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2013-12-20: New Faculty MemberWe would like to give a warm welcome to Hans Joachim Voth who will join our department in January 2014. His research focuses include the history of financial markets, long run economic growth, as well as political risk and macroeconomic instability. Professor of Economics of Development and Emerging Markets |
2013-11-08: Center for Economic Studies (CES) Honours Ernst FehrThe Center for Economic Studies (CES) is nominating Professor Ernst Fehr as a "Distinguished CES Fellow". Ernst Fehr is receiving the prize for his outstanding experimental work in the field of behavioural economics, which calls into question the traditional concept of the Homo Oeconomicus for the purposes of economic forecasting. Fehr links economic instruments with knowledge of other scientific disciplines like social psychology, biology and neurology. The prize will be awarded on 19 November 2013 in the Great Hall of the University of Munich. CES Press Release |
2013-11-08: Florian Zimmermann receives CESifo Prize in Behavioural EconomicsFlorian Zimmermann, Postdoc at the Department of Economics, has received the CESifo Prize in Behavioural Economics 2013 “Distinguished CESifo Affiliate”. The prize has been awarded during the CESifo Area Conference on Behavioural Economics (2013) in recognition of his paper “Correlation Neglect in Belief Formation” (co-authored with Benjamin Enke, University of Bonn). |
2013-10-31: Wem gehört die Bildung? (Richard David Precht)Am Donnerstag, 31. Oktober 2013, diskutierten prominente und ausgewiesene Experten in der Aula der Universität Zurich kontroverse Fragen des Bildungswesens. Nach einem Einführungsvortrag diskutierte Philosoph und Bestsellerautor Richard David Precht mit Urs Rohner, Christa Markwalder, Jürgen Oelkers und Ernst Fehr. Der Event wurde von dem Department of Economics und der Müller-Möhl Foundation mit Unterstützung der Excellence Foundation Zurich durchgeführt. Weiter zur Bildergallerie… |
2013-10-15: Fabrizio Zilibotti elected President of the European Economic Association (EEA)We are happy to announce that Fabrizio Zilibotti has been elected President of the European Economic Association (EEA). He will be Vice-President in 2014, President Elect in 2015, and President in 2016. The election was held by a secret electronic vote involving all members of the association (ca. 3,000 members). The EEA is the most important association of academic economists in Europe. The list of current and past presidents comprises two Nobel laureates (Christopher Pissarides and James Mirrlees), and most renowned researchers including, over recent years: Manuel Arellano, Timothy Besley, Richard Blundell, Mathias Dewatripoint, Ernst Fehr, Jordi Gali, Andreu Mas Colell, Torsten Persson, Nick Stern, Guido Tabellini, and Jean Tirole. Since the foundation of the EEA in 1986, Prof. Zilibotti will be the third president from an institution located in the German-speaking world (after Martin Hellwig, 1992, and Ernst Fehr, 2008). European Economic Association Home Page |
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How does the human brain control compliance with social norms? Are the underlying brain mechanisms mainly concerned with avoiding social punishments, or do they also reflect purely voluntary norm obedience? To what degree does norm compliance depend on knowledge and beliefs about the norm and possible punishments? Can we change and possibly even increase human norm compliance with neuroscientific methods?
A new study by Christian Ruff, Giuseppe Ugazio, and Ernst Fehr, which has been published in SCIENCE provides answers to these questions.
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We would like to give a warm welcome to George-Marios Angeletos who recently joined our department. He has been appointed chair in "Macroeconomics and Financial Markets" at the Department of Economics. The new chair has been endowed by the UBS International Center of Economics in Society, with which Prof. Angeletos will be affiliated. His research interests include heterogeneous information and expectations; global games; self-fulfilling crises; business cycles; incomplete markets; and fiscal and monetary policy.
In a current interview with the UBS Center, Prof. Angeletos describes his motivation for doing economic research, he talks about his research projects, and he explains why the University of Zurich is an attractive place of work for him.
Interview with UBS Center |
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The third Zurich Workshop on Economics took place from September 9 to 11 at the Sorell Hotel Rüden in Schaffhausen. Organized by ECON PhD students at the University of Zurich, the workshop aims at stimulating the discussion between local PhD students and international researchers from different areas of economics. The organization committee has, once again, done a very good job. 30 PhD students presented their research projects in seven different sessions. They were given the possibility to discuss their current research work with each other, with members of our Department, and with external scholars. Several renowned researchers followed the invitation from the ZWE organization committee. The committee was able to attract Sascha O. Becker (Warwick), Davide Cantoni (LMU Munich), Florian Englmaier (LMU Munich), Francis Kramarz (CREST), and Aldo Rustichini (U of Minnesota) as key-note speakers.
ZWE website |
| Todd Hare and his colleagues received a grant for their five-year, multi-center EU project entitled "Nudge-it: The Neurobiology of Decision-Making in Eating – Innovative Tools". The overall grant amounts to approximately nine million euros. |
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Prof. Fabrizio Zilibotti is the co-winner of the Sun Yefang 2012 Award for his article "Growing Like China" (with Zheng Song and Kjetil Storesletten) published in the American Economic Review 2011. The Sun Yefang prize in economic science, in memory of the distinguished Chinese reformist economist Sun Yefang, rewards outstanding contributions to economic science, to promote the prosperity and development of China. First established in 1985, it is awarded every two years by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). It is the highest recognition in economics in China. Past recipients include the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, and the governor of the People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan. The Minister of Finance of China, Lou Jiwei, is a co-recipient of the 2012 award. Prof. Zilibotti (together with his co-author, Prof. Storesletten) is the first European scholar to receive the prize. The Sun Yefang Prize ceremony will be held on 15th November 2013 in Beijing (Golden Dragon).
Download research paper "Growing like China" 2013-08-18 Interview with NZZ am Sonntag |
Franziska Weiss, PhD student at the Department of Economics, has received the "SSES Young Economist Award 2013", awarded by the the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics for the best paper of a young economist less than 33 years old. The prize has been awarded in recognition of her paper:
"Non-homothetic preferences and industry directed technical change"
(with Timo Boppart)
Dominic Rohner has been awarded the Exzellenzpreis für praxisrelevante Entwicklungsforschung from the Research Committee on Development Economics of the Verein für Socialpolitik. The award was granted for the paper „War Signals: A Theory of Trade, Trust and Conflict" (co-authored with Mathias Thoenig, University of Lausanne and Fabrizio Zilibotti, University of Zurich), that Dominic Rohner wrote while being a post-doc at the Department of Economics of the University of Zurich. Congratulations!
The CentER for Research in Economics and Business at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, has published the newest version of its worldwide ranking for economics institutes. Based on the research contribution in the top-5 journals from 2008 - 2012, the University of Zurich ranks 5th among the best economics schools in Europe.
The academic economic profession attaches a key role to peer-reviewed published research. Arguably more than in any other discipline, economics has an informal ranking of publication outlets which distinguish between "top five general audience journals" (American Economic Review, Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies), top second-tier general audience journal, top-field journals, and other peer-reviewed journals. While the exact within-group ranking is subjective, there is a clear ranking between groups and an equally clear discontinuity between top-5 journals and the remaining reviews. Top-5 journals are a main criterion for appointments and promotions in the best American and European institutions, for instance. Which journals are the five most attractive outlets is undisputed in the profession. For these reasons, the number of publications in top-5 journals is a good measure of excellence in research. It is more precise and less controversial than any measure based on a broader set of journals that would tend to favour the quantity over the quality of research.
Using the database made public by Tilburg University (https://econtop.uvt.nl/rankingsandbox.php), we constructed a ranking of the European Universities based on the number of top-5 publications between 2008 and 2012. Here is the result:
1. London School of Economics (UK) 72
2. University College London (UK) 40
3. University of Oxford (UK) 36
4. University of Toulouse/Toulouse School of Econ. (France) 27
5. University of Zurich (CH) 22
6. Pompeu Fabra University (Spain) 21
7. Stockholm University (Sweden) 18
8. Tilburg University (Netherlands) 17
9. University of Cambridge (UK) 17
10.London Business School (UK) 15
The calculations in the Tilburg Ranking are based on the stated main affiliation of the researchers at the time of publication. This means that the success of researchers currently at the University of Zurich may be understated due to the fact that many active researchers only joined the department recently. It is interesting to check whether the top-5 criterion gives a reasonable ranking for US universities. The top 10 institutions are Harvard, M.I.T., Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley, Northwestern, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, and New York University. These economic departments are regarded by most researchers as the ten strongest departments in the US.
The database of the Tilburg Ranking covers publications in 70 leading economics journals since 2004. The ranking provides a standard Top 100 of economics schools, based on a subset of journals in the database, over a 5-year period. Even if you do not focus on the top-5 journals, one can say that the University of Zurich has achieved a top position, ranking 8th among the best economics schools in Europe.
Ernst Fehr has been awarded for his pioneering research on the role of fairness in markets, organizations, and in individual decisions. The ceremony took place on April 9, 2013 at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in Rüschlikon in front of 300 invited guests.
The politically independent Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize is awarded at irregular intervals for outstanding contributions to the community. Previous prize-winners include Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, former UN Secretary General and Nobel Prize winner Kofi A. Annan, and the last president of Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel. Professor Dan Ariely, lecturer in behavioral economics at Duke University, paid tribute to his research colleague. The ceremony marked the high point of the anniversary year of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute which was founded in 1963.
Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
Press photos
Media coverage
NZZ online
Rendez-vouz auf SRF Radio
FinanzNachrichten.de
Focus Online
Bilanz
Sebastian Findeisen has accepted a position of tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Mannheim. Moreover, he has been offered a post-doc position at UC Berkeley. He will now move to Berkeley, and then start his position in Mannheim in the spring 2014.
Andreas Mueller has accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Oslo. He will start his position in September 2013.
Kevin Staub has accepted a position at the University of Melbourne. He will start his position in October 2013.
We congratulate our graduate students on their excellent placements!
Die Debatte ist eröffnet: Ist Bildung ein Ideal, das nicht angetastet werden darf? Machen Regelwerke wie die Pisa Studie die Schulen zu Lernfabriken, in denen die Kreativität der Kinder unterdrückt wird oder führt eine übertriebene «Kuschel- pädagogik» dazu, dass nicht der richtige Nachwuchs für unsere Gesellschaft ausgebildet wird? Wer ist für die Finanzierung der Bildung verantwortlich? Wer darf sich in die Bildungsdebatte einmischen, wer nicht und sind «Public-Private-Partnerships» überhaupt erwünscht? Über diese und andere kontroverse Fragen des Bildungswesens diskutieren prominente und ausgewiesene Experten.
Nach einem Einführungsvortrag diskutiert Philosoph und Bestsellerautor Richard David Precht mit Urs Rohner, Christa Markwalder, Jürgen Oelkers und Ernst Fehr.
Das Department of Economics und die Müller-Möhl Foundation mit Unterstützung der
Excellence Foundation Zurich freuen sich, Sie am Donnerstag, 31. Oktober 2013, in der Aula der Universität Zürich zu begrüssen.
Event details
"There is no good unless one does it." A saying by Erich Kästner that sounds simple at first glance, but it should be considered as a complex phenomenon. While human beings want to show moral behavior, they often choose to act selfish, believing at the same time that they are acting moral.
Jakob von Uexküll, founder of the Right Livelihood Award, and Ernst Fehr venture an outlook of the future. Together they will discuss the aim of their foundations and how they intend to foster a sustainable development of the society. The discussion will be moderated by Haig Simonian, a former correspondent of Financial Times. You are warmly invited to the public event which takes place on Thursday, September 26 at 6:15 p.m. in the main auditorium (KOL G-201) of the University of Zurich. Please note that the discussion will be held in German. For further information please contact Aileen Zumstein.
Event details
Amidst the current financial and economic crisis, the debate about the future of “western capitalism” is of central importance. Most people accept that missing, inefficient, or misguided regulation was in large part the cause of the last financial crisis. So the questions that need to be answered are: What role should the state play? What constitutes fair and efficient regulations for the financial markets? Which unofficial rules, norms and individual or group behaviors are important for the smooth functioning of societies and economies?
The Forum for Economic Dialogue 2013 on «Fair and Efficient Rules for Capitalism» takes place on Monday, November 18 from 09:00 a.m. to 07:30 p.m. in Zurich. It offers an ideal platform for academics, business people, public officials, and interested citizens to engage in an exchange of knowledge, latest insights and ideas. The event will start with a keynote lecture by Alan Krueger (Princeton) and will be concluded with the Zurich Lecture of Economics in Society on "A Capitalism for the People”, delivered by Luigi Zingales (Chicago).
The detailed program together with further information on the speakers and the option to register will be available on the UBS Center webpage
How do we make decisions? Why are managers usually too optimistic? Human irrationality is Kahneman’s great theme. His ideas have had a profound and widely regarded impact on many fields – including economics, medicine, psychology, and politics.
Prof. Daniel Kahneman, one of the world’s most important thinkers and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, gave a public lecture at the University of Zurich on April 16, 2013. The event was organized by the UBS International Center of Economics in Society.
Artikel auf NZZ online
UZH News
Why is cheating so addictive? What makes creative minds lie more often than others? And how come deception is most appealing to us if others benefit from it? „The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty“ is the title of the newest book of Prof. Dan Ariely and was the topic of his lecture that he gave on Wednesday, April 10 in the main auditorium of the University of Zurich.
The Workshop on Early Childhood Development took place on Friday, March 22nd 2013, and was organized by the Department of Economics. The purpose of the workshop was to assemble experts in the field of childhood development and to discuss recent advances on the role of motivational and self-regulation skills for human development. In an interactive setting, first James Heckman presented a toolkit for the integration of empirical data into the theory of early childhood development within the life-cycle.
In the following, the speakers Gabriele Öttingen, Daniel Houser, Melissa Libertus, and Armin Falk presented data on their own projects on childhood development and motivational training. Seong Moon and Tim Kautz, both graduate research assistants with Prof. James Heckman, presented empirical evidence on reasons for success or failure of past developmental projects. As a last speaker, Daniel Schunk presented “KIDS-WIN”, a current randomized controlled intervention in collaboration with Ernst Fehr, conducted in primary schools to shed light on the psychology, the neurobiology, and the economics of human capital formation.
Die Basler Zeitung kürt die Schweizer Intellektuellen des vergagenen Jahres. Ernst Fehr gehört zu den 15 einflussreichsten Denker von 2013.
Basler Zeitung
Ernst Fehr äussert sich im Interview mit dem Tages Anzeiger zur Initiative der Juso.
Artikel im Tages Anzeiger
Wirtschaftswissenschaftler Fabrizio Zilibotti hält die aktuelle Wachstumsverlangsamung in der Volksrepublick China für undramatisch. Für Chinas erfolgreichen Aufholprozess sei der massive Investitionsastieg in Forschung und Entwicklung besonders bedeutsam.
Artikel im WirtschaftsBlatt Online
Wirtschaftsprofessor Ernst Fehr reagiert auf den Vorwurf von Zürcher Studenten, das Wirtschaftsstudium sei realitätsfern. Der Volkswirt verteidigt sein Fachgebiet, weist die Kritik aber nicht gänzlich zurück.
Interview im Tages Anzeiger
Die geplante Liberalisierung des chinesischen Kapitalmarktes eröffnet Chancen und birgt auch Risiken. Ein Kommentar von Fabrizio Zilibotti.
Finanz und Wirtschaft
Was passiert im Hirn, wenn wir Finanz-Entscheide treffen? Sind wir zurückhaltend oder risikofreudig? Fragen mit globaler Bedeutung: In der Finanzwelt wurden zu hohe Risiken eingegangen; das System kollabierte fast. Warum? Neuroökonomen der Uni Zürich untersuchen das Risikoverhalten beim Geldanlegen.
Beitrag auf SRF online
Ist der Rohstoffkonzern Glencore eine «volkswirtschaftliche Perle»? Diese Äusserung der Baarer Gemeindeverwaltung sorgt für Ärger. Zurecht, findet Wirtschaftsethiker Roberto Weber.
Beitrag in der Neuen Luzerner Zeitung
«No risk, no fun» oder «Vorsicht ist die Mutter der Porzellankiste»: Zu welcher Lebenseinstellung jemand neigt, lässt sich seitlich vorne am Gehirn ablesen. Das hat der Neuroökonom Philippe Tobler gezeigt.
Beitrag im 20 Minuten
Fabrizio Zilibotti Fabrizio Zilibotti ist ein ausgewiesener China-Kenner. Er erklärt in der NZZ am Sonntag, warum das Reich der Mitte noch viel Wachstumspotenzial hat und wie die Schweiz davon profitieren kann.
Interview mit NZZ am Sonntag
Fabrizio Zilibotti erklärt in einem Artikel von 20Minuten online, warum der gute Draht nach China die Wirtschaft in Euphorie versetzt – trotz vorerst nur kleinem Handelsvolumen.
Artikel auf 20Minuten vom 13. August 2013
Obama will Afrika mit Handelsbeziehungen statt Entwicklungshilfe fördern. Fabrizio Zilibotti gibt dem US-Präsidenten Recht. Die Schweiz hält vorerst an ihrer Afrika-Strategie fest.
Artikel im 20Minuten vom 4. Juli 2013
Zu Gast bei Kurt Aeschbacher gewährte Ernst Fehr am Donnerstag, 13. Juni 2013 in der SRF talk show "Aeschbacher" dem Publikum einen Einblick in seine Forschung und seine Arbeit als Ökonom.
Die Untersuchung der beiden Zürcher Ökonomen Sandro Favre und Josef Zweimüller sowie von Rafael Lalive aus Lausanne über die Folgen der Zuwanderung für den Schweizer Arbeitsmarkt wurden in zwei Medien diskutiert.
NZZ Online vom 13.06.2013
Im 20Minuten Interview mit Sven Zaugg plädiert Ernst Fehr für eine effiziente und fair organisierte Gesellschaft.
20Minuten Onlineausgabe vom 22.06.2013
Ernst Fehr und Daniel Schunk (Universität Mainz) präsentierten am 16. Mai 2013 ihr Projekt "Kids-WIN" der Öffentlichkeit. Bei dem Projekt geht es um ein frühes und gezieltes Training sowohl des Arbeitsgedächtnisses als auch der Selbstregulationsfähigkeit. Beides gilt als wichtige Voraussetzung für erfolgreiches Lernen.
Schweiz Magazin
Die neueste Ausgabe des UZH magazin beschäftigt sich mit dem Thema "Kopf um Kragen - wie wir mit Risiken umgehen". Ein Artikel ist der Forschung von Philippe Tobler gewidmet, der untersucht, was in unserem Kopf passiert, wenn wir Risiken eingehen.
Online lesen
Bei der Innovationsfähigkeit ist die Schweiz international Spitze. Kein Grund zum Ausruhen, mahnt der Experte. Beat Hotz-Hart im Gespräch mit Radio SRF in der Sendung Echo der Zeit vom 9. April 2013.
Echo der Zeit
Heute kann Offshoring technische Fortschritte ermöglichen, die die Produktivität gering qualifizierter Arbeitskräfte im Westen steigern. Ein Kommentar von Fabrizio Zilibotti in der Zeitung Finanz und Wirtschaft vom 26. April 2013.
Online lesen
In einem Artikel der NZZ wird über die Studie «Fatal Attraction? Access to Early Retirement and Mortality» von Andreas Kuhn, Jean-Philippe Wuellrich und Josef Zweimüller berichtet.
NZZ Artikel
Interview with Fabrizio Zilibotti about "Italien ist das grösste Risiko für die Währungsunion" (in German) Finanz und Wirtschaft, April 2, 2013, Nr.26: Page 17.
Interview
Filippo Brutti äussert sich im Tages Anzeiger zur aktuellen Krisenlage in Zypern.
Beitrag im Tages Anzeiger
Viele Entscheidung in Finanzfragen werden aus dem Bauch heraus getroffen. Im Gespräch sagt Prof. Dr. Christian Ruff, Neuroökonom an der Universität Zürich, warum man wie entscheidet.
Interview mit Die Welt
Fabrizio Zilibotti äussert sich im Radio zur aktuellen Lage in Italien.
Beitrag im RSI Rete Due
Roberto Weber wird in der Sonntagszeitung zum verhaltensökonomischen Aspekt des Teilens zitiert.
Beitrag in der Sonntagszeitung
Mehrere Artikel sowie ein Beitrag der Sendung 10vor10 des Schweizer Fernsehens beschäftigen sich mit der Studie von Donja Darai und Silvia Grätz in der sie der Frage nachgegangen sind, wie stark ein schönes Gesicht das Verhalten von Mitmenschen beeinflusst.
Beitrag in der Sendung 10vor10
UZH Magazin, S. 14
Die VWL-DoktorandinChloé Michel äussert sich im Tages Anzeiger über ihr Studium und die Vorteile, über ein Stipendium der Excellence Foundation Zurich zu verfügen.
In einem Artikel der Neuen Luzerner Zeitung wird auf die Arbeiten von Michel Maréchal und Alain Cohn zum Thema Motivation am Arbeitslplatz hingewiesen.
Prof. Beat Hotz-Hart äussert sich zu den Vorwürfen an Economiesuisse.
Artikel im Tages Anzeiger
Artikel in der Berner Zeitung
Prof. Fabrizio Zilibotti's CEPR Discussion Paper on "Offshoring and Directed Technical Change" (with Daron Acemoglu and Gino Gancia) has been reviewed in the January edition of the The Economist.
Business Insider
In einem Artikel zur Wirkung von Oxytocin wird auf die bahnbrechende Studie von Prof. Ernst Fehr verwiesen.
Artikel in der Süddeutsche Zeitung
/>Prof. Fabrizio Zilibotti gave an interview to Morgenbladet (11.01.2013) after his speech held in front of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs of the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) on 10 January, 2013 on "China: Past, Present and Future".
read the interview
/>Prof. Mathias Hoffmann äussert sich zum Vorschlag des Bundesrats, dass die Schweiz ein Handelsplatz für den chinesischen Renminbi werden soll.
Artikel in der Berner Zeitung
Artikel im Tages Anzeiger
Artikel in der Basler Zeitung
