Political Economy
Economic Growth
Macroeconomics
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Public Economics
Teaching Philosophy
I am an experienced lecturer who greatly enjoys sharing and developing knowledge with students in the lecture theatre. All my courses share the following characteristics. They are tailored and personalised to students' particular interests, they expose the students to topics and methods at the current research frontier, and they discuss ways to apply the knowledge to related recent developments in the real world outside the lecture theatre.
Courses
Institutions, Incentives, and Public Choice
Master level, University of Graz, Spring 2024
Institutions play an important role for the functioning of the economy and the prosperity of nations. This course provides an introduction and modern treatment of the recent advances in institutional economics. We examine the roles and interplay of economic and political institutions and study questions such as how institutions are created, why societies can have inefficient institutions, how democratic institutions can prevail and the conditions under which good or bad institutions may persist in the long run.
Political Economy
Master level seminar, University of Graz, Spring 2024
The objective of this seminar is to learn about and discuss recent ideas and advances in Political Economy.
The seminar will enable students to develop the skills of critically appreciating recent research in Political Economy, identifying strengths and weaknesses and how to effectively present ideas.
Public Economics, Social Choice, and Normative Economics
Master level, University of Graz, Autumn 2023
Liberal societies rightfully cherish individual freedom of choice. However, there are many decisions that have to be taken collectively, such as how much to invest in the mitigation of Climate Change, should we invest more in education, or in broadband infrastructure, what does a good tax system look like? In answering these normative questions, we first need a notion of “what is good for society” given that individuals’ tastes and preferences typically differ. Therefore, the first two parts of this course deal with the question ‘How can we make decisions that are in the best interest of society?‘ We will learn about conditions that allow such social choices as well as their limitations. The final two parts of this course then look at how we can implement desirable social choices. While general results are provided, this final part then focuses particularly on the core Public Economics topics of optimal provision of public goods and optimal taxation.
Public Economics 1
first year undergraduate, University of Graz, Autumn 2023, Spring 2024
Public Economics studies the role of governments in market economies and this course aims to familiarize the students with the key concepts of Public Economics. This will enable students to develop a deeper understanding of the interactions between governments and markets and provide a framework to systematically think about topical issues in economic policy.
Economics of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
final year undergraduate, University of Bath, Autumn 2016, Spring 2018 - 2022
Innovation is the ultimate driving force behind economic prosperity, creating the wealth of nations. However, innovative ideas by themselves will not lead to economic growth, it takes entrepreneurship to turn them into products or implement novel ways of doing things. This match of innovative ideas and entrepreneurship creates the vibrant character of Silicon Valley, wellspring of innovative products and home to a large number of start-ups having become world leaders. Around the world, governments seek to create similar engines of innovation. What are the economic policy issues they face? What should economic policy fostering innovation and entrepreneurship look like and how can we design it? These are the central questions we address in this unit.
Growth Theory
final year undergraduate, University of Bath, Spring 2015 - 2022
Economic growth is the process by which we live a healthier, better educated, more productive life than previous generations. This course will develop a framework through which the fundamental elements this process can be understood. It will familiarize the students with the modern theories of economic growth. The framework that we develop in the course will be used to address important policy questions and topical issues such as: Why do some countries grow on a sustained basis and others fail to do so. Which institutions might be important in securing growth? Does economic growth lead to increasing income- and wealth inequality?
Advanced Microeconomics
final year undergraduate, University of Bath, Spring 2015
This course starts out by examining the limits of the central welfare theorems in economics. After a review of non-cooperative game theory, we use the game theoretic tools to discuss problems of asymmetric information and moral hazard.
Economics of Innovation and Economic Growth
Master level, ETH Zurich, Autumn 2010, 2012, 2014
Economic growth is the process by which we live a healthier, better educated, more productive life than previous generations. This course will develop a framework through which the fundamental elements this process can be understood. It will familiarize the students with the modern theories of economic growth and puts special emphasis on the particular role that technological progress plays for long-run development. The framework that we develop in the course will then be used to address important policy questions and topical issues such as: Why do some countries grow on a sustained basis and others fail to do so. Which institutions might be important in securing growth? Does economic growth lead to increasing income- and wealth inequality?
Intermediate Macroeconomics: Growth, Cycles and Policy
Master level, ETH Zurich, Spring 2013
Not least since the recent financial crisis and subsequent great recession have macroeconomic questions taken center stage. How can Central Banks stabilize the economy through monetary policy? How can governments react to economic crises and how can they prevent them in the first place? How much government debt is sustainable and will austerity lead to future prosperity?
This course approaches these questions by reviewing the different macroeconomic schools of thought before developing simple versions of the modern Real Business Cycle (RBC) and New Keynesian frameworks. We discuss how variations of these models are used to advise on the central policy problems laid out above.
Design of Institutions and Political Economy
Ph.D. course, ETH Zurich, Spring 2014
How can individual preferences and information in society be brought together for collective decisions to yield the highest welfare levels? We approach this questions by reviewing the central Impossibility Theorems and Possibility Results in the theory of Collective Decision Making/Social Choice theory. We then move on to discuss central results and recent insights on how preferences and information are aggregated by voting mechanisms, whether and how lobbying distorts collective decisions and which boundaries on the optimal design of political institutions are prescribed by Mechanism Design Theory.
Political Economics
Master level, ETH Zurich, Spring 2010
Will voting lead to welfare maximizing decisions? Will lobbying distort decisions leading to lower welfare? When will societies turn to non-democratic decision making? This course explains the major insights from voting theory, the properties of voting regarding the aggregation of preferences as well as information. We examine how democratic decisions can be influenced by outside lobbies and what this means for welfare. At the end of the course, we discuss decision making in democracies with weak institutions.
Public Economics
Master level, ETH Zurich, Autumn 2013
The course Public Economics analyses the role of the government in the economy. We discuss justifications for and the design of public policy as well as its consequences on market outcomes. Issues related to optimal public goods provision, taxation, in particular the effects of tax policy on labor supply, entrepreneurship and innovation will be examined.
Institutions and Economic Growth
Ph.D. course, ETH Zurich, Autumn 2008
While the literature on economic growth has identified the central engines of prosperity, it is puzzling why they are not fueled in many countries in the world. A recent literature emphasize the role of economic and political institutions in this respect. This course discusses major contributions to this branch of the literature. The goal is twofold. On the one hand, we will learn how institutions affect economic growth. On the other hand, we will obtain an overview over one of the most vibrant fields of economic research.