PhD Students
Cohort 2023
Ali Demir joined the Research Training Group at the Chair of Thomas Bauer at Ruhr University Bochum in 2023. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and a Master of Science in Behavioral and Applied Economics from the University of Trento, Italy. He spent an exchange year at the Free University of Berlin and served as a research intern at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. His master’s thesis explored into complex economic behaviors, specifically overconfidence and prosociality within Rubinstein bargaining settings. Currently, his research focuses on Migration and Labor Economics, with a strong emphasis on empirical applications.
Nisha Vernekar is currently a doctoral researcher under the supervision of Professor Martin Karlsson at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
She holds a Master’s degree in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Symbiosis International University, India.
Nisha has previously led numerous academic and policy projects with a focus on education, early childhood, children with disabilities, and gender at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy in New Delhi. Prior to this, she served as a project coordinator and researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London and IIM Ahmedabad, India. In these roles, she conducted research using diverse methods, including primary research (including managing large-scale field experiments), contributed to action research initiatives, and employed mixed methods, among others.
Email: nisha.vernekar@uni-due.de
Marcel Vögele is a PhD student at the Chair for Microeconomics at TU Dortmund University. 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 Seminar for Population Economics at LMU Munich. In his Master’s thesis, he compiled data from historical sources to analyze the relationship between deindustrialization and local economic development. Marcel’s research interests lie in regional economics, economic history and data extraction methods.
Christian Willerding-Möllmann is a PhD student at the chair of Tobias Seidel at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He studied economics at the University of Cologne and the Georg-August University Göttingen. During his studies, he spent a semester abroad at the Incheon National University (South Korea) and participated in the London School of Economics Summer School (UK). Prior to joining the Research Training Group he worked at the International Business department of a consulting firm. Christian is interested in International and Development Economics. In his work he analyzes the impact of multinational firms on economic development.
Cohort 2022
Kevin Berlet joined the RTG in 2022 at the Chair of Sanne Kruse-Becher at the Ruhr University Bochum as a PhD student. He obtained his Bachelor and Master degree in Business Administration and Economics at the Technical University Dortmund with a specialization in economics during the Master. In his Bachelor Thesis he investigated Quantitative Easing and its effect on bank lending. For his Master Thesis he empirically analyzed military spending and fiscal multipliers for selected individual countries and a panel data set. During his studies he worked at several chairs in teaching and assistant positions.
His research interests are macroeconomics, fiscal and monetary policy as well as (micro-)econometric applications of the afore mentioned research fields.
E-Mail: kevin.berlet@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Lorenz Gschwent is a PhD student at the chair of Tobias Seidel at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Vienna, as well as a Bachelor’s in Communication Science. During his studies, he spent an Erasmus semester at the Aix-Marseille School of Economics. Before joining the RTG in October 2022, he worked as a research assistant at the Vienna Institute of International Economic Studies (wiiw) and the Wyss Academy for Nature at the University of Bern. Lorenz’ research interests lie in regional economics and political economy. He is also interested in novel data sources, in particular text as data.
Email: lorenz.gschwent@uni-due.de
Niklas Hübner has been working as a doctoral researcher at the Chair of Galina Zudenkova at TU Dortmund since October 2022. He obtained his Bachelor in Economics from the Goethe University in Frankfurt and holds a Master degree in Economics from the University of Cologne. Until starting as a doctoral researcher at the RTG he worked as a student researcher at the Research Data Center Ruhr of the RWI.
Niklas’ research interests include political economics, regional economics and migration economics.
E-Mail: niklas.huebner@tu-dortmund.de
Lennart Palm joined the RTG in 2022 as a PhD student at the Chair of Prof. Dr. Jens Wrona at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). He completed his undergraduate studies in Economics at the Georg-August University Göttingen and his graduate studies at the TU Dresden. During his time at TU Dresden he spent an exchange Semester at the Dankook University in South Korea. In his master thesis he studied the impact of district proliferation on public health care provision in Indononesia. His reseach interests include urban economics, regional economics and international trade.
Email: lennart.palm.uni@uni-due.de
Nuran Yildirim joined the RTG at the Chair of Martin Karlsson at the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2022. She holds a Master’s degree in Applied Economics and Social Development from National Chengchi University,Taipei City and Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration from Middle East Technical University, Ankara with an exchange semester at Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. During her graduate studies, Nuran worked as a teaching assistant for Econometrics and Health Economics classes. In her master’s thesis she investigated the spatial accessibility to health care services in Turkey and her current research involves studying the impact of railway infrastructure in Sweden.
Nuran’s research interests include political economy, health economics, regional economics, and spatial data analysis.
Email: nuran.yildirim@uni-due.de
Cohort 2021
Max Perl is a PhD student at the Chair of Martin Karlsson at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He obtained master’s degrees from the Paris School of Economics and University of Mannheim. Max completed his undergraduate studies at Lancaster University, spending two semesters at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Prior to joining the Research Training Group, he worked in risk management for Germany’s largest financial services group. Max’s research interests lie in urban and labor economics.
E-Mail: maximilian.perl@ibes.uni-due.de
Nuan Stahl joined the RTG in 2021. She is a PhD student at the Chair of Marie Paul at the University of Duisburg-Essen. She studied Economics at the University of Konstanz and spent an exchange semester at the University of Tartu in Estonia. During her studies, she gained work experience in the Controlling departments of two firms and as a research assistant at the Chair of Economic Policy at the University of Konstanz.
Nuan is interested in applied microeconomics, mainly labor economics and family economics.
E-Mail: nuan.stahl@uni-due.de
Jakob Gutschlhofer joined the RTG at the chair of Jens Wrona at University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) in 2021. He holds a MSc in Economics and BSc in Business, Economics and Social Sciences from Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) and a BA in Political Sciences from University of Vienna. Prior to completing his studies, he worked at the research group “Global Resource Use” at WU Vienna.
Jakob’s research interests include environmental economics, regional heterogeneity, political economy, and applied microeconomics.
E-Mail: jakob.gutschlhofer@uni-due.de
Tobias Büscher joined RTG in October 2021. 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.
Joschka Flintz joined the RTG in October 2021. He is a PhD student at the chair of Thomas Bauer at the Ruhr University Bochum, where he already obtained his Bachelors and Masters degree in Economics. Besides, he is working as a research assistant at the RWI in the department “Environment and Resources”. In his master thesis he analyzed the impact of the German car taxation scheme on car fleet composition and its effectiveness in terms of reducing CO2 emissions from motorized individual transport. Joschka’s research interests include environmental economics, regional and urban economics, especially with regards to mobility and transportation issues, as well as applied microeconometrics.
Email: joschka.flintz@rub.de
In Fall 2021 Max Schäfer joined the RTG and Prof. Marie Paul’s chair at the University of Duisburg-Essen as a PhD student. Before, he studied Economics in Mannheim and Bonn and spent his exchange semester at Católica Lisbon in Portugal. In his master thesis he empirically investigated the effect of individual and regional unemployment on job loss expectations and life satisfaction in East Germany shortly after reunification. During his studies he worked as a research assistant at different institutes. With an interest in broad labor economics Max emphasizes the regional dimension and uses the toolkit of applied microeconometrics.
Email: max.schaefer@uni-due.de
Felix Dornseifer is a PhD student at TU Dortmund University at the Chair of Christiane Hellmanzik and joined the third cohort of the RTG in 2021. Previously, he completed a B.Sc. in Economics and an M.Sc. in Economics, both at the University of Bonn and spent an Erasmus semester at the University College Cork in Ireland. He gained work experience at a local bank and interned at two consultancy firms. Felix is interested in International, Regional and Trade Economics as well as Finance. His most recent work focuses on the influence of social connectedness on financial flows and economic decision making.
Cohort 2020
Lu Wei joined the second RTG cohort as a PhD student in 2020 at the chair of Prof. Dr. Tobias Seidel at the Mercator School of Management (MSM), University of Duisburg-Essen. She studied International Banking and Finance at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, where
she obtained her Bachelor’s degree. After serving as a mutual fund researcher and an invest-ment manager, Lu has developed a keen on Economics. In 2018, she came to Germany and pursued her Master’s degree in Economics at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, where shegained theoretical and empirical expertise in international trade.
Lu has strong interests in international economics, regional economics and econometrics.
E-mail: lu.wei@uni-due.de
Anna Temel joined the RTG in 2020. She is a PhD student at the chair of Thomas Bauer at the Ruhr-University Bochum, where she also obtained her Bachelors and Masters degree in Management and Economics (BSc.) and Economic Policy Consulting (MSc.). Before she commenced her Phd studies, she gained work experience as an analyst in a policy consulting firm and during internships in different research institutions and in the energy sector.
Anna is interested in environmental economics, the analysis of regional disparities and applied microeconometrics
E-Mail: anna.temel@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Malte Borghorst started a Ph.D. at the chair of Tobias Seidel at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) in 2020. He holds a Msc. in Economics from the University of Copenhagen and a Bsc. in Economics from the Freie Universität Berlin.
Prior to joining the RTG, he worked as a Research Assistant at the Transport Economics Group of the Technical University of Denmark and the BUILT Department of the Aalborg University.
Malte is interested in labor economics, urban economics and applied microeconometrics.
Current projects include workers commuting decisions and their contribution to the gender wage gap, and the gender specific urban wage premium for experience.
E-Mail: malte.borghorst@uni-due.de
Siegfried To joined the chair of Tobias Seidel at the Mercator School of Management (MSM) in 2020.
Siegfried did his B.Sc. in Economics with a Political and Computer Science minor as well as a Master’s in Economics at the University of Heidelberg and Mannheim respectively. He spent one semester abroad at the Keio University in Tokyo.
His Bachelor’s thesis was concerned with the network analysis of international trade flows while his Master’s thesis was concerned with the prediction of economic time series using Machine Learning algorithms.
Siegfried’s research interests are the application of Machine Learning methods in Economics as well as regional heterogeneity.
E-Mail: siegfried.to@uni-due.de
Knarik Poghosyan joined the RTG in 2020. She is a PhD student at the chair of Philip Jung at the Technical University Dortmund. Knarik holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Management from the Armenian State University of Economics. Further, she obtained Master’s degree in Economics from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. Moreover, she interned at the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments (Armenia), Carl Zeiss Microscopy (Germany) and completed an Erasmus Traineeship program in Spain.
In her Master’s thesis she empirically analysed the impact of cluster policy on the structure of inventors’ collaboration network.
Her research interests are innovation and regional economics as well as social network analysis.
E-Mail: Knarik.Poghosyan@tu-dortmund.de
Cohort 2019
Born in Georgia and after obtaining bachelor’s degree from Tbilisi State University, Avtandil came to Germany and received MSc degree in international economics at the University of Mainz. After finishing the master studies, as part of the first cohort, he joined RTG team at the chair of Prof. Dr. Philip Jung (TUD).
Avtandil is an alumnus of US State department financed Future Leaders Exchange Program and DAAD ERP study scholarship. He has more than three years of professional working experience at private and public institutions, including Tbilisi Municipality City Hall. Besides, he is an active film photographer and mountaineer.
His research interests are international trade, labor and regional economics.
Nina Furbach started her PhD in 2018 at the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics. She is working at the Chair of Philip Jung (TUD) and joined the first cohort of the RTG in 2019. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Heidelberg and a master’s degree from the University of Bonn, both in economics. She further interned at the German Central Bank and completed the ECB’s traineeship program.
Nina is interested in macroeconomics, monetary and public economics as well as inequality.
E-Mail: Nina.Furbach@tu-dortmund.de
Johannes Gallé has been a PhD student at the Chair of Thomas Bauer at the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) and a member of the RTG since October 2019. He studied Economics at the University of Freiburg, where he obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. In his PhD, Johannes works at the intersection of development, regional and environmental economics with a geographical focus on India. His dissertation comprises research on place-based policies and structural change as well as on the projected impacts of climate change on agricultural output. Most of his work is characterized by creatively combining different kinds of data such as spatial micro-economic data, climate data or remote sensing data. During his PhD studies, which he is completing in 2023, he visited the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in Delhi for a research stay.
Research areas:
Development Economics, Regional Economics and Environmental Economics
Maren Kaliske is a doctoral researcher at the chair of Christiane Hellmanzik for urban, regional and international economics. She is holding a Bachelor in Politics and Economics from the University of Münster, Germany and a Master in Economics from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Her main research area is in the field of international trade and regional economics, where she provides novel evidence on the dynamics of national and regional trade and investment flows in the European Union. She works with theoretically embedded empirical analysis using large datasets on international and regional trade as well as investment flows both on aggregate and firm level. Her three dissertation chapters consider different aspects of the intra-EU trade relations, i.e. political convergence, environmental policy preferences and investment in road infrastructure.
Read more:
E-Mail: Maren.Kaliske@tu-dortmund.de
Philipp Markus started his PhD in 2018 at the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics. In 2019, he joined the RTG at the Chair of Tobias Seidel (UDE). Philipp studied economics in Bonn and Cologne where he obtained his Bachelors and Masters degrees. Moreover, he gained work experience at a research and consulting company and did an internship at the Tanzanian Trade Development Authority (TanTrade).
Philipp is interested in the general topic of inequality including regional and urban economics as well as public economics and political economy. Currently, he works on the measurement of local amenities in the context of regional disparities.
E-Mail: philipp.markus@uni-due.de
Lea Nassal is a PhD student at the Chair of Marie Paul at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). Prior to joining the RTG, she studied economics at the University of Bonn where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree.
Lea’s research interests are labor economics (especially female labor market decisions), health economics and development economics.
E-Mail: lea.nassal@uni-due.de
Diem was working as a junior researcher at the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), Vietnam before she commenced her PhD study at the Graduate School “Regional Disparities and Economic Policies” since October, 2019. Diem obtained her Bachelor Degree in International Economics from the Vietnam National University, Hanoi and her Master Degree in International and Development Economics from the Australian National University.
Diem’s research interests include development economics, labor economics, health economics and developing economies.
E-Mail: hoangxuandiem.econ@gmail.com