Seminars MIEPP Winter Semester 16/17
Table of Contents
International Economics:
Exchange Rates: Determinants, Effects, and Policy Choices (Prof Harms):
Different Approaches in Financial Crisis Theory (in cooperation with Real World Economics Mainz) (Dr. Bernd Bartels):
Empirical Issues in Financial Development (Skiing Seminar (Kleinwalsertal, Austria in cooperation with Goethe University Frankfurt) (Prof. Wacker, Dr. Bernd Bartels, Dr. Andreas Barth (Goethe Uni))
Public Policy:
Behavioral Public Finance (Prof. Schunk):
Seminar in Microeconomics: Economics of Education (Prof. Wondratschek):
International Economics/Public Policy:
Seminar in Statistics and Econometrics (Prof. van Ewijk)
International Economics:
Exchange Rates: Determinants, Effects, and Policy Choices (Prof Harms):
The goal of this seminar is to arrive at a better understanding of the following questions:
a) What do we know about the forces that determine fluctuations of the nominal and the real
exchange rate?
b) What are the effects of these fluctuations on the economy?
c) What are the arguments that policymakers should consider when choosing between alternative
exchange rate regimes?
Given these broad questions, each student will be assigned a specific topic, on which she/he will write a term paper and give a presentation. The assignment of topics will be based on participants’ preferences. More information will be published soon on the International Economics homepage (
Important Dates:
Thursday, 03.11.2016 16.15 -18:00
Presentations on January 12 and 13, 2017
Basic Literature.
Also to be announced on the website
Different Approaches in Financial Crisis Theory (in cooperation with Real World Economics Mainz) (Dr. Bernd Bartels):
This seminar aims at gaining a broader insight into models and theory of financial crises. By assessing theoretical approaches from different economic schools, students will learn abouthistoric and contemporary crisis theory in economics. The focus of the seminar is not restricted to neoclassic ideas but covers also less-known but yet influential theories.
Classic economic theory was neither able to predict nor to offer a sufficient explanation for the recent financial crisis. In this context, it seems even more important to take into account alternative approaches of different economic schools of thought and asses their explanatory power regarding different financial crises in the distant and recent past. In the course of this seminar, students will have to deal with research work on approaches from the Austrian School, Post-Keynesianism, Behavioral Economics, Neoclassical Economics.
Important Dates:
First Meeting: November 3rd 2016, 2pm – 4pm, HS V
Presentation and Seminar: January 13th 2017, 9am – 5pm, RW 6
Empirical Issues in Financial Development (Skiing Seminar (Kleinwalsertal, Austria in cooperation with Goethe University Frankfurt) (Prof. Wacker, Dr. Bernd Bartels, Dr. Andreas Barth (Goethe Uni))
Information: Financial markets around the world have often been blamed for causing the outbreak of the financial crisis of 2008. Should we learn from this that financial markets have grown too much in the past and that its impact on economic growth was rather detrimental? Conversely, emerging markets and developing countries are continuously striving for better financial access and development in the hope to spur growth. In this seminar, students are also required to explore if financial development has to be understood as a driver or as a result of economic development. We explore three channels through which financial development is related to economic growth: inequality, openness and institutions.
Prerequisites:
It is a pre-requisite that students have basic knowledge of Stata and statistical methods such that they can carry out basic regressions by themselves.
Important Dates:
First Meeting: November 10th 2016, 2pm – 4pm, HS V
Presentation and Seminar:
The seminar is currently scheduled from 5-9th of February 2017 in Riezlern, Austria. Participants will stay in "HausBergkranz" (owned by Goethe University). The travel isorganized by the chair. Travel expenses plus accommodation (incl. full board) should not exceed 200 Euro per person. We will ask for external funding for the seminar. There is no guaranteed refund. Students have the possibility to go skiing during seminar breaks (at their own risk). We plan to invite external speakers for evening speeches.
Public Policy:
Behavioral Public Finance (Prof. Schunk):
Public finance decision makers have various instruments to achieve their economic and fiscal goals. To understand the consequences of using these policy instruments they need an understanding of how people react to them. In this seminar we will use recent insides from behavioral economics for improving our understanding of the effect of these instruments on people’s behavior and subsequent policy outcomes.
Important Dates:
First Meeting: Friday, 4.11. 10-11 Uhr
Basic Literature:
Döring, T. (2015): Öffentliche Finanzen und Verhaltensökonomik: Zur Psychologie der budgetwirksamen Staatstätigkeit. Springer-Verlag.
Kling, J. R., Congdon, W. J. andMullainathan, S. (2011): Policy and choice: Public finance through the lens of behavioral economics. Brookings Institution Press.
Further Literature:
Chetty, R., Looney, A. undKroft, K. (2009): Salience and Taxation: Theory and Evidence. American Economic Review, 99(4), 1145-1177.
Dulleck, U., Fooken, J., Newton, C.J., Ristl, A., Schaffner, M. and Torgler, B. (2016): Tax compliance and psychic costs: Behavioral experimental evidence using a physiological marker, Journal of Public Economics, 134, 9-18.
Seminar in Microeconomics: Economics of Education (Prof. Wondratschek):
The seminar will cover recent findings in the area of economics of education by discussing (mostly empirical) research articles. Example topics are: Do smaller classes improve student achievement in the long-run? Can financial incentives for students and/or teachers improve effort and achievement? What are the effects of starting school relatively early, or of sorting pupils into different school types according to observed ability?
Prerequisites:
The seminar will focus on empirical research in economics of education using microeconometric methods. It is therefore recommended that participants have a solid background in those methods.
Requirements:
Students will work in groups of two. Each group will cover one topic and deliver a joint presentation during the block meeting. In addition, each student has to submit an individual seminar paper by the end of the term (deadline see below). Attendance at all meetings is mandatory. Moreover, each student has to prepare a small discussion on the presentation of one other group.
Important Dates (preliminary, more details will be provided soon):
First meeting (Introduction and assignmenttba, during the first or second week of courses
of topics):(24.10.-4.11.)
Individual Meetings:Tuesday, December 6th
Submission deadline for the paper: tba, one week before block seminar (see below)
Seminar with presentation of topics:tba, block meeting on a Friday and Saturday end of January/beginning of February
Topics (details on specific literature will be provided soon)
- The effect of class size on student achievement
- The effect of age at school entry
- The effect of ability tracking
- The effect of compulsory schooling
- Effects of financial incentives for students
- Effects of financial incentives for teachers
- Effect of interventions to support students in college
- The decision to apply to college
- The human capital production function
Basic Literature
The series “Handbook of the Economics of Education” provides a very good background for some of the topics covered in the seminar and other issues in the area of economics of education. The book by Joshua Angrist and Jörn-Steffen Pischke, as well as the articleby Bas van der Klaauw, cover the econometric methods that are most commonly used in empirical microeconometric research in the economics of education.
Hanushek, Eric A. [Ed.] (2006): „Handbook of the Economics of Education, Volume 1“, North Holland.
Hanushek, Eric A., Stephen Machin and LudgerWoessmann [Ed.] (2010): „Handbook of the Economics of Education, Volume 3“, North Holland.
Hanushek, Eric A., Stephen Machin and LudgerWoessmann [Ed.] (2011): „Handbook of the Economics of Education, Volume 4“, North Holland.
Angrist, Joshua D. & Jörn-Steffen Pischke (2009): „Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion“, Princeton University Press.
Van der Klaauw, Bas (2014): „From micro data to causality: Forty years of empirical labor economics“, Labour Economics, Volume 30, October 2014, Pages 88–97
International Economics/Public Policy:
Seminar in Statistics and Econometrics (Prof. van Ewijk)
Sadly, there were no informations available as of yet, everything relevant should be made public on the chairs homepage soon: