Research

Main research areas


My general research areas can be separated into three interdependent areas: (1) international economics, (2) institutional economics and (3) philosophy of economics.

International Economics

My main interest is on the functioning of globalization and technological change, and their implications for socio-economic development. Currently, the regional focus lies on Europe but in future work I want to study the global implications of these phenomena as well.

 

Selected working papers and publications

1. Structural change in times of increasing openness: assessing path dependency in European economic integration

2. Is Europe disintegrating? Macroeconomic divergence, structural polarization, trade and fragility

3. Understanding economic openness: A review of existing measures

4. The heterogeneous relationship between income and inequality: a panel co-integration approach

5. Theory and empirics of capability accumulation: implications for macroeconomic modeling

Institutional Economics

I understand institutions broadly as "codifiable systems of social structures (in particular norms and rules) that lead to inclinations for people to act in specific ways". Thus defined, economic agents constitute, but are also affected by institutions. What are the underlying mechanisms? And how do institutions relate to socio-economic development?


Selected working papers and publications

1. Defining institutions - A review and a synthesis

2. Trust and Social Control. Sources of cooperation, performance, and stability in informal value transfer systems

3. Agent-Based Computational Models - A Formal Heuristic for Institutionalist Pattern Modelling?

4. New Perspectives on Institutionalist Pattern Modeling: Systemism, Complexity, and Agent-Based Modeling

Philosophy of economics

When it comes to philosophy, I have two areas of interest: First, the study of what models are, how they become epistemically meaningful, and what practicing scientists can learn from philosophical accounts of modelling. Second, I am interested in pluralism, in particular what pluralism means, under which conditions it is desirable, and how the challenges associated with pluralism can be addressed.


Selected working papers and publications

1. How to Relate Models to Reality? An Epistemological Framework for the Validation and Verification of Computational Models

2. Getting the Best of Both Worlds? Developing Complementary Equation-Based and Agent-Based Models

3. Unrealistic models and how to identify them: on accounts of model realisticness

4. Pluralism in Economics. Its critiques and their lessons

5. The Complexity of Economies and Pluralism in Economics

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