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Students

RGS Econ accepts around 6-10 doctoral students each year for program start in October. During their first year, these entering students concentrate on core courses at their workspaces at RGS Econ's offices located at the RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Essen. They subsequently integrate into their main supervisor's research team at one of the cooperation institutions. You can find profiles and research interests of our current students below. Note that there are additional doctoral students at the cooperating institutions, considerably expanding the set of colleagues.

Entering Student Cohort (2023)

Chunxiao (Emily) An

Entry: 2023

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

chunxiao.an(at)tu-dortmund.de

Chunxiao An joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2023. She got her Master degree in Friedrich Schiller University of Jena with a focus on quantitative Macroeconomics. Her master thesis deals with the transmission channel of monetary and fiscal policy by applying a Two-Agent New Keynesian Model. Before that, she obtained her bachelor degree in Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics in China.

Chunxiao An works at the Chair of Applied Economics TU Dortmund and will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Professor Linnemann.

Main fields of interest: Macroeconomics, Monetary and fiscal policy and Heterogenous agent model

Erika Ehberger

Entry: 2023

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

Erika-roxana.ehberger(at)vwl.uni-due.de

Erika Ehberger joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2023. Her interests lie at the intersection of international and development Economics. She holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Economics from the Justus-Liebig University in Gießen. During her Bachelor's and Master's she worked as a student trainee at the Investment Bank Banco Santander S.A. and did an internship at the American Consulate in Frankfurt in the branch for International Trade. In her Master's thesis, she studied how the protection of IPR affect FDI flows in emerging, and developing nations and how the capital flows can be increased. Alongside being a member of RGS Econ, she is a doctoral candidate at the University of Duisburg-Essen advised by Prof. Dr. Volker Clausen.

Main fields of interest: International and Development Economics

Jonas Maeser

Entry: 2023

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

jonas.maeser(at)ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Jonas Maeser joined the Ruhr Graduate School in 2023. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Münster and the University of Lund, as well as a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Münster. During his Master’s studies he worked as a research assistant focusing on Economic History at the Chair of Prof. Dr. Pfister. In his Master’s Thesis he analyzed the effect of market concentrations on wages in the German Labor Market. He joined the Chair of Prof. Dr. Andreas Löschel at Ruhr-University Bochum as a doctoral candidate in November 2022.

Main fields of interest: Environmental Economics, Public Economics, Experimental Economics

Leonie Matejko

Entry: 2023

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

leonie.matejko(at)rgs-econ.de

Leonie Matejko joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2023. She holds a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Bonn, prior to that, she studied at TU Dortmund University. During her studies she worked as a teaching assistant at TU Dortmund University and as a research assistant; first in the RWI department “Environment and Resources” and then for the “Experimental Economics Group” at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods. In her Master’s thesis, she studied the link between distributional preferences and transport policy acceptance using German survey data.

Main fields of interest: Behavioral Economics, Environmental and Climate Economics

Fabian Möller

Entry: 2023

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

fabian.moeller(at)tu-dortmund.de

Fabian Möller joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2023. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics at Osnabrück University. During his Master’s studies, he worked as a student assistant at the chair of International Economic Policy. In his Master’s thesis, he investigated the influence of the Capital Gains Tax on illicit capital flows in a case study of Ireland. Based on these results, he wrote an article, which has been accepted for publication. Next to RGS Econ, he is working as a research assistant at the chair of Prof. Michael Böhm, Ph.D. at TU Dortmund.

Main fields of interest: Labor Economics, Applied Econometrics, Macroeconomics, International Finance

Ignacio Moreira-Lara

Entry: 2023

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

ignacio.moreira-lara(at)tu-dortmund.de

Ignacio Moreira Lara is a student from Bolivia. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Universidad Privada Boliviana in Economics. Motivated by his interests in economic modeling he participated and finished his Master’s degree in Econometrics from the joint program of the Technische Universität Dortmund, Ruhr Universität Bochum and Universität Duisburg Essen. During this degree he worked as a research assistant in the chair of Economic and Social Statistics of Prof. Jentsch, under the supervision of Dr. Jan Prüser. During this position he shifted his focus to the development of Bayesian methods and their application to macroeconomic time series. In his master thesis, he focused on the implementation of Bayesian Panel Vector Autoregressions for the study of the consequences of structural oil-price shocks on Latin American time series. After, a successful application to the RGS program he obtained a teaching assistant position at the chairs of Financial Econometrics, Econometrics and Econometrics and Statistics, from Professors Hoga, Hanck and Demetrescu, respectively. Professors that also supervise the development of his doctorate thesis.

Main fields of interest: Structural Vector Autoregressions, Bayesian time series methods, applied macroeconometrics and forecasting

Helena Rahaus

Entry: 2023

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

helena.rahaus(at)rgs-econ.de

Helena Rahaus joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2023. Her interests lie at the intersection of regional disparities. She holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Economics from the University of Cologne. During her Master's she worked as a student research assistant at the FiFo Institute for Public Economics at the University of Cologne. In her Master's thesis, she studied the European Regional Policy and it’s (sustainable) alignment with regard to the fund allocation criteria. Alongside being a member of RGS Econ, Helena joined the Research Data Center Ruhr (FDZ) at the RWI in November 2023 as research assistant.

Main fields of interest: Regional Economics and Policies, Applied Microeconometrics, Public Economics

Christian Schulz

Entry: 2023

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

christian.schulz(at)vwl.uni-due.de

Christian Schulz joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2023. He is interested in empirical macroeconomics, macroeconometric methods, and macro-finance. He studied in Mannheim (MSc) and Cologne (BSc) and gained research experience in several economic institutions including the Bundesbank, ZEW in Mannheim, and RWI in Essen, among others.

In his Master's thesis he derived optimal monetary policy in a New Keynesian model with non-rational – diagnostic – expectations. Christian was supervised jointly by the Bundesbank and Prof. Klaus Adam, PhD.

Alongside being a member of RGS Econ, he is a doctoral candidate at the University of Duisburg-Essen under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Christoph Hanck.

Main fields of interest: Empirical Macroeconomics, Macroeconometrics, and Macro-Finance

Johanna Volk

Entry: 2023

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

Johanna.Volk(at)edu.ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Johanna Volk joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2023. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Politics and Economics at the University of Münster, and holds a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Cologne, majoring in behavioral and energy economics. She studied abroad in Taipei and Vienna. During her studies she conducted several internships in the private and public sector and worked as a student assistant at the Institute of Econometrics and Economics Statistics at the University of Münster. In her Master’s thesis, she conducted a discrete choice experiment to elicit workplace preferences of university students, with a particular focus on estimating the effect of Corporate Social Responsibility. She joined the chair of Prof. Dr. Andreas Löschel at the RUB during the fall of 2023 as a research assistant.

Main fields of interest: Behavioral Economics, Environmental and Energy Economics, Experimental Economics

Current Students

Solveig Ahorner

Entry: 2019

Universität Duisburg-Essen
Mercator School of Management
Lehrstuhl für Mikroökonomik und Außenwirtschaft
Lotharstr. 65
47057 Duisburg
Phone: +49 203 37-91876

solveig.ahorner(at)uni-due.de

solveig.ahorner(at)rgs-econ.de

Institutional Homepage

Solveig Ahorner joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. She obtained her Bachelor's and Master's degree in Mathematics and Economics from TU Dortmund University. During her studies, she worked as a tutor for the Departement of Computer Science and the Faculty of Business and Economics at TU Dortmund University. She also worked as a student trainee at the research department of Materna Innovation & Communications SE. In her Master's thesis, she modelled and analysed competition in the cryptocurrency market from both a game theoretical and a data scientific point of view. In October 2020 she joined the Chair of Microeconomics and International Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen as a research assistant for Prof. Dr. Eugen Kovac.

Main fields of interest: Microeconomics, Game Theory, Industrial Organization, Data Science

loannis Arampatzidis

Entry: 2019

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 

ioannis.arampatzidis(at)vwl.uni-due.de

Ioannis Arampatzidis joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. He obtained his Bachelor and Master degrees in Economics from University of Macedonia in Greece. During his Master studies he worked as a research and teaching assistant for Prof. Theodore Panagiotidis. In his Master’s thesis, he employed a rolling SVAR model and used an impulse response analysis to examine the relationship between oil and stock markets in a dynamic framework. His main focus is on Energy Economics.

Main fields of interest: Energy Economics, Applied Econometrics, Macroeconomics

Niklas Benner

Entry: 2019

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

Niklas.Benner(at)rgs-econ.de

Niklas Benner joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. He obtained his Bachelor’s as well as his Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Giessen. During his studies he worked as a student research assistant for Prof. Peter Tillmann at the Chair of Monetary Economics in Giessen. In his master thesis he measured the disagreement in the speeches of eurozone’s central bankers via NLP-Tools and evaluated its impact of the ECB’s policy efficiency.

Main fields of interest: Monetary Economics, Natural Language Processing, Political Economy

Eyayaw Teka Beze

Entry: 2019

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

eyayaw.beze(at)uni-due.de

Eyayaw Teka Beze joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia, and a master’s degree in development policy from KDI School in South Korea. He worked as graduate assistant (from June 2012-August 2014) and later as lecturer of economics (from December 2015-August 2017) in Jimma University. He subsequently earned a second master’s degree in Comparative Local Development from a consortium of four European universities (iCorvinus University of Budapest, University of Regensburg, University of Trento and University of Ljubljana) and worked as an intern at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg, Germany.  In his first master's thesis, he decomposed economic growth in selected African countries.  His second thesis analyzed the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in east African countries.

Main fields of interest: Development Economics, Energy Economics, International Trade, Labor Economics, Data Science

Tobias Büscher

Entry: 2020

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 

Tel. +49 201 8149-508

tobias2.buescher(at)tu-dortmund.de 

Tobias Büscher joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2020. He obtained his Bachelor in Economics at the University of Münster and his Master in Economics at TU Dortmund University. In his studies he focused on applied economics in the fields of environmental and public economics in a regional context. In his master thesis he conducted a survival analysis and examined the effects of a strong publicly funded research environment in a region on the longevity of digital firm clusters. He showed that the connectedness of high-tech firms to such a research environment decreases the risk of failure. During his studies Tobias Büscher also worked as a student research assistant at the chair of Public Economics run by Prof. Galina Zudenkova.

Main fields of interest: Public Economics, Regional Economics, Environmental Economics

Madhurima Chandra

Entry: 2022

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

Tel. +49 201 8149-502           

madhurima.chandra(at)uni-due.de

Madhurima Chandra joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2022. Her interests lie at the intersection of labor and public economics. She holds a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Bonn, and prior to that, studied at the University of Hyderabad in India. During her Master's she worked as a student research assistant at the Institute for Macroeconomics and Econometrics, and subsequently worked as a full-time research assistant there for a year. In her Master's thesis, she studied gender differences in life cycle career progression using German micro data and how that relates to the gender wage gap in Germany. Alongside being a member of RGS Econ, she is a doctoral candidate at the University of Duisburg-Essen advised by Prof. Dr. Kristina Strohmaier.

Main fields of interest: Labor economics, Public economics

Ashwini Suchet Dabadge

Entry: 2021

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 

Tel. +49 201 8149-502

ashwini.dabadge(at)rwi-essen.de

Ashwini Suchet Dabadge entered the Ruhr Graduate School in 2021. She has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Pune in India and a master’s degree in economics from University College London. She has further studied development economics at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. As part of her master’s thesis, she assessed the impact of political representation for marginalized groups on their access to public goods in India. She has research experience on energy policy and has worked on topics related to energy, development and climate change. Before joining the Ruhr Graduate School, she interned with Perspectives Climate Group in Freiburg and worked as a student research assistant at University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and the RWI.

Main fields of interest: Development Economics, Political Economy, Energy and Climate change in developing countries, Applied Microeconomics

Dejan Dragutinovic

Entry: 2019

Technische Universität Dortmund
Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Volkswirtschaftslehre (Öffentliche Finanzen)
44221 Dortmund
Tel. +49 231 755-3275

dejan.dragutinovic(at)tu-dortmund.de

Dejan Dragutinovic joined Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October of 2019. Previously, he obtained his BSc from the University of Belgrade and MSc from the University of Jena. During his studies he worked as a student assistant for Prof. Andreas Freytag (Chair of Economic Policy) who also supervised his master thesis. The thesis examined whether a new constitution, given that it fulfills certain criteria, can serve as a basis for the transition of society from a limited to an open order. Moreover, he has done research on the dynamics of growth, poverty and inequality in different political regimes.

Main fields of interest: Political Economy, Constitutional Economics, Public Economics

Daniel Dzikowski

Entry: 2021

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 

Daniel.dzikowski(at)tu-dortmund.de

Daniel Dzikowski joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in 2021 after obtaining his bachelor and master in Statistics at TU Dortmund. He worked as a student research assistant at the chair of Mr. Jentsch, teaching tutorials in Econometrics and Statistical Theory among other courses. In August 2020 he completed an internship at the Deutsche Bundesbank in the area of "Financial Stability Risks from Markets for Derivatives, Corporate Bonds and Equities". In his master’s thesis, "Structural periodic VAR analysis", he derived structural analysis and identification methods for periodic VARs.

Main fields of interest: Time Series Econometrics, Macroeconometrics, Econometrics of Financial Markets.

Marvin Finkemeier

Entry: 2020

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen
Tel. +49 201 8149-503

Marvin.Finkemeier(at)rgs-econ.de

Marvin Finkemeier joined the Ruhr Graduate School in October 2020. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's degree in Economic Research from the University of Bonn. During his studies he worked as a teaching assistant for undergraduate courses in Econometrics and Microeconomics. His research focus lies on Microeconomic Theory, in particular on Auction Theory and Bargaining Games. As part of his master thesis, he considered a procurement auction setup with differentiated goods and information disclosure by a buyer. The main result of the work is that a certain type of information disclosure leads to lower price bids by sellers and hence makes the buyer better off.

Main fields of interest: Microeconomics, Game Theory, Auction Theory

Afia Frimpong

Entry: 2022

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 
Tel. +49 201 8149-525

afia.frimpong(at)rgs-econ.de

Afia Frimpong joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in 2022. She obtained her Bachelor's Degree in Economics from the University of Ghana, and her Master's Degree in Economics from Friedrich Schiller University Jena.
During her Master's studies, she worked as a student and research assistant at the Chair of Business Dynamics, Innovation, and Economic Change with Prof. Dr. Matthias Menter. In her Master’s thesis, she empirically evaluated the effects of social network embeddedness on the performance of multinational firms.
Before joining the Ruhr Graduate School, she worked as a project assistant at the SEPT Competence Center, at Leipzig University. Afia Frimpong will work at the Chair of Microeconomics at the University of Duisburg-Essen and will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Erwin Amann.

Main fields of interest: Microeconomics, Industrial Organization, Economics of Innovation, Development Economics

Sven Hansteen

Entry: 2022

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 

sven.hansteen(at)rgs-econ.de

Sven Hansteen joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2022. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Economics at the University of Cologne and subsequently completed his Master's degree in Economic Policy Consulting (M.Sc.) at the Ruhr University Bochum. During his studies, he worked as a student assistant at the Chair of Macroeconomics at the RUB and in the RWI research group "Prosocial Behavior", where he also completed his internship. In his master's thesis, he empirically evaluated a field experiment on resource conservation behavior using difference-in-differences estimation and machine learning techniques.

Main fields of interest: Energy and Environmental Economics, Behavioral Economics, Applied Microeconometrics, Data Science.

Inga Heinze

Entry: 2022

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 
Tel. +49 201 8149-501

inga.heinze(at)rgs-econ.de

Inga Heinze joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics with a scholarship in October 2022. She studied Economics and Communication Science at the University of Münster (B.A. 2018), and she holds a master's degree in Economics (M.Sc. 2022) from the University of Cologne. During her studies, she worked as a student research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. In her master’s thesis, she analyzed the gender effects of slave work on African American labor market outcomes and educational decisions. Inga joined the Research Data Center Ruhr (FDZ) at the RWI in October 2022, first as research assistant and later as researcher.

Main fields of interest: Labor Economics, Economic History, Regional Economics, Applied Microeconometrics

Viola Helmers

Entry: 2020

RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Hohenzollernstraße 1-3
D-45128 Essen
Tel. +49 201 8149-515

Viola.Helmers(at)rwi-essen.de

Homepage

Viola Helmers joined the Ruhr Graduate School in October 2020. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental and Resource Management from BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, a Master’s degree in Agricultural and Food Economics from Bonn University, and a Master’s degree in Management, Economics, and Consumer Studies from Wageningen University and Research (WUR) in the Netherlands. She specialized in Environmental and Resource Economics and has worked as research assistant at Bonn University, WUR, and the Center for Development Research (ZEF) in Bonn. Her Master’s thesis was an empirical impact evaluation of the German Aviation Tax’s effect on passenger numbers using panel data and difference-in-differences modelling. In September 2020 she joined the RWI’s department “Environment and Resources”, first as research assistant and later as researcher and Ph.D. candidate.

Main fields of interest: Environmental and Climate Economics, Transport Economics, Applied Microeconometrics

Sören Ivens

Entry: 2019

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

soeren.ivens(at)tu-dortmund.de

Soeren Ivens joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. He studied Economics at the University of Mannheim and at the NOVA School of Business and Economics in Lisbon with a main emphasis on macroeconomics and economic policies. In his master thesis he focused on the intersection of macroeconomics and finance. In particular, he investigated empirically the bidirectional relationship between the yield curve and macroeconomic factors - like the monetary policy rate or inflation - by applying a latent-factor model. Before joining the Ruhr Graduate School he already worked as a fulltime research assistant at the IfM Bonn and interned at the Deutsche Bank.

Main fields of interest: Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Inequality, Public Economics

Gregor Bodo Jost

Entry: 2021

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 

gregor.jost(at)tu-dortmund.de

Gregor Jost joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in 2021. He obtained a Bachelors degree in economics and business economics from Maastricht University and a Masters degree in economics from the University of Bonn. He has worked as a student research assistant at the Macrohistory lab and as a teaching assistant for the courses "Macroeconomics" and "Foundations of Economics" at the University of Bonn. In his Master Thesis, he provides a game theoretical argument for the importance of norms, reputation and trust in inducing socially desirable behavior by individuals. 

Main fields of interest: Microeconomic Theory, Game Theory

Roman Klauser

Entry: 2019

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen
Tel.: +49 (201) 81 49-515
Fax: +49 (201) 81 49-200

Roman.Klauser(at)rgs-econ.de

Roman Klauser joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. He obtained his Bachelor's as well as Master's degree in economics from the Ruhr University Bochum. In his Master thesis he compared the forecasting accuracy of different models for high dimensional realized correlation matrices. During his studies he worked as a student teaching assistant at the Chair of Statistics/Economtrics. Additionally he also worked as a student assistant for Prof. Dr. Riedel at the Chair of Public Finance and Economic Policy.

Main fields of interest: Applied Econometrics, Microeconometrics, Labor Economics, Financial Econometrics

Leon Landes

Entry: 2022

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 
Tel. +49 201 8149-520

leon.landes(at)rgs-econ.de

Leon Landes joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2022. Previously he completed a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy & Economics at the University of Bayreuth, as well as Master's degrees in Politics at the University of Warwick and Economics at the University of Mannheim. During his studies, he worked as a research assistant focusing on Environmental Economics at the ZEW, as well as a teaching assistant for Microeconomics and Game Theory. In his Master's thesis, he analysed the effect of campaign spending on electoral outcomes in Germany. He joined the chair of Prof. Dr. Andreas Löschel at the RUB during the Fall of 2022. In his free time, he enjoys baking and playing football. 

Main fields of interest: Environmental and Climate Economics, Public Economics and Political Economy

Lennard Maßmann

Entry: 2020

Universität Duisburg-Essen
Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Lehrstuhl für Ökonometrie
Universitätsstraße 12
45117 Essen
Tel. +49 201 18-36243

lennard.massmann(at)uni-due.de

Homepage

Lennard Maßmann joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2020. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in International Development and Economics from the University of Bayreuth and his Master’s degree in Economics from the WWU Münster. During his Bachelor’s program he spent a semester abroad at the University of Karlstad in Sweden and worked as a student assistant at the Chair of Money and International Economics. In the course of his Master’s program, he worked as a student assistant at the Chair of Political Economy, the Institute for Econometrics and Economic Statistics and as a working student for the financial consultancy zeb. He further completed various internships as a Data Scientist, e.g. at Westphalia DataLab or Miele & Cie. KG. In his thesis, he focused on price volatility forecasting using neural networks.

Main fields of interest: Econometrics, Bayesian Methods, Machine Learning, Causal Inference, Statistical Learning

Dominik Mark Maxara

Entry: 2019

Technische Universität Dortmund
Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Volkswirtschaftslehre (Öffentliche Finanzen)
44221 Dortmund
Tel. (+49)231 755-3186

dominik.maxara(at)tu-dortmund.de

Dominik Maxara joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. He obtained his Bachelor and Master in Mathematics and Economics at TU Dortmund University. He focused his studies on Optimization, Industrial Organization and Game Theory. In his master thesis he combined his majors in Mathematics and Economics and analyzed the effects of Robust Optimization in the Stackelberg duopoly under asymmetric information. He showed that the informational disadvantage in this market competition is not necessarily harmful and can result in both contestants increasing their profit. During his courses Dominik Maxara also worked as Graduate Assistance at the chair of Microeconomics run by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Leininger.

Main fields of interest: Microeconomics, Industrial Organization, Public Economics, Political Economy

Ralf Metzler

Entry: 2019

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

ralf.metzler(at)uni-due.de

Ralf Metzler joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. He obtained his bachelors’s and master’s degrees in Business Administration from the Mercator School of Management at University of  Duisburg-Essen. His focus lies on risk management in financial institutions and structured finance. In his master’s thesis he studied  how complexity in Asset-Backed Securities relates to the security's ex post performance as well as to the ex ante risk perception of investors. During his studies he also completed several internships in financial  institutions, such as HSBC and Bankhaus Lampe.

Main fields of interest: Risk Management in Financial Institutions, Structured Finance, Financial Econometrics

Kai Miele

Entry: 2022

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 
Tel. +49 201 8149-503

kai.miele(at)rgs-econ.de

Kai Miele joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2022. His dissertation is supervised by Prof. Kristina Strohmaier at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Previously he obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in economics at the very same university. During his studies he worked as a research assistant at the chair of empirical health economics and as a teaching assistant at the chair of public economics. Also during his studies he co-authored an online textbook on empirical work with secondary data, and, in joined work with Dr. Christoph Kronenberg, conducted a side research project on mental health externalities of financial access to education during adulthood. In his master thesis, he investigates the dynamics of mental health externalities of job-loss using panel data from the UK.

Main fields of interest: Education, Public Policy, Mental Health, Labour Economics

Timo Rammert

Entry: 2021

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 
Tel. +49 201 8149-520

timo.rammert(at)rwi-essen.de

Timo Rammert joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2021. He completed his bachelors and masters degrees in Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He also worked for more than four years as a tutor, student assistant and research assistant for Prof. Dr. Christoph Hanck at the Chair of Econometrics. In his master thesis, he analyzed the impact on labor market outcomes from removing occupational licensing requirements in a natural experiment in Germany using detailed administrative earnings records in a difference-in-differences setting with covariate balancing methods.

Main fields of interest: Migration Economics, Labor Economics, Applied Econometrics, Microeconometrics

David Schulze

Entry: 2019

Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaft
Lehrstuhl für Umwelt-/Ressourcenökonomik und Nachhaltigkeit
Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum
Tel. +49 234 32-25332

david.schulze-r2a(at)rub.de

David Schulze joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. He completed a Bachelor degree in Economics and a Master in Economics and Management Science at Humboldt-University Berlin. In his Master’s Thesis he investigated regional productivity spillovers and the impact of digitization on Chinese regions. He spent over three years in China, the last one studying Economics at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. He has worked for two years as a research assistant in the Asia Division at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, analyzing the local and transnational economics and politics of digitization in China, among other topics. David is a research assistant at the chair of Environmental/Resource Economics and Sustainability of Andreas Löschel at Ruhr-University Bochum.

Main fields of interest: Environmental and Technology Economics and Policy, Regional Economics, Applied Econometrics and Text Analysis

Alexander Sohl

Entry: 2022

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen
Tel. +49 201 8149-524

alexander.sohl(at)rgs-econ.de

Alexander Sohl joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2022. He obtained both his Bachelor's and Master's degree in Economics from the University of Siegen. During his studies, he worked as both a student assistant and a tutor for the chairs of Applied Microeconomics, Public Economics and Angewandte Mikroökonomie at the University of Siegen. In his Master's thesis, he analysed the effect of value-added tax rate changes on consumer prices and conducted a case study of the European hotel sector. He is being supervised by Prof. Dr. Thushyanthan Baskaran at the Ruhr-University Bochum and joined his Chair of Public and Regional Economics as a research assistant in September 2022.

Main fields of interest: Microeconomics, Public Economics, Regional Economics, Digitalization

Joana Sulaj

Entry: 2021

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 

joana.sulaj(at)rub.de

Joana Sulaj joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2021. She obtained her Bachelor's Degree in Economics from the University of Tirana in Albania, and her Master's Degree in Economics from Ruhr University Bochum. During her studies, she worked as a student and research assistant at the Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Transformation (CEIT) with Prof. Dr. Marianne Saam (Chair of Innovation Economics and Policy). In her Master’s thesis she evaluated empirically the impact of domestic environmental policies on Global Value Chains (GVCs) participation using a gravity model at sectoral level. The main hypothesis and conclusion were that the level of environmental stringency has an impact on the share of value added generated from high polluting industries in countries with lax environmental policies.

Main fields of interest: Development Economics and International Economics

Patrick Thiel

Entry: 2019

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

Patrick.Thiel(at)rgs-econ.de

Patrick Thiel joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. He studied Economics and Psychology (B.Sc.) at the University of Halle and Economics with focus on policy consulting (M.Sc.) at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. During his master studies, he also worked as a student assistant at the Chair of Empirical Economics. Furthermore, he spent one semester abroad at the Georgia College and State University (USA). In his master thesis, he empirically analysed the impact of sports events on the incumbency advantage in mayoral elections.

Main fields of interest: Energy and Environmental Economics, Applied Microeconometrics, Economic History

Marcel Vögele

Entry: 2020

Technische Universität Dortmund
Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Lehrstuhl für Mikroökonomie
44221 Dortmund
Tel. +49 231 755-6807

marcel.voegele(at)tu-dortmund.de

Marcel Vögele joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in March 2022. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Quantitative Economics from LMU Munich. During his studies, he spent a semester abroad at ENS Paris-Saclay and worked as a student research assistant at the Chair for Population Economics at LMU Munich. In his Master’s thesis he constructed a panel data set from historical sources to study the relationship between structural change and local economic development in the Ruhr area.

Main fields of interest: Regional Economics, Applied Microeconometrics, Data Extraction

Philip Manuel Waidhas

Entry: 2019

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen

manuel.waidhas(at)tu-dortmund.de

Manuel Waidhas joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2019. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Business Mathematics at TU Dortmund University and focused his studies on numerical mathematics and finance. In his Bachelor's thesis supervised by Stefan Turek, he worked on developing numerical algorithms to efficiently approximate distances based on partial differential equations. In his Master's thesis supervised by Peter Posch, he analyzed the ability of neural networks to predict price changes of futures contracts based on forward curves.

Main fields of interest: Regional Economics, Applied Microeconometrics, Data Extraction

Serife Yasar

Entry: 2020

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen 
Tel. +49 201 8149-523

Serife.Yasar(at)rgs-econ.de

Serife Yasar joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2020. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Duisburg-Essen and received her Master’s degree in economics from the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf. In her Master thesis, she empirically evaluated how rental prices shape urban structures in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany.

Main fields of interest: Labor Economics, International Trade, Public Economics, Urban Economics

Finishing Students

Sergej Bechtoldt

Entry: 2018

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen
Tel. +49 201 8149-525
Fax +49 201 8149-500

Sergej.Bechtoldt(at)uni-due.de

Sergej Bechtoldt joined the Ruhr Graduate School of Economics in October 2018. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Hamburg. He spent a semester each studying at Charles University in Prague and at the University of Latvia in Riga. During his studies, he was a research intern at the DIW Berlin and the IZA in Bonn. Since October 2019 Sergej works for the Chair of Health Economics of the University of Duisburg-Essen. Currently his research covers the field of macroeconomic fluctuations and health outcomes.

Main fields of interest: Health Economics, Labour Economics, Applied Microeconometrics

Friederike Blönnigen

Mercator Scholarship

Entry: 2015

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen
Tel. +49 201 8149-526
Fax +49 201 8149-500

Friederike.Bloennigen(at)tu-dortmund.de

Friederike Blönnigen joined the RGS in Economics in October 2015. She obtained her Master of Business Mathematics from TU Dortmund and spent a semester at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. In her master thesis she analyzed power in exchange networks and applied an N-person cooperative game with transferable utility for networks to formalize the model. Her bachelor thesis analyzed the determinants of individuals’ participation in religious activity. She worked as a student teaching assistant in analysis and microeconomics and as a student research assistant at the RWI.

Main fields of interest: Microeconomics, Economics of Information, Applied Microeconomics

Kevin Glück

Sparkasse Essen Scholarship

Entry: 2014

Technische Universität Dortmund
Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät
Lehrstuhl für Makroökonomie
44221 Dortmund
Tel. +49 231 755-3105

Kevin.Glueck(at)tu-dortmund.de

Kevin Glück joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2014. Previously, he studied economics at the University of Cologne with a focus on Macroeconomics. During his Bachelor studies, he spent one semester in Maastricht and Buenos Aires each. In his Master Thesis, he analyzed savings and spousal labor supply as insurances against idiosyncratic income risk and how a public unemployment insurance can crowd out these instruments.

Main fields of interest: Public Economics, Growth & Inequality, Labour Economics

Linda Hirt-Schierbaum

RAG Stiftung Scholarship

Entry: 2014

Technische Universität Dortmund
Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät
Volkswirtschaftslehre (Mikroökonomie)
Vogelpothsweg 87
D-44227 Dortmund
Tel. +49 231 755-3215
Fax +49 231 755-3027

linda.hirt(at)tu-dortmund.de

Linda Hirt joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2014. She studied business mathematics at TU Dortmund University and at University of Jyväskylä, Finland. In her diploma thesis “Temptation, Self-Control and the Theory of Consumption” she analyzed (dynamic) self-control preferences and contrasted analyses of underinsurance against flood hazards in the United States premised on dynamic self-control preferences and hyperbolic discounting, respectively. Beside her studies she worked as a tutor at the chair of differential geometry and as a tutor and student research assistant at the chair of Microeconomics at TU Dortmund University.

Main fields of interest: Microeconomics, Behavioral Economics

Maryna Ivets

Entry: 2014

CINCH - Health Economics Research Center
Edmund-Körner-Platz 2
45127 Essen
Tel. +49 201 183 6313

Maryna.Ivets(at)wiwinf.uni-due.de

Maryna Ivets joined RGS in October 2014. She studied for her Bachelor’s degree at the Belarus State Economic University and at Hunter College (New York). She earned her Master’s at the University of Hamburg. Her Master’s thesis explored how different remuneration systems affect physician behavior (supervisor Prof. Dr. Mathias Kifmann). Maryna was a recipient of a DAAD scholarship and the winner of the New York State Economic Association undergraduate paper competition in 2012.

Main fields of interest: Health Economics, Applied Econometrics

Michael Kortenhaus

RAG Stiftung Scholarship

Entry: 2016

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen
Tel. +49 201 8149-514
Fax +49 201 8149-500

mjaehn(at)uni-muenster.de

Michael Jähn joined the RGS Econ in 2016. He completed his Bachelor’s degree at the University Münster in Political Science and Economics, focusing on Econometrics and Political Philosophy. He obtained an M.Sc. in Economics at Ruhr-University Bochum, with a semester abroad at the University of Pisa, attending courses in regional economics and spatial econometrics. In his Master’s he focused on Public Economics and worked as a student assistant at the Chair of Public Finance and Economic Policy. His thesis dealt empirically with the impact of tax avoidance strategies of multinational companies on product market competition.

Main fields of interest: Public Economics, Economic Policy, International Taxation

Patrick Aljoscha Maxara

Entry: 2017

Technische Universität Dortmund
Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Volkswirtschaftslehre (Makroökonomie)
44221 Dortmund
Tel. +49 231 755-3290

patrick.maxara(at)tu-dortmund.de

Homepage

Patrick Aljoscha Maxara joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2017. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Business Administration and Economics at TU Dortmund University and focused his studies on macroeconomics, econometrics and finance. His thesis covered the architecture of the financial system, financial crises and the insertion of the concept of liquidity into macroeconomic models. During his courses Patrick Aljoscha Maxara also worked as tutor and research assistant at several chairs of TU Dortmund University. Currently he is working as research and teaching assistant at the chair of macroeconomics at TU Dortmund University run by Prof. Dr. Phillip Jung.

Main fields of interest: Macroeconomics, Applied Econometrics, Financial Economics

Philipp Nickol

Entry: 2018

Universität Duisburg-Essen
Lehrstuhl für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen
Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Universitätsstraße 2
45117 Essen
Tel. +49 (0) 201-183 6829

philipp.nickol(at)vwl.uni-due.de

Homepage

Philipp Nickol joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2018. He obtained his Bachelors in Economics and American Studies from the FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg and his Masters in Economics from the University of Bayreuth. During his Master studies, he worked as a student assistant for Prof. Dr. Erik Hornung at the Chair of Quantitative Economic History at the University of Bayreuth, and as an intern and research assistant for Prof. Dr. Christoph Trebesch at the International Finance and Global Governance research unit of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. In his Master thesis he analyzed the global capital flow cycle over the last 200 years, its region-specific cyclical components, and their co-movement with global and regional push factors. In October 2019 he joined the Chair of International Economics of Prof. Dr. Volker Clausen at the University of Duisburg-Essen as a research assistant.

Main fields of interest: International Finance, Economic History, Macroeconomics

Thilo Reinschlüssel

Entry: 2018

Ruhr Graduate School in Economics
c/o RWI
Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
45128 Essen
Tel. +49 201 8149-514
Fax +49 201 8149-500

Thilo.Reinschluessel(at)vwl.uni-due.de

Thilo Reinschlüssel joined the Ruhr Graduate School in October 2018. He previously obtained a Bachelor in Economics from the University of Bonn and a Master in Quantitative Economics from CAU Kiel with focus on statistics and empirical economics. In the course of his master thesis, he refined statistical tests for fractional integration in panel data entailing local trends and provided new evidence indicating the existence of long memory in financial time series. He held a tutorial on Introductory Finance for Professor Dr. Sandmann (Bonn) and interned at the Deutsche Bundesbank’s central office. In 2017-2018 he worked as a research assistant in the unit “International Finance and Global Governance” at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Main fields of interest: Nonlinear Time Series Analysis, Panel Econometrics, Statistical Learning, Economic History

Karolin Süß

Entry: 2018

Universität Duisburg-Essen
Mercator School of Management - Fakultät für Betriebswirtschaftslehre
Professur für Quantitative Methoden in den Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Lotharstraße 65, Gebäude LC
47057 Duisburg

karolin.suess(at)uni-due.de

Hompage

Karolin Süß joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2018. She obtained her Master’s degree in Economics and her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Münster. In her Master’s thesis she focused on behavioral economics and analyzed the motives of individuals acting indirectly reciprocal. During her Master’s studies she also worked as a student research assistant for Prof. Johannes Becker at the Institute of Public Economics I. Furthermore, she spent one semester at the Istanbul Kültür University and completed several internships, e.g. at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, KfW IPEX-Bank and a voluntary service in Brazil.

Main fields of interest: Labor Economics, Applied Microeconometrics, Behavioural Economics

Anna Werbeck

Entry: 2018

RWI - Leibniz-Institut für
Wirtschaftsforschung
Hohenzollernstraße 1-3
D - 45128 Essen
Tel.: +49 (201) 8149-271

anna.werbeck(at)rwi-essen.de

Homepage

Anna Werbeck joined the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics in October 2018. She studied business administration (B.Sc.) at the University of Münster, veterinary medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover and economics (M.Sc.) at the Ruhr-University Bochum. In 2019, she joined the research department “Health Economics” of RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research. Her research interests lie in the area of empirical health economics, with a focus on regional differences in health care.

Main fields of interest: Health Economics