ECONtribute Research Fellows & International Faculty
ECONtribute Research Fellows & International Faculty members visit our Cluster over a fixed period of time and pursue projects with our Cluster members. Find a list of all our Fellows here.
Three questions to: Eugen Dimant
What do you currently work on? Please state the research question and what you expect to learn from your research.
I’m particularly interested in social norm change. Social norms guide our behavior and interactions in a variety of economically and socially interesting domains (corruption, tax evasion, collective action, altruistic sharing, among others). Despite progress in uncovering the importance of social norms in many economically interesting settings, our understanding of the factors that influence individuals’ willingness to comply with social norms is still incomplete and – importantly – how and why compliance erodes.
This is important because norm compliance can quickly erode in response to changes in the social or political landscape. In my ongoing work (with Bicchieri, Gächter & Nosenzo) we attempt to uncover these dynamics. We focus on the role of social interactions in a non-strategic environment in which we isolate norm changes and also show who are the ones contributing to the degradation of norm compliance.
ECONtribute’s goal is to advance a new paradigm for the analysis of markets & public policy. In your mind, what are the key societal challenges? And how can economists answer to these?
Historically, many of the insights that economists have produces focused on isolated behaviors in tightly controlled environments. While useful and important as a starting point, we are all well aware of the fact that actual behaviors are much more complex and evolve dynamically. Studying the impact of interventions not only in form of a snapshot but also its mid- and long-term impact is vital.
It’s exciting to see that economists have been at the forefront of the scientific revolution to bring their research ‘to the field’ and take on these challenges. In order to achieve sustainable social change, the next big challenge will be to tie this research stronger to actual policy change — beyond ‘just’ publishing them. It’s exciting to see that researchers who are part of ECONtribute are key figures of this movement.
What are the implications of your own research for policymaking and/or for our understanding of society and the economy?
Understanding not only what happens but also why is particularly policy relevant. For example, social norms research of the past has mainly focused on finding ways to change behavior, but spent less time investigating why behavior change failed. n the context detailed above, our rich setting also allows us to study who contributes to collective change in compliance over time. We find that correcting deviant behavior often requires the combination of social and economic incentives.
Simple nudges might be insufficient at times, or even backfire. Understanding why the latter happens — and how to achieve long-lasting change — is another stream of research that I pursue (with Bolton & Schmidt, among others). For research to be relevant to policymakers, us researchers need to provide guidance not only on what works, but what doesn’t, why, and what to do about it. With this, the hope that misguided efforts will be minimized and resources are allocated where they are most needed.
Personal website of Eugen Dimant
About Eugen Dimant
Starting 2020: Associate Professor of Practice in Behavioral and Decision Sciences, University of Pennsylvania.
2019 – 2020: Senior Research Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, Identity and Conflict Lab, Political Science Department.
2016 – 2019 Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pennsylvania, Behavioral and Decision Sciences Program.
Until 2015 Lab Research Fellow, Harvard University, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics (last cohort under Lawrence Lessig)
Eugen Dimant’s research interests center on experimental behavioral economics with a particular focus on behavioral ethics, crime, and corruption. His most recent work has examined the role of social norms and nudges in affecting self-serving belief distortions and the contagion of pro- and anti-social behavior among individuals and groups.
As a secondary interest, he is also involved in empirical research examining the relationships between corruption, terrorism, and migration.
Three questions to: Ralph Lütticke
What do you currently work on? Please state the research question and what you expect to learn from your research.
In my current research, I study the importance of business cycles for inequality. Do transitory recessions trigger persistent increases in inequality? Do monetary and fiscal policy responses to business cycles matter for inequality?
To answer these questions, I build heterogenous-agent models that replicate the distribution of income and wealth in the data and, hence, provide a laboratory to study counterfactuals.
My research indicates that business cycle phenomena do have persistent distributional consequences. These findings contribute to our understanding of the drivers of inequality and support a re-assessment of the costs of business cycles. The ultimate goal is to re-assess optimal policy responses to business cycles taking the broader implications for inequality into account.
ECONtribute’s goal is to advance a new paradigm for the analysis of markets & public policy. In your mind, what are the key societal challenges? And how can economists answer to these?
In many countries, income and wealth inequality has reached levels last seen at the beginning of the 20th century. Naturally, inequality has forcefully entered the public debate since the Great Recession.
With my research, I contribute to our understanding of the causes and implications of inequality, and potential policy responses thereto. The economic toolkit is well suited to identify the causes of inequality. In my work, I use models and empirical evidence to study the drivers behind the rise in inequality.
What are the implications of your own research for policymaking and/or for our understanding of society and the economy?
My research shows that business cycles matter for inequality and vice versa. Changes in the distribution of income and wealth have business cycle consequences; for example, higher idiosyncratic income risk makes households cut back on consumption and may trigger a recession.
Business cycles, in turn, affect the distribution of income and wealth. Hence, my research helps to broaden our understanding of recessions and inequality by studying the link between them.
Personal Website of Ralph Lütticke
About Ralph Lütticke
Since 2019, research affiliate at CEPR
Since 2016, member of the Centre for Macroeconomics, London
Since 2016, assistant professor in Economics at University College London
2016 Ph.D. in Economics, Bonn University, Germany
Three questions to: Kurt Mitman
What do you currently work on? Please state the research question and what you expect to learn from your research.
My research focuses broadly on macroeconimc policy, including monetary and fiscal policy with a particular focus on the importance of household heterogeneity. For example, in one ongoing project I ask how we should optimally design consumer bankruptcy policy taking into account both standard trade-offs between credit supply and insurance and the role that consumer bankruptcy plays in macroeconomic stabilization.
ECONtribute’s goal is to advance a new paradigm for the analysis of markets & public policy. In your mind, what are the key societal challenges? And how can economists answer to these?
One of the key challenges facing society today is to ensure that the gains from global growth are shared equitable across the population – namely, prosperity should come with inclusive growth. A large body of research has documented empirically that various segments of the population have been left behind with, e.g., technological progress, trade liberalization and changes in other fiscal policy. The field of macro has been dominated for the past several decades by representative-agent dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models–models whose main elements are derived from microeconomic theory, but that are inconsistent with vast empirical micro evidence on consumer behaviour. We can do better. We can develop rich macroeconomic models that are not only micro-founded, but also micro-consistent–that is consistent with empirical microeconomic evidence on household behaviour and outcomes. This new paradigm can be used to ensure we have sustainable, inclusive growth.
What are the implications of your own research for policymaking and/or for our understanding of society and the economy?
My research has had direct policy implications for a wide variety of government fiscal policies. For example, my research mentioned in the first question has direct implications for how governments should set consumer default policy. I have also studied the optimal provision of unemployment insurance over the business cycle. In ongoing research I’m also studying the role of government bailout guarantees in mortgage markets. Finally, more recently, I have been studying the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions in helping fight the spread of COVID-19.
Personal website of Kurt Mitman
About Kurt Mitman
Since 2019: Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research and at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
2014 –2019: Assistant Professor at the Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University.
Kurt Mitman is an Associate Professor at the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University, a Researcher at the University of Oslo, a Research Affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and a Research Fellow of the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. His research focuses broadly on macroeconomics. He is particularly interested in housing, household debt and default, and labor market dynamics. Currently, he is a member of the Editorial Board of the Review of Economic Studies, an Associate Editor at the Journal of the European Economic Association and Macroeconomic Dynamics.
Three Questions to: Ben Moll
What do you currently work on? Please state the research question and what you expect to learn from your research.
What are the macroeconomic and distributional consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as those of monetary and fiscal policy more generally?
ECONtribute’s goal is to advance a new paradigm for the analysis of markets & public policy. In your mind, what are the key societal challenges? And how can economists answer to these?
How to foster inclusive growth, i.e. a prospering economy in which noone gets left behind. Economnists can answer to these by proposing macroeconomic and distributional policies that make this goal easier to achieve.
What are the implications of your own research for policymaking and/or for our understanding of society and the economy?
The transmission of monetary policy to household consumption works primarily through indirect effects on household income rather than intertemporal substitution. Fiscal policy is a powerful tool for stimulating aggregate demand. The Covid-19 epidemic disproportionately affects low-income households and occupations and this should be factored in in the policy response.
Personal Website of Ben Moll
About Ben Moll
Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, from September 2019
Professor of Economics and International Affairs, Princeton University, 2018-2020
Associate Professor (with tenure), Princeton University, 2017-2018
Assistant Professor, Princeton University, 2011-2017
ERC Consolidator Grant (2020)
Leverhulme Prize (2019)
Bernácer Prize for best European economist under 40 working in macroeconomics and finance (2018)
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2016)
Three questions to: Claudia Sahm
What do you currently work on? Please state the research question and what you expect to learn from your research.
My research mainly focuses on how households respond to fiscal and monetary policies.
My studies examine macroeconomic effects of their behavioral responses, as well as how responses differ across group of people. Examples of this research are the direct payments (rebates) to people and temporary tax cuts in a recession. With Matthew Shapiro and Joel Slemrod at the University of Michigan I have researched these fiscal policies since 2008. We are currently studying the effects of the 2020 recovery rebates. Our main research question now is whether the Covid-19 public health and economic crisis is altering behaviors relative to the Great Recession. Preliminary results suggest that may be the case. We also document the financial fragility that the severe economic crisis has caused.
In addition, my recent solo-authored work has contributed to rule-based fiscal policy and ways to automatically fight recessions and provide support in the recoveries. I developed a new recession indicator, the so-called Sahm rule, that uses changes in the unemployment rate to automatically trigger for fiscal stabilization policy.
ECONtribute’s goal is to advance a new paradigm for the analysis of markets & public policy. In your mind, what are the key societal challenges? And how can economists answer to these?
In the United States, the social safety net is insufficient, in good economic times and bad. The deficiencies affect some groups of people and communities more than others. As a result, they reinforce inequities in the economy. Many Americans also lack financial buffers, so they are unable to handle abrupt changes in their income. A reduction in hours or an illness can put many families under extreme distress.
New public policies and private initiatives are needed to address the economic challenges that household face, including policies to improve the safety net; support low-wage workers; expand access to affordable health care; and provide quality education universally. Economists and other social scientists need to contribute high-quality research and policy advice.
My role as Director of Macroeconomic Policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth focuses on connecting academics with policy makers. One goal of mine is to make heterogenous agent models accessible to fiscal policy makers. Rising income and wealth inequalities, among other structural problems, in the United States make evidence-based policies urgent.
What are the implications of your own research for policymaking and/or for our understanding of society and the economy?
In the past year, I have worked with members and staff in Congress, as well as policy analysts at various think tanks to promote automatic stabilizers. My proposals of direct payments to people early in a recession are based on my research from the Great Recession. In addition, I draw on studies from a wide range of academic.
In the current crisis, I have shown how to use automatic triggers to turn on and off fiscal policies. The principle of automatic stabilizers can be applied to many programs. Key examples are enhanced jobless benefits; higher food stamps payments; and aid to state governments.
I am also beginning work on what longer-term policies Congress could enact to support the recovery and at the same time address structural problems.
Personal Website of Claudia Sahm
About Claudia Sahm
Claudia Sahm is the Director of Macroeconomic Policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. She has policy and research expertise on consumer spending, fiscal stimulus, and the financial well-being of households.
She is the author of the “Sahm Rule,” a reliable early signal of recessions that she developed to automatically trigger stimulus payments to individuals in a recession.
Previously, she was a section chief in the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board, where she oversaw the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking.
Before that she worked for ten years in the Division of Research and Statistics on the staff’s macroeconomic forecast.
She was a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in 2015-2016. Sahm holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan (2007), and a bachelor’s degree in economics, political science, and German from Denison University (1998).
Three Questions to: Martin Schmalz
What do you currently work on? Please state the research question and what you expect to learn from your research.
I currently work on two related issues. One is understanding real effects of the diversification function of financial markets. Financialization of the economy has led to improved risk sharing, but at the same time to increased “common ownership” of many firms by the same investors and asset managers, including natural competitors. Theory and evidence indicates that common ownership affects strategic decisions of firms, and product market outcomes — including, in some cases, reduced competition. If diversification reduces competition, the possibility arises that an overly financialized economy plants the seeds of its own demise, by reducing competitiveness, macroeconomic growth, and increasing inequality.
The other issue concerns the political economy of central banking, in particular when central banks engage in large-scale purchases of public- and private-sector securities. Central banks thus socialize financial risks to future consumers and taxpayers, while at the same time paying interim short-term profits from these investments to the government. Those declared profits appear to be not only informed by economic realities but also by accounting choices. I try to understand to which extent these choices are meant to preserve central banks’ independence from the fiscal authorities and government, and to which extent they reflect a loss of such independence.
ECONtribute’s goal is to advance a new paradigm for the analysis of markets & public policy. In your mind, what are the key societal challenges? And how can economists answer to these?
I think the tension between financial risk sharing and competition is a first-order one, because it is directly linked to rising inequality: reduced competition reduces welfare, but it also increases the profits made by producers. Because the wealthiest fraction of the population holds a much greater share of producers than their share of consumption, reduced competition increases inequality.
Another development is that societies appear to increasingly rely on large asset managers to solve societal problems traditionally thought to be in the domain of government regulation, such as climate change and environmental regulation. That development also poses conceptual and practical challenges. One is that asset managers don’t have direct financial incentives to care about clean air, water, or mitigation of flooding and desertification in third-world countries or more generally in areas and population segments that don’t have influence over asset managers. Economists can help determine in which cases such an absence of proper incentives likely indicates that such societal challenges are better addressed by government intervention than by private sector self-regulation.
What are the implications of your own research for policymaking and/or for our understanding of society and the economy?
My research has had an influence on the reemergence of the notion that letting overlapping sets of investors own and control or influence entire industries might harm competition and welfare. Competition authorities worldwide have picked up on this research and in some cases used it in enforcement of existing competition law.
Personal website of Martin Schmalz
About Martin Schmalz
Associate Professor of Finance (with tenure), University of Oxford, since January 2020
Research Member, European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI, Brussels), since 2018
Research Affiliate (FE, IO), Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR, London), since 2017
Research Affiliate CESIfo (München), since 2016
PhD in Economics, Princeton University, 2012
M.A., Economics, Princeton University, 2009
Dipl.-Ing. Mechanical Engineering, Universität Stuttgart, 2007