About me

I am Professor of Economic and Social History at the Economics Department of the University of Hohenheim.

I am an empirical economist and quantitative economic historian.

One current strand of my research focuses on the consequences of crises and war, postwar politics, and geopolitical change. In particular, I study how major political and institutional changes, and economic and political uncertainty, in the first half of the twentieth century affect the opportunities and behaviour of firms and households, and political preferences, in the short and long run.

Another strand of my research focuses on financial markets, firm financing, and institutional change, with a particular interest in the role of local financial markets in increasingly integrated financial systems.

My work has been published in the American Economic Review, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Economic History, the Economic History Review, the Journal of Banking & Finance, and World Development.

I am also actively engaged in academic service and research networks. This includes my affiliation with the Economic History Programme at CEPR, my membership in the Directorate of the Eugen-Gutmann-Gesellschaft, and my service on the Executive Commitee of the International Economic History Society. I am also a recently elected member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs.

I previously served as President of the European Historical Economics Society and as Chair of the Economic History Committee of the German Economic Association and was a member of the DFG Review Board for Economics.