In 2024, we launched an ambitious and ongoing project: To develop a cutting-edge microeconomics curriculum fit for our industrial engineering and business informatics students at TU Darmstadt. Based on pedagogical best practices, years of experience, top-notch teaching literature, and world-class research, our team put together a comprehensive and challenging course with rigorous formality and deep intuitions about economics.
The course is aimed at third-year university students with a strong formal background and high ambition. It is currently only available in German, but will be extended to English in the future.
You can find all slides decks and other materials (the latter coming soon!) here:
Please contact me via email.
Topics
My team and I supervise theses in the fields of
Applied Microeconomics (Program/Policy Evaluation)
International Trade and Macro
Organisational/Managerial Economics
Environmental Economics
Behavioral Economics
Important: We do not provide topics, but develop them jointly with our students.
Process
To get things started: Please send us the following information:
your CV (including software skills),
a recent transcript of your marks, and
a deck of presentation slides containing at most three suggestions for topics.
The slides must include a) a clear research question and b) an outline of the concrete methodology intended to answer it.
Please do some preliminary research of the respective literature to see what is already out there. When you design potential topics, focus on feasibility: your approach should be implementable as far as you can judge, which includes availability of data and literature.
Guidelines
You can find our official guidelines here (English only). In addition to loads of useful input, they include all information on the registration process, length requirements, structure etc.
P.S.
Only under special circumstances will I provide topics. In this case, typically expect empirical work that requires software skills (varies by task, but R or stata are close to mandatory). Occasionally, I encourage conceptual literature work, but that is rare.
If you would like me to provide you with a reference for an application, please consider the following first:
There is a clear trade-off between a great and personal letter from an assistant professor who knows about your strengths and abilities, and a letter from a senior academic with lots of experience and a well-known name. My personal opinion is that you should always prefer the latter, because they will carry much greater weight, especially in the academic world.
If you find that no more senior academic is in a good position to give you a reference, I am more than happy to help you. To get the process started, please send me the following:
CV
personal statement for the position(s) you're applying to
most recent transcript of your marks
research statement/ proposal if different from personal statement
Please note that I might ask you for a short meeting if something is not quite clear to me or to understand your profile a little better.
Finally, please allow for two weeks between sending me the material and your deadline - I really do want to get the letter right and that takes some time.
TU Darmstadt
Microeconomics (undergrad, German, since Winter 2024/25)
The Modern Firm: Management and Strategy (since Summer 2022)
Empirical Policy Evaluation (undergrad + grad, since Winter 2021/22)
International Trade and Investment (grad, Summers 2022, 2023)
Industrial Organisation (undergrad, Winters 2021/22, 2022/23)
U St. Gallen
Microeconomics II (undergrad, Autumn 2018)
International Economics for Economists (undergrad, Spring 2019 - Spring 2021)
International Economics for International Affairs Students (undergrad, Spring 2019 - Autumn 2020)
Empirical Policy Evaluation (grad, Spring 2018- )
International Trade II: Firms in the Global Economy (graduate, Spring 2018 - Autumn 2020)
LSE
EC455: Quantitative Approaches and Policy Analysis for MPA students (2014-2017)
EC406: Economic Policy Analysis for MPA students (2014-2016)
EC301: Advanced Economic Analysis (undergrad, 2012/13)
EC315: International Economics (undergrad, 2012-14, 2017)
Summer School, EC351: International Economics (undergrad, 2012, 2015)
U Bayreuth
Macroeconomics (undergrad, 2007-2010)