RESEARCH ADVISORY BOARD
The Research Advisory Board acts as an advisory body to the RWI. Its members comprise at least six and at most twelve internationally renowned external scientists or other experts in the Institute's field of research. The Board has the following tasks:
- Scientific monitoring, consulting and evaluation of the Institute's work.
- Evaluation of the research program of the Institute
- Report on the evaluation to the Board of Directors
- Promotion of the work of the Institute.
Prof. Dr. Krisztina Kis-Katos
Universität Göttingen
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2019, Chairwoman since 2023
Krisztina Kis-Katos is Professor for International Economic Policy at the University of Göttingen. After her studies in Szeged and Konstanz she attended the Swiss Doctoral Program at the Study Center Gerzensee. In 2010, she received her PhD from the University of Freiburg. Her research focuses on applied development economics, political economy and applied microeconometrics. Her work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals such as IMF Economic Review, European Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics and Journal of Human Resources. Krisztina Kis-Katos is a research fellow of IZA and RWI and a member of the Development economics group of Verein für Socialpolitik.
Prof. Dr. Philip Jung
TU Dortmund
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2019, Vice Chairmen since 2023
Philip Jung is Professor for Macroeconmics at TU Dortmund. He studied history and economics at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. In 2001 and 2002 he attended the Swiss Program for Beginning Doctoral Students at the Study Center Gerzensee and subsequently spent one year at Penn-University. In 2006 he completed his doctoral studies at the University of Frankfurt. Philip Jung then worked as a Post-Doc at the University of Amsterdam and was an Assistant Professor in Mannheim from 2009 to 2012. Between 2012 and 2014 he held a position as Professor in Bonn. His research focuses on the economic and social impacts of frictions in labor markets, the application of search-and-matching-theory on the explanation of inequality and uncertainty in income and consumption as well as the modelling, simulation and estimation of dynamic structural equilibrium models. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals such as American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Journal of the European Economic Association and The Economic Journal.
Prof. Dr. Gabriel Ahlfeldt
Professor (Chair of Econometrics) at the Humboldt University in Berlin
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2019
Since 2024, Gabriel Ahlfeldt is Professor (Chair of Econometrics) at the School of Business and Economics at Humboldt University in Berlin. Moreover, he is visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has studied in Freiburg, Madrid and Berlin and received his PhD from the University of Hamburg in 2008. In 2009 he joined the LSE as an Assistant Professor; since 2020, he was a professor at LSE. His research interests concern the effects of various agglomeration forces on the spatial distribution of economic activity as well as the impact of spatial policies on local house prices, labor markets, political preferences and urban structure. Gabriel Ahlfedt’s work has been published in various peer-reviewed journals such as Econometrica, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Urban Economics or Regional Science and Urban Economics. He is editor of Regional Science and Urban Economics and an Affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP), the Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC), and the CESifo.
Prof. Dr. Thiess Büttner
Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2019
Thiess Buettner holds the chair of Public Finance at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. He studied economics and international business in Göttingen and Konstanz and obtained his PhD from the University of Constance in 1997. Afterwards, he worked as a researcher at the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW), where he later became head of the division for Corporate Taxation and Public Finance Research. After his habilitation at the University of Mannheim he became CESifo professor of public finance at LMU Munich and head of the Public Sector department at the ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich. From 2015 to 2018, Thiess Büttner chaired the Academic Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry of Finance. Since 2018 he chairs the Independent Advisory Board of the Stability Council, a member of the European Network of Independent Fiscal Institutions EUNIFI. His research focuses on taxation, tax competition and fiscal federalism. The results of his work have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Urban Economics and World Development.
Prof. Dr. Isabel Günther
ETH Zürich
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2018
Isabel Günther is Professor of Development Economics at ETH Zurich (www.dec.ethz.ch). She is the academic director of the NADEL Center for Development and Cooperation (www.nadel.ethz.ch) and ETH for Development (www.ethz.eth4d.ch). Moreover, she is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ethics Committee of ETH Zurich and the Commission for Global Research Partnerships of the Swiss Academy of Sciences.
Through her research and teaching, she aims to help address global inequalities and strengthen the collaboration between science, politics, and the society. She has conducted research and taught classes in Benin, Burkina Faso, Germany, France, Ghana, Kenya, Switzerland, South Africa, Uganda, and the United States.
Prof. Ines Helm, PhD
Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics at Johannes Kepler University Linz
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2024
Since 2024, Ines Helm is Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics at Johannes Kepler University Linz. She studied economics at the Universities of Tübingen and Munich and completed a master’s degree in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics at London School of Economics (LSE). After finishing her PhD at University College London in 2016, she worked as assistant professor at the department of economics at Stockholm University for five years and, thereafter, for three years as associate professor at LMU Munich. She was a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focusses on labour economics, applied economics, urban economics and public economics. Results of her research have been published in renowned journals such as Review of Economic Studies, Journal of the European Economic Association and American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. She is a member of the regional economics committee of the German Economic Association (VfS) and affiliated with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).
Prof. Dr. Annika Herr
Director of the Institute for Health Economics, Leibniz Universität Hannover
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2022
Annika Herr is professor of Health Economics and Director of the Institute of Health Economics at Leibniz University Hanover. After her diploma in economics and business administration at Dortmund University, she received her PhD at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in 2009. During her PhD studies, she was a member of the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics. After her PhD, she was a postdoc and later assistant professor at the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, where she received her habilitation in 2018. Her research focusses on competition and regulation in health care markets as well as organ donation. She has published in several renowned journals, such as the Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and Economic Inquiry. Since 2021, she is Vice Chair of the German Health Economics Association (dggö) and Speaker of the Center for Health Economics Research Hanover (CHERH).
Prof. Dr. Sylvia Kaufmann
University of Basel
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2023
Sylvia Kaufmann is Deputy Director of the Study Center Gerzensee in Switzerland and professor at the University of Basel. After studying economics and social sciences at the University of Bern she received her PhD from the University of Bern in 1993. Afterwards, she worked as assistant professor and later lecturer at the University of Vienna, as lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna and as guest professor at the University of Zurich and the University of Basel, where she also received her habilitation. Prior to her time at the Study Center Gerzensee, she worked for the Austrian National Bank as consultant for the Economic Analysis Division and as research economist in the Economic Studies Division. Furthermore, she worked in the Inflation Forecasting Unit of the Swiss National Bank. Her research interests are in the areas of macroeconomics, monetary policy and time series econometrics. She has regularly published in renowned journals such as Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Econometrics and Journal of Applied Econometrics. Moreover, she is a board member of the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, chair of the board of the European Seminar on Bayesian Econometrics (ESOBE) and corresponding member abroad of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Dr. Robert Nuscheler
Holder of the Chair of Finance, in particular Health Economics at the University of Augsburg
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2022
Robert Nuscheler is a professor of Public Economics and Health Economics at the University of Augsburg. After his diploma in economics, he received his PhD in economics in 2003, both at Free University of Berlin. During and after his PhD studies, he worked as a research fellow at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). Subsequently, he worked as postdoctoral research fellow at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and as assistant professor at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. His research interests lie in the areas of health economics, public economics, political economy, industrial organization as well as experimental economics and applied microeconometrics. He has published in several renowned journals, such as the Journal of Health Economics,European Economic Review, and Health Economics. He is member of the academic advisory board for the advancement of the risk adjustment scheme (Risikostrukturausgleich) of the German Federal Office for Social Security as well as board member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Research and director of the Institute of Economics, both at the University of Augsburg. Moreover, he is associate editor of the Journal of Health Economics and former member of the board of the German Society of Health Economics.
Prof. Dr. Martin Quaas
Universität Leipzig/Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung (iDiv)
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2019
Martin Quaas is Professor for Biodiversity Economics at the University of Leipzig and head of the research group “Biodiversity Economics” at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. He studied Physics at the University of Duisburg and received his PhD in Economics from the University of Heidelberg in 2004. Afterwards he worked as a Postdoc at the Helmoltz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Tilburg University (Netherlands). From 2007 to 2010, Martin Quaas was an Assistant Professor and between 2010 and 2018 Professor of Environmental, Resource-, and Ecological Economics at the University of Kiel. His research focuses on the interactions between the economy and biodiversity. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals such as Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Ecological Economics and EnvironmentalandResource Economics.
Prof. Dr. Anna Raute
Queen Mary University
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2023
Anna Raute is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at Queen Mary University in London since 2022. After studying economics and business administration at the Ruhr University Bochum and a master’s degree in economics at University College London, she obtained her PhD from University College London in 2014. Following her PhD, she was assistant professor at the University of Mannheim before going to Queen Mary University as a lecturer in 2018. Moreover, she was a visiting scholar and research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in 2016/2017. Her research is focused on labour economics, family economics and public economics. The results of her research are regularly published in renowned journals such as Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Public Economics and Labour Economics. She is a member of the standing field committee on population economics at the German Economic Association (Verein für Socialpolitik), research affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London and fellow of the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) at University College London.
Prof. Dr. Kurt Schmidheiny
University of Basel
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board since 2023
Kurt Schmidheiny is professor of Economics and Applied Econometrics at the University of Basel. After studying economics, sociology and constitutional law at the University of Bern and obtaining a master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics, he received his PhD at the University of Bern in 2003. After his PhD, he worked at Université de Lausanne, Tufts University in Boston (USA) and as assistant professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Since 2011, he works at the University of Basel, first as assistant professor and subsequently as associate professor until 2020. His research focusses on urban economics, tax competition and fiscal federalism. He has published in several renowned journals, such as the Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Journal, Journal of Public Economics and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. He is also a Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London and at CESifo in Munich, a member in the standing field committee on regional theory and politics of the German Economic Association (Verein für Socialpolitik) and president of the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics.