Being originally from Stuttgart (Germany), I received my PhD from the University of Memphis (USA) in 2011. After that, I worked at the Universidad EAFIT in Medellin (Colombia) for almost 4 years, first as an Assistant Professor and then as a Full Professor. Although I enjoy working in several fields of research in economics, the majority of my work has focused on Political Economy and Public Economics topics. Specifically, I have done research in the areas of corruption, terrorism, and gender differences. Currently, I am pursuing various projects related to political violence, as well as moral universalism with its causes and consequences.

- 2025-2027: Humboldt Research Fellowship (~45,000 Euros)

- 2023: Business School Research Grant ($4,000); Milne Visiting Professor Grant ($5,800)

- 2021: Futures Fund Research Grant with Girish Bahal and Jean-Paul Carvalho ($5,000)

- 2019: Visiting Professor Grant ($2,677)

- 2018: UWA Business School Future Fund Research Grant ($10,000); Alcoa Visiting Professor Grant ($6,600); Best Discussant Award 31st PhD Conference in Economics and Business

- 2017: BHP Billiton Distinguished Research Award (2nd Chief Investigator, $16,800)

- 2016: Dean's Best Paper Prize ($2,500); Ahern Family Early Career Researcher Portfolio Prize ($2,500)

2015: BHP Billiton Distinguished Research Award ($25,000); Start-up research grant UWA ($10,000); Research Grant Universidad EAFIT (US$50,000); Grant Universidad EAFIT to develop research with students (US$1,800)

2014: Research Grant Universidad EAFIT (US$35,000); Research Grant Colciencias (Colombian Ministry for Science, US$7,500); Grant Universidad EAFIT to develop research with students (US$2,000)

2013: Travel Grant Universidad EAFIT (US$3,000)

2012: Travel Grant Universidad EAFIT (US$3,000)

2011: Travel Grant Universidad EAFIT (US$2,000)

Advanced Economic Analysis

Text-to-Data Applications

Public Economics

Economic Growth & Development

Intro to Macroeconomics

Intro to Microeconomics

Current Working Papers:

1. Foreshadowing Mars: Religiosity and conflict in pre-Enlightenment Europe, with Luke Barber and Tim Krieger. Submitted 

2. Peacefully demobilizing rebels: Identities, emotional cues, and the FARC, with Juan P. Aparicio and Christopher Parsons. Submitted 

 3. On the post-Enlightenment evolution of moral universalism. Reject-and-resubmit decision from The Economic Journal. 

My future research will broadly concern the topics of terrorism, counterterrorism, civil conflict and civil war, and the development of morality. Most projects will emphasise empirical approaches, based on carefully developed theoretical frameworks.

I am currently teaching 2 units at UWA: An honours course on "The Political Economy of Terrorism and Counterterrorism" that emphasises empirical methods to isolate causal effects from correlational data, as well as a newly introduced unit for the Masters of Business Data Analytics (beginning in 2022-1) entitled "Text-to-Data Applications and Novel Data Sources."