Advanced Economic Growth
Master course. Topics: endogenous growth, Schumpeterian growth, directed technical change, technology diffusion, automation and artifical intelligence, and more.
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Open Economy Macroeconomics
Master course. Topics: Determinants of the current account, global imbalences, twin deficits, sovereign debt, the European debt crisis, and more.
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Deep Determinants
In this Master course we investigate how the long-run macroeconomic performance of countries
is affected by deep determinants: policy, institutions, governance, and culture.
We also investigate the special role of income inequality within and between countries.
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Advanced Macroeconomics
Master course. Topics: economic groth, business cycles, unemployment, consumption, investment, monetary and fiscal policy.
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Advanced Development Economics
Joint Master and PhD Course. In my part of the course we discuss themes of long-run development: 1. Modern vs. Pre-Modern Growth, 2. The Demographic Transition and the History Augmented Solow Model, 3.Human Physiology, Development, and the Reversal of Fortune, 4. The Past and Future of Knowledge-Based Growth.
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Growth, Resources and the Environment
Master course. Themes covered: Growth and natural ressources, sustainable growth,
renewable and non-renewable natural resources, the resource curse, growth and environmental pollution,
global warming.
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International Political Economy
Master course. Topics: direct and representative democracy, voting in international
organisations, lobbying, collective action, economics of alliances, trade
wars, trade negotiations, GATT and WTO, custom unions, free trade areas and
the EU, protection for sale, globalization.
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Business Cycle Theory
Master course. Topics: Measuring business cycles, multiplier-accelerator mechanisms,
monetarism, new Keynesian macro, real business cycles, financial frictions, fiscal stimulus,
the Great Depression, the recession of 2007-2009.
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Growth and Development
In this Bachelor course we investigate the problem why some countries are so much
richer than others. In the first part we analyse the role of investment, education, health,
and population growth in economic development. In the second part we focus on technolgical progress. We investigate the measurement of productivity, the Industrial Revolution, die role of
basic research and imitation, and the Schumpeterian process of "creative destruction".
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Genes, Memes, and Economic Development
In this bachelor seminar on economic development in the very long run we explore the role of genetic and cultural transmission of human characteristics and traits for economic performance at the individual level and for the aggregate performance of societies from pre-Columbian times until the present day. Themes: The Out of Africa Hypothesis. Persistence of Fortune. Ethnic Diversity and Economic Outcomes. Transmission of Risk and Trust Attitudes. And more...
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New Developments in International Economics: Cities and Development
In this master seminar we investigate the economic, geographic, and politcal determinants of city size and growth, the impact of economic development on urbanization, the evolution of city size in developed vs. developing countries, the role of cities for innovation and growth, the features of cities as networks and more.
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Economics of Terrorism
Bachelor Seminar. Themes: The Mind of the Terrorist; The Roots of Terrorism; Does Terrorism Work?; Terrorism, Backlash, and the Assimilation of Muslim Immigrants;
The Effect of Political Violence on Religiosity; Ethnicity, Insurgency and Civil War; and more.
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Globalization 2.0: Offshoring, Trade in Tasks, and the Labor Market
Master Seminar. Themes: Global Value Chains; Offshoring and Wages; Job Polarization; The Declining Middle Class; Offshoring and Labor Standards; and more.
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Economics of Islam
Bachelor Seminar. Themes: Does Religion Affect Growth and Happiness?; Democratic Change in the Arab World; A Theory of Islamic Revival; The Institutional Legacy of the Ottoman Empire, The Effect of Ramadan Observance During Pregnancy; and more.
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Culture and Long-Run Development
Bachelor Seminar. Themes: Culture, Ethnicity, and Diversity; Culture, Institutions, and the Wealth of Nations; Cultural Differences in Europe; Global Evidence on Economic Preferences; Long-run Persistence of Trust and Corruption; and more.
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Climate Economics
Master Seminar. Themes: The Economic Impacts of Climate Change; The Social Cost of Carbon Revisited; The Distribution of Environmental Damages; Directed Technical Change; Temperature, Physiology and the Wealth of Nations; and more.
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Health and Development
Bachelor Seminar. Themes: Death and Development; Microbes and Markets: Was the Black Death an Economic Revolution?; The Rise in Life Expectancy and Economic Growth in the 20th Century;Bismarck’s Health Insurance and the Mortality Decline;International Medical Technology Diffusion; and more.
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Seminar: Inequality
Bachelor Seminar. Themes: The Correlation of Wealth Across Generatons; How Much of Our Income is Determined by Where We Live?; Inequality of Opportunity and Growth; The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility;
Pre-Industrial Inequality; and more.
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Economics of the Covid-19 Epidemic
Master Seminar. The Covid-19 pandemic also elicited an exponentially growing output of economic papers on the subject. In this seminar, we will cover a selected list of particularly popular and/or interesting studies.
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Economic Development in the Very Long Run
In this Master seminar we discuss seminal and recent contributions to unified growth theory. Unified growth theory studies the development process in the very long-run, from the first humans to today and beyond.
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Refugees
In this Bachelor seminar we investigate new developments in the economics of refugees and forced migration. We discuss the effect of refugee migration on wages and unemployment in the host country, the differences between refugees and economic migrants,
the impact of refugee migration on violence, crime, and voting for the extreme right, the impact of migrating on human capital and innovation, and more.
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Roots of Wealth and Inequality
In this bachelor seminar, we discuss the book "The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality" by Oded Galor, Bodley Head 2022.
All participants have read the book before the seminar and present in their essay and seminar talk one selected study and how it relates to a particular chapter of the book.
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Economics of the War in Ukraine
In this master seminar, we discuss journal articles and recent working papers on the economics of war in general and on the war in Ukraine in particular. Due to the topicality of the issue the list of the seminar themes is tentative and will likely be updated until mid April.
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Robots and Development
In this Master seminar we discuss recent research on the implications of trends in robotization and artificial intelligence for employment, wages, productivity, economic growth, and more.
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Education and Development
In this Bachelor Seminar we discuss recent research on education in the context of growth and development. Themes: Cognitive Skills and Economic Growth;
Early Childhood Human Capital and Development; Education and Catch-up in the Industrial Revolution; The Economic Impact of Universities; and more.
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