Visiting researchers

Visitors 2019 spring
Visitors 2018 autumn
Visitors 2018 spring
Visitors 2017 autumn
Visitors 2017 spring

Bing Xu / Bank of Spain, Spain Period of visit: 07.01.–01.02.2019 Bing Xu is a Senior Economist at Bank of Spain. Prior to his current position, he worked as a research analyst at Bank of Spain and visiting researcher at Bank of Finland and Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and a M.Sc in Financial Economics from Durham University. His research interests center primarily on applied financial economics, banking, monetary policy and Chinese economy. His work has been published in academic journals and policy institutions, including China Economic Review, Applied Economics, Bank for International Settlements, European Central Bank, Bank of Finland and Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He also published articles at international news and policy portals including VoxEU and Xinhua News. His work was discussed in The Wall Street Journal.
Orkun Saka / London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Period of visit: 28.01.–15.02.2019 Orkun Saka is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the European Institute and a Research Associate at the Systemic Risk Centre of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His research revolves around financial crises and political economy of finance. He holds a PhD in Finance from Cass Business School, City, University of London and an MSc (Finance) from LSE. During PhD studies, he also worked as a research consultant at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and was a visiting researcher at the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT). His research has been presented at many central banks around Europe including the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
Ekaterina Paustyan / Central European University, Hungary Period of visit: 04.02.–22.02.2019 Ekaterina Paustyan is a PhD candidate in political science at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Her research focuses on the political economy of centre-regional relations in Russia. Ekaterina is also interested in set-theoretic methods and case study research. She was a visiting lecturer at the Higher School of Economics in Saint-Petersburg, Russia and a visiting researcher at Wilfrid Laurier University in Kitchener, Canada. Her work appeared in Democratization, East European Politics, Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, and Society and Economy in Central and Eastern Europe.
Shulong Kang/Dongbei University, China Period of visit: 18.02.–15.03.2019 Shulong Kang is an Associate Prof. at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics and was a visiting researcher at University of Western Ontario and Tilburg University. He has a long experience on research and analysis of the Chinese economy, on the China’s pension reform, females’ employment and public finance in particular. His work has been published in academic journals and policy institutions, including China World Economy, Journal of Financial Research and VoxEU. His ongoing working papers have been accepted CESifo, AEA and AEMS.
Xuan Fei/University of California Davis, USA Period of visit: 04.03.–29.03.2019 Xuan Fei is a fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at the University of California Davis. Her current research focuses on International Economics, Macroeconomics, Development, and the Chinese Economy. Her job market paper is to study the aggregate welfare impacts of land market misallocations in China. She worked at International Monetary Fund European Department to research on exchange rate and trade deficit issues in 2017. She obtained her B.A.s in Economics and Statistics from Peking University in 2014.
Masaaki Kuboniwa/ Hitotsubashi University Period of visit: 01.04.- 26.04.2019 Masaaki Kuboniwa with a Ph.D. in Economics from Hitotsubashi is a Professor Emeritus and a specially appointed Professor of Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. He received the degree of honorable doctor from Central Mathematics and Economics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2003 and was named a Leontief Medal laureate by the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences in 2004. He also received the academic book prize from the Pan Pacific Association of Input-Output Analysis in 2012. He has published numerous books and articles in Japanese, English and Russian by noted publishers and journals including the Oxford University Press and Journal of Comparative Economics. He is now interested in research on international input-output linkages or global value chains (GVCs) among Europe, Asia, Russia and the USA. His research areas also cover the comparative economics of industrial structures, the impact of oil prices on various economic systems and the estimates of Russian historical GDP growth from 19th century onward.
Paul McNellis/ Fordham University, NY, USA Period of visit: 01.04.26.04.2019
Michael Funke / Hamburg University Period of visit: 27.05.-07.06.2019 Professor Michael Funke joined the Economics Department of the Humboldt-University in Berlin as an Associate Professor of Economics in the early 1990s. In 1995 he was appointed as a Chair Professor for Macroeconomics and Quantitative Economic Policy in the Department of Economics of Hamburg University. Professor Funke was chairman of the Standing Committee on Macroeconomics of the German Economics Association from 2010-2014. He is a CESifo Fellow, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Scottish Journal of Political Economy. He has published numerous papers focused on economic growth, business cycles, and monetary theory and policy with an Asian focus. For the last decade he has been a visiting Research Fellow at the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research, the Bank of Finland Monetary Policy and Research Department, and the Bank for International Settlements. His research interests include macroeconomics, applied econometrics, and climate research, and he is a Principal Investigator for the Cluster of Excellence Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction (CliSAP).
Gayane Barseghyan/ American University of Armenia Period of visit: 03.06.-20.06.2019
Alexei Karas/ University of Roosevelt, Netherlands Period of visit: 29.07.-16.08.2019
Ricardo Torres Perez/University of Havana Period of visit: 05.08. - 30.08.2019
Laurent Weill/ University of Strasbourg Period of visit: 12.08.-23.08.2019

Jacob Schumacher / Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom Period of visit: 27.8.–21.9.2018 Jacob Schumacher is a Teaching Fellow in Finance at, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He obtained a PhD in Finance and Management in 2017 at SOAS, University of London. He is currently researching the effect of foreign investment on China's banking sector and banking institutions. His research interests include financial economics, international economics, international business, and law and economics. He has consulted with organizations including the USS pension scheme in the UK and the National Institution for Finance & Development on issues related to the Chinese financial and banking system.
Frank Westermann / Universität Osnabrück, Germany Period of visit: 10.9.–21.9.2018 Frank Westermann is Professor of International Economic Policy and Director of the Institute of Empirical Economic Research, at Osnabrück University in Germany. Furthermore, he is a Research Professor at the ifo Institute in Munich and CESifo Research Fellow. Professor Westermann obtained a Ph.D. in International Economics in 1998 at the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Habilitation in economics from the University of Munich in 2004. His research interests include international economics and development finance, most recently with a focus on China. He has published in leading academic and policy journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity and IMF Staff Papers. Jointly, with Aaron Tornell, he is author of Boom-Bust Cycles and Financial Liberalization, MIT Press. Since 2013 he is an editorial board member of the Journal of International Money and Finance.
Bao H. Nguyen / Australian National University, Australia Period of visit: 24.9.–19.10.2018 Bao Nguyen is a lecturer in Economics from the Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University (ANU). Currently, he is a visiting lecturer at University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) as part of the ANU-UPNG partnership. He is also a research associate at the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA) at the Australian National University. His current research focuses on the relationship between energy and commodity price dynamics and macroeconomic performance on various economies (Australian, Chinese and the US). Prior to joining ANU, he worked as a lecturer at University of Economics Ho Chi Minh city (UEH) and Fulbright Economics Teaching Program in Vietnam. He received his PhD from ANU and he has publications on Economic Record and Energy Economics.
Le Xia / BBVA Hong Kong, China Period of visit: 24.9.–5.10.2018 Dr. Le Xia is Chief Economist for Asia at BBVA Research Department. He also serves as a research fellow in International Monetary Institute at Renmin University of China. Prior to joining BBVA Research team, Dr. Xia worked for the Treasury Department of Bank of China (Hong Kong). Dr. Xia has extensive interest in economic research, in particular for monetary policy and banking sectors in emerging economies. He has published his works in both academic journals and the international media, including Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and China Daily. He obtained his PhD from the University of Hong Kong and a master degree from Renmin University of China.
Timo Korkeamäki, Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki Period of visit: 8.10.–19.10.2018 Timo Korkeamäki is a Professor of Finance at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki. He holds a PhD in international finance from University of South Carolina. His areas of expertise include corporate finance, financial markets, and financial institutions. He has published articles in a wide variety of academic outlets, including the Journal of Finance and the Journal of Corporate Finance. Timo has also published policy-related work for the Finnish Prime Minister's Office and in the Finnish Journal of Foreign Affairs.
Andriy Tsapin / National Bank of Ukraine, Ukraine Period of visit: 22.10.–16.11.2018 Andriy Tsapin is Deputy Head of the Research Unit of the Monetary Policy and Economic Analysis Department, the National Bank of Ukraine. Andriy earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the European University Viadrina in 2009. His research interests include empirical corporate finance, banking, and emerging market issues, with a particular focus on big data analytics. His works have been published in specialized academic journals, namely the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Economic Systems, Emerging Markets Finance and Trade and others.
Laurent Weill / University of Strasbourg, France Period of visit: 29.10.–7.11.2018 Laurent Weill is Full Professor of Economics at University of Strasbourg (France). He is the Director of the research centre in finance (LaRGE) of University of Strasbourg. His research focuses on banking, corporate finance and political economy with a particular interest for emerging economies (China, Russia, Islamic finance). He has published more than 90 papers in journals, among others World Development, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Services Research, Journal of Financial Stability, European Financial Management, China Economic Review and International Review of Law and Economics. He has been Research Fellow and visiting researcher at Bank of Finland (BOFIT). He has worked on research projects with Banque de France, the Czech National Bank and National Bank of Poland. He was visiting researcher at Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is visiting professor in Charles University in Prague, Université Libre de Bruxelles, and MGIMO University in Moscow.
Dmitri Trifonov / Higher School of Economics, Russia Period of visit: 19.11.–14.12.2018 Dmitri Trifonov is a PhD student of the 3rd year at Higher School of Economics (Moscow). He researches the problem of political connections in the Russian corporate environment, having working experience of programmer and counselor in financial and tax accounting as his background. To account for Russian corporate political connections thoroughly, Dmitri developed an original system of accounting basing on his own software, while working as a research fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA). He also elaborated the empirical side of his research there, and is aimed to finish this part of his investigations at BOFIT.
Mariya Hake / Austrian Central Bank, Vienna, Austria Period of visit: 19.11.–14.12.2018 Mariya Hake is a Senior Economist at the Foreign Research Division of the Austrian central bank (Oesterreichische Nationalbank – OeNB). Since joining the OeNB in 2009, she has focused on the analysis of the economies of Southeastern Europe, especially the Western Balkan countries and Turkey. Her current research focuses on financial markets as well as structural and competitiveness issues in emerging markets, in particular Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe. From 2013 until 2015, she was on secondment to the European Commission, DG ECFIN, where she was assigned to analyzing EU candidate and precandidate countries, in particular Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2018, Mariya was seconded to the European Central Bank, Directorate General for International & European Relations covering extensively developments in emerging markets, in particular Turkey. Mariya Hake is an external lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Prior to joining the OeNB, she worked at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research as a junior researcher. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Vienna and a PhD in Economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Yulia V. Vymyatnina / European University at St. Petersburg, Russia Period of visit: 26.11.–14.12.2018 Yulia Vymyatnina is the Head of the Department of Economics at the European University at Saint-Petersburg, Russia. She has received Candidate of Science in Economics degree (similar to PhD) from Saint-Petersburg State University in 2009. Her areas of research include monetary policy, economic integration, theories of money, emerging markets and resource-dependent economies. Currently she is working on financial cycles in emerging market economies. Jointly with Daria Antonova she has co-authored ‘Creating a Eurasian Union: Economic Integration of the Former Soviet Republics’ (Palgrave MacMillan).
Bing Xu / Bank of Spain, Spain Period of visit: 7.1.–1.2.2019

Chengsi Zhang / Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Period of visit: 15.1.–9.2.2018 Chengsi Zhang is a Cheung Kong Distinguished Professor of Finance and the head of the Department of Money and Finance at School of Finance, Renmin University of China. He is also an executive editor of Economic and Political Studies (published by Taylor & Francis). He obtained his PH.D in Economics from the University of Manchester in 2006. He had a visiting professorship at the Chinese University of Hong Kong during 2008-2009. His research interests cover money and finance, banking and finance, and applied financial time series analysis. He has published numerous articles in Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, Journal of International Money and Finance, International Journal of Central Banking, International Review of Economics & Finance, and Oxford Bulletin of Economics & Statistics, among many other academic journals.
Erdenebat Bataa / National University of Mongolia, Ulanbaatar, Mongolia Period of visit: 15.1.–9.2.2018 Erdenebat Bataa is Professor of Economics at the National University of Mongolia. He also currently serves on the Monetary Policy Board of Mongolia as an external member. Before returning to Mongolia in 2010 he was Senior Research Associate at the Department of Economics of the Lancaster University Management School, and earlier ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Manchester. During the academic year of 2015-2016 he held a visiting professorship at the Korea University. His research has been published in such journals as the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics and Energy Economics.
Sanna Kurronen / Nordea Bank, Helsinki, Finland Period of visit: 12.2.– 9.3.2018 Sanna Kurronen is a post-doctoral researcher, who obtained her PhD in Economics from the University of Helsinki in 2017. She has also a decade long experience as a financial markets analyst in commercial banking. Her research interests include financial economics, development economics and energy economics. Sanna has publications in Emerging Markets Review and Economic Systems.
Eric Girardin / Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France Period of visit: 19.2 –2.3.2018 ERIC GIRARDIN is Professor of Economics at Aix-Marseille University and researcher at Aix-Marseille School of Economics (France). He studied at Universities of Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and Cambridge. His research, mostly focused on macroeconomic, monetary and financial issues in China, was published in Journal of Development Economics, China Economic Review, Economic Modelling, Empirical Economics, Energy Journal, Journal of International Money and Finance, and Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. He was the longest-serving member of the Advisory Council of the Asian Development Bank Institute (2004-2012) and has held visiting positions at the Bank for International Settlements (Asia-Pacific), Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research, BOFIT, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Beijing), People's Bank of China Graduate School (Beijing), as well as at Fudan (Shanghai), Birmingham and Berkeley universities.
Elena Sudyko / Evry University, Marseille, France Period of visit: 19.2.–2.3.2018 Elena Sudyko is a third year PhD student in Evry University (France). Her field of research interests is financial dollarization, especially for the case of Russia. She also hold a Ph.D in the «Mathematical methods, numerical modeling and complex of programs» program from Tomsk State University, Russia, in the department of Theory of Probabilities and Mathematical Statistics (2008-2011). She has an experience in banking risk management and worked as quantitative analyst for over 2 years.
Yanrui Wu / University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia Period of visit: 5.3.–29.3.2018 Yanrui Wu is currently Professor and Head of Economics, Business School, University of Western Australia. He specializes in development economics (Chinese economy), energy and environment, and applied econometrics. His research interests include the Asian economies (particularly China, India and Indonesia), productivity analysis, economic growth, resource and environmental economics. He has published extensively in these fields. He is the author of several sole-authored books such as Productive Performance in Chinese Enterprises (Macmillan, 1996), China’s Consumer Revolution (Edward Elgar Publishing, 1999), The Macroeconomics of East Asian Growth (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2002), China’s Economic Growth (Routledge, 2004), Productivity, Efficiency and Economic Growth in China (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) and Understanding Economic Growth in China and India (World Scientific Publishing, 2012). Prof Wu is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies (Routledge, UK), China Agricultural Economic Review (Emerald, UK) and East Asian Policy (National University of Singapore). He is also the General Editor of Advances in Chinese Economic Studies book series published by Edward Elgar Publishers, UK. His teaching interests include international economics, business econometrics and development economics.
Cristiano Perugini / University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy Period of visit: 3.4.–27.4.2018 Cristiano Perugini (born 16.08.1972) is currently employed as Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Perugia, where he carries out research and teaching activities. He has recently (December 2012) attained the habilitation for Full Professor in Economic Policy and Public Economics and is Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration. After having attended the Faculty of Economics of the University of Perugia, in 2002 he obtained a PhD at the University of Naples Federico II and at the University of Siena. He has been working as Assistant Professor (2007-2012) and Post-Doc Fellow (2002-2006) at the Department of Economics, Finance and Statistics, University of Perugia. As a visiting fellow he worked in research institutions in Tokyo, Moscow, Belgrade, Regensburg and Brighton. His main current research areas include regional development disparities patterns and determinants, transition dynamics and effects on inequality and labour markets, local development, regional labour markets, income distribution dynamics at country and regional level. He has been leading international projects such as the EU J. Monnet Research and Information project INEQ and the EU J. Monnet Chair SWING. He is currently one of the Project Manager of the Centre of Excellence Rights & Science, financed in the framework of the EACEA J. Monnet Activities. Since 2002 he has been teaching Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, International Economics, Environmental Economics, Emerging Markets, Economic Analysis of Inequality. Since 2015 he is the director of the Phd program in Economics at the University of Perugia.
Jun Wu / Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China Period of visit: 3.4.–27.4.2018 Jun Wu is a Ph.D. candidate in The Department of Economics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University with expected graduation date in June 2018. For the academic year 2015-2016 Jun Wu was a visiting scholar in Economics at the University of Chicago. His research areas are development economics and the economics of innovation. His current topics of interest include the real effects of bank branch expansion, optimal IPRs design for developing countries.
Carsten Sprenger / New Economic School, Moscow, Russia Period of visit: 2.5.–25.5.2018 Carsten Sprenger is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at the New Economic School in Moscow. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at the International College of Economics and Finance and Head of the International Laboratory in Financial Economics at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He received his PhD in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra. His research interests span the areas of Corporate Finance, Corporate Governance, Credit Risk, and Real Estate Markets. In particular, he is interested in ownership structure of companies and its effect on their decisions and performance, in privatization and nationalization in emerging market economies. Carsten has published in the Journal of Comparative Economics, Economic Annals and the Journal of the New Economic Association.
Ekaterina Borisova / Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia Period of visit: 2.5.–25.5.2018 Ekaterina Borisova is the Deputy Director at the Higher School of Economics International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development in Moscow, established in cooperation with Columbia University. She also holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at the Higher School of Economics and is a guest lecturer at the Moscow State University. She holds a PhD degree in Economics from the Higher School of Economics. Her main research field is political economy of development with a focus on social capital and culture. Her research is mostly empirical, making use of surveys and field experiments. Ekaterina’s teaching interests include Institutional Economics and the Economics of Social Capital and Culture. Ekaterina has published in the Journal of Comparative Economics and Post-Soviet Affairs, as well as in the leading Russian journals, and her research also appeared in the well-known Russian mass-media like Vedomosti and Republic.ru.
Michael Funke / Hamburg University, Hamburg, Germany Period of visit: 14.5.–25.5.2018 Professor Michael Funke joined the Economics Department of the Humboldt-University in Berlin as an Associate Professor of Economics in the early 1990s. In 1995 he was appointed as a Chair Professor for Macroeconomics and Quantitative Economic Policy in the Department of Economics of Hamburg University. Professor Funke was chairman of the Standing Committee on Macroeconomics of the German Economics Association from 2010-2014. He is a CESifo Fellow, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Scottish Journal of Political Economy. He has published numerous papers focused on economic growth, business cycles, and monetary theory and policy with an Asian focus. For the last decade he has been a visiting Research Fellow at the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research, the Bank of Finland Monetary Policy and Research Department, and the Bank for International Settlements. His research interests include macroeconomics, applied econometrics, and climate research, and he is a Principal Investigator for the Cluster of Excellence Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction (CliSAP).
Nigel Gould-Davies / Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom,Thailand Period of visit: 28.5.–21.6.2018 Nigel teaches at Mahidol University International College in Thailand and is an Associate Fellow of Chatham House. He received his Ph.D. in from Harvard, and taught at Oxford before joining the British Foreign Office, where his positions included Head of Economics at the Moscow Embassy and Ambassador to Belarus. He later worked in the energy industry in Central and Southeast Asia. His main research interests focus on Russian domestic and foreign policy and international political economy. He has published several articles on international relations and post-Soviet politics.
Steven Nafziger / Williams College, Williamstown, USA Period of visit: 29.5.–15.6.2018 Steven Nafziger is an Associate Professor of Economics and Faculty Affiliate in History at Williams College in the United States. He received his PhD from Yale University and has held visiting and teaching positions at CalTech and Harvard University. An economic historian, his work touches on a variety of applied microeconomic topics in the industrial and institutional development of late Imperial Russia, with a particular interest in the economic consequences of serf emancipation and in the financing and governance of the early corporate sector. His recent research has been published in the American Political Science Review, The Journal of Economic History, the European Review of Economic History, and various other outlets.
Yongzhen Liu / Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Period of visit: 30.7.–24.8.2018 Yongzheng Liu is an Associate Professor of Economics at the School of Finance at Renmin University of China and an affiliate of the International Center for Public Policy at Georgia State University. His primary research interests lie in the fields of Public Economics, Development Economics, and the Chinese Economy. His work has been published in many academic journals such as the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, International Tax and Public Finance, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Public Choice, Journal of Housing Economics, and others. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Georgia State University in 2013.
Laurent Weill / University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France Period of visit: 13.8.–24.8.2018

Denis Davydov / University of Vaasa, Finland Period of visit: 28.8.–22.9.2017 Denis Davydov is an Assistant Professor of Finance and Accounting at the University of Vaasa (Finland). He got a Ph.D. from the University of Vaasa in 2014. His main research interests are in financial institutions and corporate financial decision-making with a particular emphasis on capital and ownership structures, bank-firm relationships, performance and behavior of banks. Denis is focusing more on emerging markets and his work includes papers published in Emerging Markets Review, Journal of Emerging Market Finance, and International Review of Financial Analysis.
Stefan Angrick / Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo Period of visit: 9.10.–3.11.2017 Stefan is a Research Associate at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, where he specialises in the analysis of central banking and its political economic aspects. He has worked and studied at Leipzig University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Keio University, and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. His research has been presented at leading international policy and academic institutions, including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, Meiji University, and KDI School, and published in peer-reviewed journals. He holds a PhD from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
Alin Andries / Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania Period of visit: 23.10.–17.11.2017 Alin Andries is Associate Professor at Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania. Previously, he was a Go8 Senior Research Fellow at School of Banking and Finance, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and a SCIEX Senior Research Fellow at Swiss Institute of Banking and Finance s/bf-HSG, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. His research interests are focused on financial intermediation, corporate governance, bank stability and competition, and empirical finance. He has published in the Journal of Banking and Finance, Economics Letters, Economics of Transition, Economic Modelling and International Business Review, among other journals. His recent works investigate the impact of international swap lines on bank performance and to what extent risk management and corporate governance mitigate the involvement of banks in credit boom and bust cycles in transition countries.
Yabin Wang / Williams College, Williamstown, MA, USA Period of visit: 6.11.–1.12.2017 Yabin Wang is currently a Research Fellow in the Division of Social Science at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). She obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from University of California Santa Cruz in 2015. Before joining NYUAD, she was a visiting assistant professor at Williams College in Massachusetts and research associate at Purdue University in Indiana. Yabin's research focuses on business cycles and uncertainty shocks in emerging markets, economic uncertainty and international capital flows, and durable consumption and home production in China.
Ivan Lyubimov / Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, Moscow Period of visit: 21.11–15.12.2017 Ivan Lyubimov is currently a senior research fellow at Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy. He is also a senior researcher at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in Moscow. Ivan obtained his PhD degree at Tinbergen Institute in 2014. His main research interests belong to the field of applied economic growth and development. His papers are published in the Journal of the New Economic Association, HSE Economic Journal, etc. His current projects are focused on economic complexity and export diversification of Russian regions, growth diagnostics in Russia and the effect of human capital accumulation on economic growth. Ivan also writes opinion pieces about Russian economy and politics for Forbes.ru, Vedomosti, Republic.ru, etc.
Ivan Khotulev / Central Bank of Russia, Moscow Period of visit: 4.–15.12.2017 Ivan Khotulev is a Consultant in the Research and Forecasting Department at the Bank of Russia. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in economics-mathematics magna cum laude in 2003, a Master of Arts in Economics in 2005, a Master of Philosophy in Economics in 2006, and a Master of Science in Financial Engineering in 2013, all from Columbia University in New York, US. Prior to joining the Bank of Russia in Moscow in 2017, he worked in New York at Deutsche Bank in 2010-2012 and at Santander Bank in 2014-2016. Ivan's current research focuses on optimal monetary, fiscal, and macroprudential policies in commodity-exporting economies.
Chengsi Zhang / Renmin University of China Period of visit: 15.1.–9.2.2018

Paul-Olivier Klein / University of Strasbourg, France Period of visit: 3.–31.1.2017 Paul-Olivier Klein is a PhD Candidate in Finance at the LaRGE Reseach Center, University of Strasbourg, France. He specialized in corporate finance with research interests covering bond markets, and emerging market issues. He has a particular interest for Chinese bond market and the development of Islamic finance in emerging countries. He holds a Master Degree in corporate finance from the University of Strasbourg.
Xian Gu / Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing Period of visit: 16.1.–3.2.2017 Xian Gu is an Assistant Professor at School of Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics in China. She obtained her Ph.D. from Beijing Normal University in 2012 and was also a visiting Ph.D. student at the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania from 2010-2011. After her Ph.D., she also did her post-doc at the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania. Her main research interests are in banking and corporate finance. She has published in refereed journals such as Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of International Money and Finance as well as in books such as the Oxford Handbook of Banking, Foundation and Trends in Finance, etc. She also served as an economist at the Research Dept. of CITIC Securities from 2012-2013.
Xiaobo Zhang / Peking University Period of visit: 1.–28.2.2017 Xiaobo Zhang is a chair professor of economics at the National School of Development, Peking University, and senior research fellow of International Food Policy Research Institute. His research fields include Chinese economy and development economics. He has published widely in top economics journals, such as Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economics Perspective, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Public Economics. His recent books include Governing Rapid Growth in China: Equity and Institutions (2009), Regional Inequality in China: Trends, Explanations and Policy Responses (2009), Narratives of Chinese Economic Reforms: How Does China Cross the River? (2010), and Oxford Companion to the Economics of China (2014). He is a Co-Chief-editor of China Economic Review (from 2017). He received Sun Yefang Prize for Economics Research in China (the most prestigious award in the field of economics in China).
Jianpo Xue / Renmin University of China Period of visit: 6.2.–3.3.2017 Jianpo Xue is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Department of Public Finance at School of Finance, Renmin University of China. He got a Ph.D. from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2008 and worked as a Research Associate there before joined Renmin University of China in 2010. His main research interests are in macroeconomics with the focus on economic growth, monetary theory and policy, taxation, and Chinese economy. His research has been published in the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Macroeconomic Dynamics, Economics Letters, and Journal of Mathematical Economics, etc.
Dmitry Rudenko / Tyumen State University, Russia Period of visit: 6.–31.3.2017 Dmitry Rudenko is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director for Research at the Institute of Finance and Economics, Tyumen State University in Western Siberia of Russia. Dmitry obtained his Candidate of Economic Science Degree (PhD) from Institute of Regional Economics of RAS, Saint-Petersburg in 2009. His research interests include poverty and inequality issues, spatial development. His papers have appeared in Regional Research of Russia, International Journal of Business and Globalisation.
Kadri Männasoo / Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia Period of visit: 6.–31.3.2017 Kadri Männasoo is a Professor and Head of the Department of Economics and Finance at Tallinn University of Technology. She is an applied empirical economist with research interests in the micro-level implications of companies and banks performance and risk-taking in the context of macroeconomic cycles. The current research agenda relates to companies investment patterns and their implications to productivity. She is participating in an on-going Estonian Research Council grant project on issues of absorptive capacity, human capital, knowledge and technology adoption in fostering productivity and sustainable economic growth in comparative context of European regions. She is one of the leaders of the Horizon2020 project “Institutions for Knowledge Intensive Development: Economic and Regulatory Aspects in South-East Asian Transition Economies”, led by Tallinn University of Technology in collaboration with the University of Lausanne and three South-East Asian universities. She has been a visiting researcher at the Bank of Estonia and a visiting fellow at Hamburg University.
Mika Nieminen / University of Jyväskylä, Finland Period of visit: 3.–28.4.2017 Mika Nieminen is a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). His doctoral dissertation ”Essays on Current Account Imbalances” is currently under pre-examination. For the academic year 2014-2015 Mika Nieminen was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in the City of New York. His research has focused on the fields of international finance and international macroeconomics (especially global current account imbalances and international capital flows).
Olga Demidova / Higher School of Economics, Moscow Period of visit: 18.4.–12.5.2017 Olga Demidova is an Associate Professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE), Moscow. She graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University and obtained her Ph.D in Mathematics from Russian Academy of Sciences Computation Center in 1995. She also received her Master’s degrees in Economics from HSE jointly with Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1999. Her main research interests are in applied microeconometrics, spatial econometrics, comparative economic studies. Her research has been published in Economic Systems, Eastern European Economics, International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics , International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, International Journal of Public Administration, China-USA Business Review. Olga is also a Lecturer on Econometrics at Faculty of Economic Sciences and Academic Director of Doctoral School of Economics in HSE.
Yan Zhang / Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo Period of visit: 2.–26.5.2017 Dr. Yan Zhang is currently a research project consultant with the Asian Development Bank Institute’s (ADBI) Research Department, Tokyo, Japan. Previously, she worked as a research associate and contributed to several notable projects in ADBI including Financial Inclusion and Financial Stability; ASEAN, PRC, and India: the great transformation; and Connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia. Her areas of research interests are Banking and Finance, Capital Markets, Urban Economics and Income Inequality. Her works have been published on several academic journals, including Applied Economics, Finance Research Letters, Singapore Economic Review and Economics Bulletin. She holds a MS in management from Fudan University in China and a PhD in Public Economics from National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Japan.
Hamza Bennani / Université Paris Nanterre Period of visit: 8.5.–2.6.2017 Hamza Bennani is an Assistant Professor at the Université Paris Nanterre (EconomiX - CNRS). He obtained his PhD at the Université de Lille in 2014. His fields of specialization is the political economy of central banking, more specifically, central bank's communication policy and central bank's decision-making process. He was invited as a speaker and as a visiting scholar in many central banks (the Bank of England, De Nederlandsche Bank, the Bank of Slovakia, the National Bank of Poland...) and has published in journals such as Applied Economics, Scottish Journal of Political Economy or International Economics.
Chun-Yu Ho / University at Albany, SUNY, USA Period of visit: 29.5.–22.6.2017 Chun-Yu Ho earned his PhD in economics from Boston University and his MPhil in economics and BSc in economics and finance from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Before joining University at Albany SUNY, he was a faculty member at Georgia Institute of Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He also held visiting positions at Bank of Finland (Institute for Economies in Transition), Hong Kong Institute of Monetary Research and the Chinese Universit of Hong Kong. His research interests include empirical industrial organization, economic development, and applied econometrics. He published papers in various peer-reviewed journals including International Economic Review, Journal of Econometrics, International Journal of Industrial Organization and Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. He is an associate editor of Singapore Economic Review and reviewed for various journals.
Michael Funke / Hamburg University, Germany Period of visit: 5.–16.6.2017 Professor Michael Funke joined the Economics Department of the Humboldt-University in Berlin as an Associate Professor of Economics in the early 1990s. In 1995 he was appointed as a Chair Professor for Macroeconomics and Quantitative Economic Policy in the Department of Economics of Hamburg University. Professor Funke was chairman of the Standing Committee on Macroeconomics of the German Economics Association from 2010-2014. He is a CESifo Fellow, a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Scottish Journal of Political Economy, and Associate Editor of the journal Economic Modelling. He has published numerous papers focused on economic growth, business cycles, and monetary theory and policy with an Asian focus. For the last decade he has been a visiting Research Fellow at the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research, the Bank of Finland Research Department, and the Bank for International Settlements. His research interests include macroeconomics, applied econometrics, and climate research, and he is a Principal Investigator for the Cluster of Excellence Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction (CliSAP).
Marlene Amstad / The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Period of visit: 5.–16.6.2017 Marlene Amstad is Professor of Practice in Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-SZ), a Member of the Board of Directors at the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and Research Fellow at the Fed New York. Marlene acted as Deputy Director and Head of Investment Strategy and Financial Market Analysis at the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and worked as a Regional Adviser with 11 leading Asian central banks at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) based in Hong Kong. Her research fields focus on inflation, credit and business cycles. She published in refereed and policy oriented journals such as Journal of International Money and Finance, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Economic Policy Review of the Fed New York, BIS Quarterly Review. Marlene Amstad specialized in the development of economic indicators for policy makers and investors. At the Federal Reserve Bank of New York she developed the “Fed New York staff underlying inflation gauge (UIG)”. Later, she introduced a similar gauge for China in joint work with People’s Bank of China. Previously she built quantitative credit risk models at Credit Suisse and developed business cycle indicators at KOF-Swiss Economic Institute. At CUHK-SZ she currently conducts research and teaches Money and Banking from the classic textbook to the recent developments in Fintech with an emphasis on rating agencies, financial market infrastructure and China.
Kiril Tochkov / Texas Christian University Period of visit: 17.7.–11.8.2017 Kiril Tochkov is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at Texas Christian University in Forth Worth, USA. He studied Chinese and Economics at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and received his Ph.D. in Economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Dr. Tochkov’s research focuses on regional growth and convergence, fiscal decentralization, trade and regional integration. He is particularly interested in the economies of China and Russia. In 2014, Dr. Tochkov was a Yegor Gaidar Fellow of the U.S. Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law (USRF) and a Visiting Scholar at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Khabarovsk, where he studied the trade between China and Russia’s Far East.
Christa Hainz / Ifo Institute, Munich Period of visit: 31.7.–25.8.2017 Christa Hainz is Senior Researcher and Deputy Head of the Ifo Center for International Institutional Comparisons and Migration Research. She was assistant professor at the University of Munich and guest professor at the University of Augsburg. Christa’s research focuses on banking, corporate finance and institutions, in particular with respect to transition countries and emerging economies. Her work has been published e.g. in the Economic Journal, the Journal of Public Economics and the Journal of Comparative Economics. She is a research fellow at CESifo and IOS Regensburg.
Laurent Weill / University of Strasbourg, France Period of visit: 10.–24.8.2017 Laurent Weill is Full Professor of Economics at University of Strasbourg (France). He is the Director of the research centre in finance (LaRGE) of University of Strasbourg. His research focuses on banking, corporate finance and institutions with a particular interest for emerging economies (China, Russia, Islamic finance). He has published more than 80 papers in journals, among others World Development, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Services Research, Journal of Financial Stability, European Financial Management, China Economic Review and International Review of Law and Economics. He has given more than 150 presentations in European, Asian and US conferences and seminars. He has been Research Fellow and visiting researcher at Bank of Finland (BOFIT). He has worked on several research projects with the Czech National Bank. He was visiting researcher at Université Libre de Bruxelles.