Seminars

The goal of this seminar course on ”Financial systems” in the summer semester 2019 is to make students aware of – and able  to deal with - the specific problems encountered in a subfield of international finance, namely the analysis of internationally operating banks and other financial  institutions, comparative financial systems of industrialized countries and finance in developing, emerging and transition countries.
More specifically, students are supposed to learn more about:

• Structures and strategies of international banks
• The perils and possibilities of foreign market entry and exit
• Current problems of financial regulation
• Globalization and ”financialization”
• Types of financial systems and relevant measurement
• Financial integration and its measurement
• Emerging country financial systems
• Recent developments in development finance

In this seminar we discuss recent experimental papers that investigate important aspects of organizational economics. Topics include cooperation, coordination, self-selection, incentives, and leadership.

This interdisciplinary seminar examines the purchasing programs of important central banks (Eurozone, UK, Switzerland, Japan, U.S.). It covers the embedding of these programs within monetary policy, the conditions and extent of the programs as well as an analysis of the effects. From a legal perspective, the underlying central bank laws will be covered and compared. Furthermore, certain economic questions, especially pertaining to the effects of the programs will be examined.

This seminar will cover topics on current economic policy debates with respect to issues on public finance and macroeconomics. Examples are understanding the sources of inequality, reforms to the tax and transfer system, and the welfare effects of immigration. In this seminar, students will learn about an interesting and developing modern literature on public finance and macroeconomics. Such as: Social Security Reform: Macroeconomic Implications of Fundamental Reforms and Old-Age Poverty; The Macroeconomic Impact of Immigration; Labor Market Reform and the Macroeconomy: EU-US Comparison of Labor Market Dynamics; Health Insurance in Macroeconomic Models;Long-term Care Insurance in Household Models;Wealth and Bequest Taxation; Distributional Effects of Monetary Policy.
Students will also be taught a set of presentation skills. 

Im Rahmen des Seminares sollen sich die Studierenden weitgehend selbständig ein wissenschaftliches Thema erarbeiten. Dadurch sollen ihre Kenntnisse und Fähigkeiten bezüglich einer sinnvollen wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Arbeitsweise vertieft werden. Ein wichtiges Ziel ist das Erlernen der Fähigkeit, komplizierte Sachverhalte übersichtlich und verständlich darzustellen und zu präsentieren. Weiterhin soll die Kompetenz geschult werden, Diskussionen über wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Themen in einer differenzierten Form zu führen. Zudem soll den Studierenden,  durch das gemeinsame Abhalten des Seminares mit Studenten der Rechtswissenschaft, ein erster Einblick in die Interdisziplinarität des Themenfeldes ermöglicht werden. 

1. Die historische Entstehung von Geld (jur/ökon)
2. Der Begriff des Geldes im Wandel der Zeit (jur/ökon)
3. Währung und Währungsordnung (jur)
4. Die Rolle des Staates bei der Schaffung von Geld (jur/ökon)
5. Nennwert und Metallwert der Münzen – Staatsfinanzierung durch Verschlechterung des Münzfußes und Münzverrufung (jur/ökon)
6. Die Entstehung von Papiergeld – Aufstieg der Notenbanken (jur/ökon)
7. Geld und Geldschuld im Rechtssinne (jur)
8. Geld im ökonomischen Sinne (ökon)
9. Die Rolle von Bargeld in Geldtheorie und der Geldpolitik (ökon)
10. Vor- und Nachteile von Metallgeld und durch Metall gedeckten Banknoten – Goldstandard und das System von Bretton Woods (ökon)
11. Gesetzliche Zahlungsmittel und Annahmezwang (jur)
12. Zulässigkeit der Einschränkung der Verwendung von Bargeld durch Hoheitsakt und vertragliche Absprachen (jur)
13. Bargeld als „geprägte“ Freiheit – Fakt oder Fiktion nach geltendem Recht? (jur)
14. Die Blockchain-Technologie als Grundlage für „Digitalwährungen“ (ökon)
15. „Digitalwährungen“ („cybercurrencies“, „cryptocurrencies“) – Einordnung und Bewertung (jur/ökon)
16. Initial Coin Offering (ICO) – Rechtliche Einordnung nach geltendem Recht (jur)
17. „Digitalwährungen“ als gesetzliche Zahlungsmittel? (jur/ökon)

Im Rahmen des Seminares sollen sich die Studierenden der Fachbereich 01 und 02 weitgehend selbständig ein wissenschaftliches Thema erarbeiten. Dadurch sollen ihre Kenntnisse und Fähigkeiten bezüglich einer sinnvollen rechts- und wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Arbeitsweise vertieft werden. Ein wichtiges Ziel ist das Erlernen der Fähigkeit, komplizierte Sachverhalte übersichtlich und verständlich darzustellen und zu präsentieren. Weiterhin soll die Kompetenz geschult werden, Diskussionen über rechts- und wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Themen in einer differenzierten Form zu führen. Zudem soll den Studierenden ein erster Einblick in die Interdisziplinarität des Themenfeldes ermöglicht werden.

1. Das Europäische Finanzaufsichtssystem ESFS (European System of Financial Supervi-sion) - Überblick und Darstellung seiner Aufgaben und Befugnisse (jur)
2. Die Bedeutung des European Stability Mechanism (ESM) bei der Rekapitalisierung von Banken (jur/ökon)
3. Die Gründe für die Schaffung der Europäischen Bankenunion (jur/ökon)
4. Grundkonzeption der Europäischen Bankenunion – Darstellung und kritische Würdigung (jur)
5. Bankenaufsicht durch Notenbanken – Vorteile und Nachteile (jur/ökon)
6. Darstellung des einheitlichen Europäischen Aufsichtsmechanismus (Single Supervisory Mechanism - SSM) (jur/ökon)
7. Vereinbarkeit der Verordnung zur Übertragung von Aufgaben in der Aufsicht über Kredit-institute auf die Europäische Zentralbank (VO EU 1024/2013) mit Art. 127 Abs. 6 AEUV (jur)
8. Das Erfordernis demokratischer Leitung, Verantwortlichkeit und Kontrolle im Hinblick auf die Unabhängigkeit von Einrichtungen der Bankenaufsicht (jur)
9. Das Verhältnis der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB) zur Europäischen Aufsichtsbehörde (European Banking Authority - EBA) (jur)
10. Makroprudenzielle Aufsicht über Banken in Europa – Institutionen, Instrumente und Ver-fahren (jur/ökon)
11. Der einheitliche europäische Abwicklungsmechanismus (SRM) (jur/ökon)
12. Sicherung der Zahlungsfähigkeit des Single Resolution Fund (SRF) durch staatliche Ga-rantien (jur/ökon)
13. Die Schaffung einer Europäischen Einlagensicherung (European Deposit Insurance Sys-tem - EDIS) als dritte Säule der Bankenunion (jur/ökon)
14. Verantwortlichkeit der Zentralbanken für die Finanzstabilität? (jur/ökon)

This seminar aims at guiding students from the standard trade theory to applied empirical research through hands-on applications on STATA. While normative discussion will be encouraged, the focus of the seminar will be on methodological aspects to understand how rigorous researchers have tried to test the theories with real world data.

The main empirical concepts will be introduced at the beginning of the semester. Thereafter students will solve a hands-on empirical problem set and produce a short paper-like report. Finally, students will have to make a short presentation of their work.

This course introduces students to central methods of program evaluation and recent developments in this field and explores their applicability to a variety of economic questions. Examples come almost exclusively from development economics.
Seminar topics will come from the areas of methods (Randomization, Difference-in-Differences, Regression Discontinuity Design, and Instrumental Variables) and applications (Education, Labor market, Microfinance, Infrastructure, Property Rights, Community Driven Development).

This seminar focuses on topics in family economics. The topics covered will deal with decision making within the household. Theoretical and empirical methods developed in the literature to understand household behavior and policy relevant questions (such as household labor supply and taxation policy, fertility behavior and population policies etc.) will be discussed. The main purpose is to learn from the literature on modeling household decision making, evaluation of these models using data and the implications of different methods for evaluation of policy consequences. Papers will be provided at or after the kickoff meeting. Their focus is on theoretical methods in family economics, household labor supply, household production, intra household resource allocation, fertility choices, investment in children, social norms and household decision making.

The relation between women empowerment and economic development takes several forms. First, women often are the poorest and most oppressed among the poor, making them the explicit target of several policy interventions. Second, closing the gender gaps in health, education, and access to economic opportunities may help unlock a huge economic potential. Third, improvements in women’s conditions may indirectly benefits their children, too.

This seminar deals with the incorporation of housing consumption and homeownership choice in quantitative macroeconomic models with heterogeneous households. Utilizing such model tools allows researchers to study: (i) the economic determinants of homeownership, and (ii) the consequences of various policy changes in the housing market for household welfare and inequality. Most studies of housing in macroeconomics concentrate on the United States. Next to reviewing those studies, we are going to take a look at quantitative models aiming to understand housing markets in European countries. The macroeconomic models usually rely on collateral constraints, incomplete markets and transaction costs as key ingredients. Such frictions in the housing market are empirically justified and leave room for public policy interventions.

The term microfinance (MF) refers to the provision of financial services to people in developing and transition countries who have formerly not had access to the formal financial sector, that is, to small and very small businesses and relatively poor people. At the latest, MF has become a widely known and widely recognized element of development policy in 2005 when Prof. Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he had founded several years earlier were jointly awarded the Noble Peace Price. Shortly after this, the wave of enthusiasm for MF was at its peak. However, for various reasons, the enthusiasm created by the Noble Peace Price has relatively soon given way to a more skeptical assessment of MF and its potential and challenges. A crucial determinant for how MF can work and has an impact is how microfinance institutions (MFIs) are designed, managed and supported in the context of development aid policy.

This course is organized in three parts: First, we discuss the theoretical foundations of business ethics, that is, (political) CSR and corporate citizenship, transnational legal theory, and the business and human rights debate. Second, we study some of the most important transnational multi-stakeholder CSR initiatives such as the U.N. Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In the third and main part of the seminar, our focus is on a variety of case studies ranging from banks and human rights, to conflict minerals, and the ethical issues of the mining, palm oil, and textile industries – to name a few.

There is abundant evidence that households make costly mistakes when it comes to personal finances and saving for retirement. Observable household investment and financing behavior is rarely consistent with the precepts of modern finance theory. This seminar will not only deal with typical household financial decisions and widespread mistakes but will focus on possible instruments and mechanisms to help households improve their decision making. Topics will include long-term asset allocation, portfolio choice in the presence of background risk, the role of financial advice, financial product design, emerging retail banking business models (FinTech) and changes in pension systems. Seminar participants are expected to write a paper that surveys the relevant literature.

The seminar covers literature classics and actual research dealing with the following research questions.

• How should a (business) partnership be set up to provide the best incentives for success and longevity?
• Who should own which assets?
• Under which circumstances may joint ownership be a better recipe for lasting success compared to private ownership?

This seminar covers seminar papers and book chapters on the theory of asset ownership. Participants navigate through this famous Nobel prize winning part of the economic theory literature choosing their subject among a salient list of path breaking papers and a few very recent new developments. The goal is to get to the frontier of modern economic research in one of most intriguing areas of our discipline.

The objective of the seminar is to build on the knowledge acquired in the bachelor seminar on European Insurance Regulation. Students are required to research a specific topic, to report about their research and to discuss the results of the research with their fellow students. As opposed to the bachelor seminar, the topics in the master seminar will have to be researched on a comparative basis. The topics will be provided in advance and will relate to issues such as the ORSA, key governance functions, assessment of fit and proper requirement for key function holders, internal model approval, market conduct issues, insurance distribution, etc.

This seminar aims at guiding students from the standard trade theory to applied empirical research through hands-on applications on STATA. While normative discussion will be encouraged, the focus of the seminar will be on methodological aspects to understand how rigorous researchers have tried to test the theories with real world data.

The seminar deals with the macroeconomics of income and wealth inequality. The major questions to be studies are: (i) which mechanisms generate the observed inequality among households, and, (ii) what is the role of public policy with respect to these inequalities. To tackle these questions, we are going to review recent developments in the literature of heterogeneous agent dynamic macroeconomic models. The quantitative economic models feature households who differ from each other in terms of luck and/or innate factors such as ability to learn or produce in the labor market and initial asset positions. Due to these differences and the consequent household decisions, the models generate different patterns of income, wealth and consumption inequality

Topics

The workhorse economic models of the macroeconomics of income and wealth inequality are based on the literature on exogenously incomplete markets. The majority of the studies listed in the topics use a version of this framework. It is highly recommended that seminar participants go over all the materials in the introductory list below in order to get familiar with the basic framework and its applications.

In this course students will study macro models in which finance, banking and crises play a crucial role in the transmission of shocks.

We will examine together via presentations and discussions a series of theoretical empirical papers on various issues in corporate governance. Many of the issues are at the frontier of traditional corporate governance topics and behavioral-social elements. The purpose can provide a good basis also for developing further into master thesis.

This seminar deals with theoretical and empirical aspects of economic growth with a special focus on specialization in production, automation of production and (partial or complete) substitution of factor inputs. Traditional models of economic growth have not adequately considered these aspects of development, structural change and transition. Therefore, new models have been developed that should be able to account for these characteristics of modern economic growth.

The seminar discusses macroeconomic models designed to study monetary policy and its impact on real and financial variables. Specific questions to be addresses are: How does monetary policy affect monetary variables such as prices, interest rates, and governmental debt? Can it be used to foster economic growth and increase real variables such as output, wages, and employment? What are the mutual interdependencies between monetary and fiscal policy? Which objectives should monetary policy pursue? What are the welfare cost of inflation? Seminar topics are based on the two major workhorses of modern macroeconomics in this field: First, the New Classical framework which assumes price-taking behavior of all market participants combined with perfect price flexibility on all markets. Second, the New Keynesian models which incorporate various frictions such as monopolistic competition and/or staggered price adjustments. In recent years, the New Keynesian approach has become the dominant framework used at central banks to guide decisions on monetary policy.