this reveals about the hidden forces shaping public policy.
Growing up in Malaysia, Tze Yong Tan began each day helping out in his parents’ grocery store, where he would read the morning paper.
But while other children were flicking through the comics, he was absorbed in the business and economics pages.
“One day my parents bought some shares and my mum told me, ‘Maybe you should read about this and tell us what to do," Mr Tan said.
His curiosity quickly grew - by primary school, he was already paying close attention to how the actions of businesses and governments shaped economic outcomes.
In a political landscape as complex and dynamic as Malaysia’s, he often wondered why politicians made certain policy choices - questions that would later shape his research interests.
In high school, a unit on economics deepened his interest, as he became fascinated by the logic and structured thinking it demanded.
That early interest eventually led him to Monash Business School’s Department of Economics, where he is now completing doctoral research into an understudied question in governance: how does personal history influence decision-making?
Mapping the mindset
While political economics and science has long acknowledged the influence of party affiliation, electoral incentives and lobbying pressure, there is relatively little empirical research on how the personal background of politicians shapes legislative behaviour.
Mr Tan’s work aims to fill this gap by analysing how U.S. members of Congress respond to major events in their hometown.
To carry out this work, Mr Tan spent nearly 1.5 years painstakingly compiling detailed biographies of around 1,300 U.S. politicians.
Drawing on publicly available sources, including news reports, interviews and congressional records, he charted each individual’s life path, from birth to office.
“My first chapter focuses on non-native politicians — those who serve in states where they weren’t born or raised – and examines whether a mass shooting in their hometown influences how they vote on gun legislation,” he said.
“There is a tension between emotional attachment to their hometown and voter accountability to their current constituency when responding to high-salience events such as gun violence, and I am curious about how the politicians will make that decision.”
His supervisor, Professor Paul Raschky, said the project provides new insights into how personal experiences of politicians can shape public policy.
“Ultimately, his project will impact how we model political behaviour that affects legislation and the allocation of limited taxpayers’ money,” Professor Raschky said.
Research with a purpose
As part of SoDa Labs, Mr Tan is surrounded by a collaborative and intellectually rich academic community.
Support from his supervisor and peers at Monash Business School’s Department of Economics and SoDa Labs has given him the freedom to pursue an ambitious project without feeling isolated.
“It’s been valuable to be part of a space where we can share our research, get feedback, and learn from each other,” he said.
Looking ahead, Mr Tan hopes to return to Malaysia and help strengthen the local research environment.
“There’s a real gap between countries when it comes to research,” he said. “I want to contribute to closing that gap.”
For now, he remains focused on completing his thesis — and uncovering more about the hidden forces that shape decisions made in parliaments worldwide.
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