We caught up with Sebastian to find out about his career in economics so far, and hear more about his research…
Where did you study and work, prior to joining Bristol?
In terms of study, I did BSc Business Administration and MSc Economics at the University of Mannheim, as well as both a BSc and an MSc in Mathematics at the University for Distance Learning in Hagen.
I then completed my PhD, also at Mannheim, before moving from Germany to become a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer at Princeton University. I was based in the US for three years before coming here to the UK.
Immediately prior to joining the University of Bristol in 2024, I spent three years as a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Exeter.
Can you tell us about your research experience to date?
I have been doing research in economics for almost 10 years.
My expertise is primarily in theoretical and quantitative macroeconomics, meaning I always work with structural models and almost never with reduced-form empirical methods.
In terms of topics, I have worked on questions relating to safe assets, public debt sustainability, the monetary system and its interaction with financial stability, and (rational and irrational) pricing bubbles.
I also do purely methodological work in computational economics, that imports tools from machine learning and applied mathematics – expanding the range of economic models for which it is feasible to compute a numerical solution.
What is the main focus of your research at the moment?
Publication times in economics tend to be very long, so I am continuing to progress a number of projects I’ve been working on for several years – many started during my postdoctoral years.
My most recent research centres on establishing a tight theoretical connection between safe asset demand – and flight to safety, in particular – and two macroeconomic phenomena:
- Aggregate demand recessions in the presence of (New Keynesian) price setting frictions.
- Cross-border capital flows when financial market uncertainty/volatility increases (in particular, flight of capital away from emerging markets into the US).
What is your proudest career achievement to date?
I’d say the publication, last November, of an article on Safe Assets in the Journal of Political Economy – which is widely recognised one of the most reputable and distinguished economics publications globally.