Master of Science in International Economics and Economic Policy docx

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Master of Science in
International Economics
and Economic Policy
F A C U L T Y O F E C O N O M I C S A N D
B U S I N E S S A D M I N I S T R A T I O N
2
„I certainly would enrol there again. Studying Economics and
International Economics at Frankfurt University has been a great
experience that at the same time has proved an efficient door
opener for me.“

Sandra Wiesner, consultant at Hering Schuppener Consulting,
and Frankfurt graduate 2007.
Dear Prospective Master’s Student,
The new program Master of Science
in International Economics and
Economic Policy (IEEP) is our
answer to the challenges of a glo-
balizing economy for businesses,
economic policy and society. It is
designed to endow students with
the economic competence and
analytical skills for a successful
career in administration, govern-
ment, national and international
associations, and global business.
The master‘s program has a strong
international orientation and is
taught in English, with the option
to enrol in elective courses taught

in German. It is a four-semester
program beginning in mid-October.
In the first semester the emphasis is
on core courses in microeconomics,
macroeconomics, econometrics and
international economics. In the
second and third semesters, students
select from a set of field courses
and seminars. The fourth semester
is dedicated to the completion of a
master‘s thesis.
The orientation of the program is
based on the international repu-
tation and experience of the faculty
and its strong research expertise in
global economic problems, including
trade, development, monetary
economics, international finance,
and international taxation. Like all
of our faculty‘s graduate programs
in economics, the IEEP is designed
according to top international
academic standards and is bound to
attract a diverse student body.
The master‘s program is taught
in Frankfurt, the economic
powerhouse and financial centre
in the heart of Germany. The city,
which today hosts the European
Central Bank, has a long-standing

tradition in trade and international
commerce and is a prime European
exhibition centre with a history
reaching back as far as 1240
A.D. The Frankfurt metropolitan
area is also the nation‘s centre
for international cooperation
and development, hosting major
German development agencies.
As a place to live, Frankfurt offers
the diversity of Germany’s most
international city, an impressive
infrastructure, and a quality of life
that is consistently ranked among
the European top five cities.
The stage is set for our concept and
your ambition becoming a perfect
blend. Learn more on why and how
to apply for a master‘s program that
can give you the head start you are
looking for.
Alfons J. Weichenrieder
(Program Director)
Heinz Mathes
(Academic Dean)
3
This four-semester consecutive
program with a total of 120 credit
points is structured in a modular
fashion with several core courses

in the first semester and a choice of
elective courses in the second and
third semesters. The fourth semester
is more research-oriented and
includes the writing of the master‘s
thesis. For students who adhere
to the study plan, there are no
more lecture courses in this fourth
semester and full-time residence in
Frankfurt is not essential.
The program features various
sorts of teaching:
• A lecture course earns six credits
and is taught three hours a week
with roughly a third of the time
devoted to in-class discussion of
problem sets.
• Grading in field seminars is
predominantly based on a term
paper and its presentation.
Often seminars are blocked in
conference-like settings and
held in out-of-town venues.
• The thesis seminar provides gui-
dance for students working on
their thesis and gives opportunity
to present ideas and results
to faculty and to their student
colleagues. It is typically held
as a blocked seminar.

• A topical course is taught two
hours a week, earns three credits,
and is often taught by external
professionals coming from
Frankfurt-based institutions such
as the European Central Bank,
the Deutsche Bundesbank, or the
KfW Bank.
Concept and Vision
The study program is set up to
provide participants with the
economic background to perform
strongly in today‘s global economy.
It is designed as a consecutive
program with typical enrolment
after a bachelor‘s degree in eco-
nomics or business, but students
with first work experience are also
highly welcome.
We want to empower our graduates
to quickly look through complex
problems in public policy and
business by using up-to-date
economic theory and state-of-
the-art econometrics. Rather than
simply replicating the first two years
of a PhD program, the master‘s
program is specially designed to
combine academic rigor with a
focus on topical issues faced by

policy-makers and administrators.
These program features make us
absolutely confident of attracting
highly promising students with a
genuine interest in public policy
issues and with a strong interest
in a career in an international
environment.
The Faculty of Economics and
Business Administration is a
member of a small but fine group
of schools within Germany that
is accredited by the international
Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business (AACSB). The
Faculty is strongly committed to
constantly adapting and improving
its programs to reflect changing
needs and advances in economic
research. The AACSB accreditation
is serving as an additional ongoing
quality check.
Program Structure
4
First semester
Fundamentals in Microeconomics
(3h per week, 6 credits)
Based on a sound understanding of
the theory of the firm and the house-
hold, the course covers issues such as

regulation, welfare effects of govern-
ment-induced price distortions, and
the theory of market failures. The
course provides modern tools and
enables students to understand and
work with scholarly articles in areas
such as public finance and industrial
organization.
Fundamentals in Macroeconomics
(3h per week, 6 credits)
This course introduces basic con-
cepts and key tools that are central
to understanding of macroeconomic
issues, ranging from short-term
economic fluctuations to long-term
growth. Students will learn how
models are used to interpret key
empirical facts in macroeconomic
data; how to use mathematical tools
for the analysis of model economies;
how to develop and use the most
common models for understanding
the relationship between aggregate
output, inflation and interest rates,
and the key drivers of macroecono-
mic growth and cycles; and how to
develop policy recommendations
and conduct practical policy analysis.
Fundamentals in Econometrics
(3h per week, 6 credits)

The core course in econometrics
introduces the methods behind
the empirical analysis of micro and
macro data as they are encountered
in cross-sectional and time series
studies, respectively. Application of
these methods will be demonstrated
with real data examples solved with
standard computer software. Stu-
dents learn how to carry out empiri-
cal studies of the nature of economic
relationships. The course presumes
that students are familiar with linear
regression models and material from
elementary econometrics or empiri-
cal economics.
Fundamentals in International
Economics (3h per week, 6 credits)
The course sets out the implications
of increasing trade integration and
globalization and empowers students
to analytically and empirically assess
the effects of public policies on
foreign trade and commerce.
Elective (3h per week, 6 credits)
Second and third semester
In each of these two semesters,
30 credit points should be earned
from lecture courses, field semi-
nars, and topical courses. In each

semester, one course must be
chosen from a portfolio of lectures
in public policy, and another course
from a portfolio of lectures in inter-
national economics.
Forth semester
The final semester has a strong
research orientation with 30 credit
points to be earned. It contains
the master‘s thesis (24 credits),
which is written over a period of
four months, plus a thesis seminar,
which is designed to provide intensi-
ve exchange and feedback between
authors and advisers.
Students start with four lecture courses
that teach the fundamentals of our inter-
national graduate program. These core
courses are listed below and have to be
combined with a fifth elective course.
5
Study Program Overview –
Courses and Credit Points (CP)
Winter Fundamentals of
Microeconomics
(Core), 6 CP
Fundamentals of
Macroeconomics
(Core), 6 CP
Fundamentals

of Econometrics
(Core), 6 CP
Fundamentals of
International Eco-
nomics (Core), 6 CP
Elective, 6 CP
Summer Public Policy
elective, 6 CP
International
elective, 6 CP
Elective, 6 CP
(or Seminar if
available)
Elective, 6 CP 2 topical courses or
1 elective course, 6 CP
Winter Public Policy
Elective, 6 CP
International
Elective, 6 CP
Seminar Elective, 6 CP 2 topical courses or
1 elective course, 6 CP
Summer Thesis Seminar,
6 CP
Master‘s Thesis, 24 CP
Public Policy Electives
• Development Economics I:
Growth and Development
• Development Economics II:
Microeconomic Aspects of Development
• The Economics of Taxation

• Central Bank Watching
• Monetary Theory and Policy
• Industrial Economics
International Electives
• Economic Integration
• Strategic Trade and Multinational Enterprises
• Fiscal Affairs in the EU
• International Money and Finance
• International Banking
Additional Electives
• History and Development
of General Equilibrium Theory
• Institutions and Innovation
Additional lecture courses from the Inter-
disciplinary Area Studies Centres of Goethe
University (ZIAF for Sub-Saharian Africa, IZO
for East Asia, ZENAF for Northern America
and Wilhelm-Merton Centre (WMZ) for the
European Union) can be credited after approval
by the program director.
Sample List of Lecture Courses
6
Faculty
Prof. Michael Binder, PhD
Michael Binder is Professor of Macroeconomics
at Frankfurt University and co-director of the
PhD program in economics. He received his PhD
in economics from the University of Pennsylva-
nia in 1995. Prior to joining the faculty of Goe-
the University in April 2003, he was a faculty

member at the University of Maryland. He has
held visiting appointments inter alia at Cam-
bridge University, the International Monetary
Fund, the World Bank, and the Bank of Spain.
He is currently director of the International
Economics research program at the Center for
Financial Studies (CFS), an associate editor
of the Journal of Applied Econometrics, the
Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, and
Empirical Economics; and a CESifo Research
Fellow. His current research focuses on the
analysis of cross-country variations in macroeco-
nomic performance, as well as the investigation
of econometric and computational methods for
rational expectations and dynamic panel data
models.
Prof. Dr. Matthias Blonski
Matthias Blonski is Professor for Microeconomic
Theory at Goethe University. He received his
doctorate in1993 and his habilitation in 2000,
both from the University of Mannheim. He holds
a Diploma in Mathematics from Heidelberg
University. Before joining Goethe University in
April 2003, he taught at the University of Bonn
and did research at Harvard University, Stanford
University, and the University of California, Los
Angeles. His main current research interests are
in game theory (repeated games, large games)
and in finance on the borderline between corpo-
rate finance and asset pricing.

Prof. Dr. Horst Entorf
Horst Entorf is Professor of Applied Econome-
trics at Frankfurt. Before joining the Frankfurt
Faculty of Economics in October 2007, he was
Professor of Econometrics at the Universities of
Darmstadt and Wuerzburg. Horst Entorf received
his doctorate and finished his habilitation thesis
at Mannheim University. He previously held
research and teaching positions at, among others,
the Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve
(Belgium), CREST-INSEE (Paris), and CERGE
(Prague). He was a SPES Fellow of the EU and
a Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemein-
schaft. He is also a Research Fellow at IZA
(Bonn) and Forschungsprofessor (Research
Professor) at ZEW (Mannheim). Horst Entorf is
heading projects on labour markets, education
and immigration, and interdisciplinary topics
such as crime, intergenerational mobility, and
social interaction. His publications have included
papers in the Journal of Labor Economics,
Journal of Econometrics, European Economic
Review, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, and
International Review of Law and Economics.
Prof. Stefan Gerlach, PhD
Stefan Gerlach joined the Institute for Monetary
and Financial Stability at Goethe University as a
professor of monetary economics in September
2007. Before joining the university, he served
as Head of Secretariat of the Committee on the

Global Financial System, a committee of senior
central bankers at the BIS in Basel. In 2001–2004
was Executive Director (Research) at the Hong
Kong Monetary Authority and Director of the
Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research.
Between 1992 and 2001 he held various
research positions in the BIS. In 1992 he was
awarded tenure at Brandeis University as an
associate professor of economics. He received
an undergraduate degree from the University
of Lund in Sweden in 1979, and a doctorate
in economics from the Graduate Institute of
International Studies in Geneva in 1983. He has
written extensively in the areas of monetary
theory and policy, and is a research fellow of the
CEPR and a fellow of the CFS.
Prof. Stefan Gerlach, PhD
Prof. Michael Binder, PhD
Prof. Dr. Matthias Blonski
Prof. Dr. Horst Entorf
7
Prof. Michael Haliassos, PhD
Michael Haliassos is Professor of Macroeconomics
and Finance, Deputy Dean for International
Relations, and Director of the Master’s Program
in Money and Finance at Goethe University. He
received his PhD from Yale University in 1987.
Prior to joining Goethe University, he was a
faculty member at the University of Maryland,
and then at the University of Cyprus, where he

served as Deputy Dean of the School of Econo-
mics and Business. He has visited the European
University Institute as a part time professor
in the Finance and Consumption Chair, and
has held various other visiting appointments,
including at the Center for Studies in Economics
and Finance (CSEF, Italy) and the University
of Athens. His research focuses on household
finance. He is currently the director of the House-
hold Wealth Management research program
at CFS, a research professor at the Mannheim
Institute on the Economics of Aging (MEA), and
a consultant to the ECB Network on Household
Finances and Consumption, aimed at building a
Eurozone database on household portfolios.
Prof. Dr. Uwe Hassler
Uwe Hassler is Professor for Statistics and
Econometric Methods at Goethe University.
He received his doctorate in 1993 and his
habilitation in 1998, both from the Free
University of Berlin. Prior to joining Goethe
University in April 2003, he was Professor
for Empirical Economics at the Technical
University Darmstadt, and he has visited the
Universities of Munich and Madrid. His main
research interests are time series analysis and
macroeconometrics, in particular long memory,
(co)integration, and nonstationary panels.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Klonner
Stefan Klonner joined Goethe University as

Professor of International and Development
Economics in 2007. He earned a master’s degree
in economics and statistics from the University
of Utah in 1996 and a Ph.D. in economics from
the University of Heidelberg in 2001. He was a
postdoctoral fellow and visiting lecturer at Yale
University and subsequently held a junior faculty
appointment at Cornell University. His research
focuses on microeconomic aspects of low-in-
come economies, in particular determinants and
measurement of poverty, and the functioning
of credit markets. His regional specialization is
South Asia, where he has carried out several
data collections and field studies.
Prof. Michael Haliassos, PhD
Prof. Dr. Uwe Hassler
Prof. Dr. Stefan Klonner
Prof. Dr. Rainer Klump
Rainer Klump holds the Chair of Economic
Development and Integration since 2000. He
studied at the Universities of Mainz, Paris I and
Erlangen- Nürnberg, where he received his
doctorate in 1986 and his habilitation in 1991.
Prior to joining Goethe University he had tenu-
red position at the Universities of Würzburg and
Ulm, where he held the Ludwig Erhard Chair
of Economic Policy between 1997 and 2000.
He is a fellow of the CFS, visited at the Federal
Reserve Board and the European Central Bank
and was visiting professor at the Universities of

Paris-Dauphine, Lyon and the Vienna University
of Economics and Business Administration. His
research focuses on economic policy, growth
and development, international economics and
the history of economic thought. He has done
field studies on economic transition in Vietnam
for over a decade and is currently member of an
interdisciplinary research group on economic
development in Thailand and Vietnam funded
by the German Research Association.
Prof. Dr. Rainer Klump
8
Prof. Dr. Raimond Maurer
Raimond Maurer completed his dissertation and
habilitation in business administration at the
University of Mannheim. Since 2000 he has been
Professor for Investment, Portfolio Management,
and Pension Finance in the Finance Department
of Goethe University of Frankfurt. His research
interests focus on theoretical and empirical
studies of asset management by institutional
investors, lifetime
portfolio choice, real estate investments, and pen-
sion finance. Maurer has published four books
and more than thirty refereed journal articles. He
holds several professional positions in the Society
of Actuaries, the Association of Certified Inter-
national Investment Analysts (ACIIA), and the
Pension Research Council at the Wharton School
of the University of Pennsylvania.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Nölke
Andreas Nölke is Professor of Political Science,
International Relations and International
Political Economy at Goethe University. He
obtained his doctorate in Political Science at
the University of Konstanz (1993). Between
1993 and 2001 he taught international relations
and development studies at the Universities of
Konstanz and Leipzig, where
he received his habilitation. Between 2001
and 2007 he worked as a Senior Lecturer at the
Department of Political Science at the
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He was also a
visiting research fellow at the Department of
Political Science at Rutgers University in 2001. In
addition to his academic posts, Nölke served as a
part-time consultant in the field of development
cooperation, mainly for the German Agency
for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), but also for
the European Commission and the World
Bank. Besides his current assignment to Goethe
University, Nölke works as program co-ordinator
of the Amsterdam Research Centre on Corporate
Governance Regulation. (ARCCGOR).
Prof. Dr. Drs. h.c. Bertram Schefold
Bertram Schefold received his doctorate in
economics from the University of Basel in 1971.
Before joining Goethe University in 1974 he was
at the University of Cambridge and at Harvard
University. Since joining Goethe University

he has been a guest professor inter alia at the
Universities of Nice, Rome, Toulouse, and
Venice, as well as at the New School for Social
Research in New York
and the Center of Advanced Economic Studies
in Triest. His main research topics include
economic theory, the history of economic
thought, political economy and resource
economics. In 2004 and 2005, Professor
Schefold received honorary doctorates from the
University of Tübingen and from the Università
degli studi di Macerata, Italy.
Prof. Dr. Reinhard H. Schmidt
Harry Schmidt holds the Wilhelm Merton
Chair of International Banking and Finance
in the Faculty of Economics and Business
Administration of Goethe University. He is a
former dean of the department and currently
serves as a member of the Academic Senate of
the University. He received his education at the
Universities of Heidelberg and Frankfurt. Before
joining the Frankfurt faculty in
1991, he was a professor of finance at the
Universities of Göttingen and Trier. He has
also been a visiting professor at Stanford,
Georgetown (Washington, DC), Wharton
(Philadelphia), Bocconi (Milan), and two
universities in Paris. He has published 120
academic articles in German and international
journals, and several books covering a wide

range of topics in economics, finance, and
business administration. Currently, his main
research interest concerns financial systems in
industrial and developing countries.
Prof. Dr. Drs. h.c. Bertram Schefold
Prof. Dr. Reinhard H. Schmidt
Prof. Dr. Raimond Maurer
Prof. Dr. Andreas Nölke
9
Prof. Dr. Cornelia Storz
Cornelia Storz is Professor for the Japanese Eco-
nomy at Frankfurt University and is associated
with the Interdisciplinary Centre for East Asian
Studies. Before, she was a professor for Japanese
economy at the University of Marburg and a
professor at the University for Applied Sciences,
Bremen. She is on the editorial board of the Jour-
nal of Asia Entrepreneurship and Sustainability,
the International Indigenous Journal of Entre-
preneurship, and the Journal of Current Japanese
Affairs/JAPAN Aktuell. She has been invited
by several Japanese organisations to conduct
research (Institute of Social Science/University
of Tokyo; Japan Institute for Labour Policy and
Training; Kansai University; RIETI/METI). Since
2005 she has served as Treasurer of the European
Association of Japanese Studies (EAJS). Her
research focus is on the comparison of economic
systems, the genesis and change of institutions
(especially institutional change in Japan), inno-

vation systems, and the enforcement of and
compliance with environmental regulations.
Prof. Dr. Cornelia Storz
Prof. Dr. Uwe Walz
Prof. Dr. Alfons J. Weichenrieder
Prof. Volker Wieland, PhD
Prof. Volker Wieland, PhD
Volker Wieland received his PhD in economics
from Stanford University in 1995. Prior to
joining the faculty of Goethe University in
November 2000, he spent five years as economist
and senior economist in the Division of
Monetary Affairs of the Federal Reserve Board in
Washington, DC. At that time he also taught as
an adjunct faculty member at the
University of Maryland Business School. Since
April 2003 he has been Director of the Center
for Financial Studies (CFS). Furthermore, he
served as Coordinating Editor of the Journal of
Economic Dynamics and Control from 2002 to
2006, and as Associate Editor of the European
Economic Review from 2001 to 2004.
Prof. Dr. Uwe Walz
Uwe Walz holds the Chair of Industrial
Organization at Goethe University, and is co-
director of the PhD Program in Economics. He
obtained his doctorate from the University of
Tübingen in 1992, and was visiting research
fellow at the London School of Economics (1992–
1993) and the University of California at Berkeley

(1994–1995). He completed his habilitation at
the University of Mannheim in 1995 and joined
the University of Bochum (1995–1997) as an
associate professor, and then the University of
Tübingen (1997–2000). Since October 2002, he
has held the Chair of Industrial Organization at
Goethe University. He has published widely in
international journals, most recently on venture
capital topics and organizational design. His work
has appeared in journals such as the Journal
of Corporate Finance, the Journal of Financial
Intermediation, the Journal of International
Economics, the European Economic Review,
and the Journal of Public Economics. His main
current research focuses on venture capital,
entrepreneurial finance, and contract theory as
well as on the economics of network industries.
Prof. Dr. Alfons J. Weichenrieder
Alfons J. Weichenrieder received his doctorate
in economics in 1995 from the University of
Munich under the supervision of Hans-Werner
Sinn and Bernd Huber. He taught in Munich,
at Princeton University, and at the University
of Vienna before taking up the Chair of Public
Finance at Goethe University in October 2002.
He is a co-opted member of the Public Finance
Section of the German Economic Association, an
International Research Fellow of the Oxford
University Centre for Business Taxation (Saïd
Business School), a research professor at Ifo Ins-

titute, Munich, and a CESifo Research Fellow. He
is editor of FinanzArchiv/Public Finance Analysis
and associate editor of International Tax and
Public Finance. He is a member of the Scientific
Council of the German Ministry of Finance and
acted as the scientific chairman for the 2006
meeting of the German Economic Associati-
on (Verein für Socialpolitik) and for the 2003
meeting of the International Institute of Public
Finance (IIPF).
10
As of autumn 2008, the Faculty of
Economics and Business Adminis-
tration of Frankfurt University is
located at the new Westend Campus
next to Grüneburg Park. Unlike
many other German Universities,
which are either scattered across
city centres or located far off, the
Westend Campus is within walking
distance of the commercial centre,
and is designed as a scenic univer-
sity park. The new faculty building
is constructed to provide for a maxi-
mum of accessibility of faculty and
facilities.
Campus
11
In the winter term, the teaching
period commences in mid-October

and ends in mid-February, with
some two weeks of vacation around
Christmas and New Year‘s Day.
Teaching in the summer term is
from mid-April through mid-July.
Academic Year
The minimum prerequisite for
admission is a bachelor’s degree
with an overall grade of „good“
(B) or better. An undergraduate
specialization in economics or
business is preferred.
The following items are
required for admission:
• Completed online application,
including a brief motivation letter
(one page maximum).
• Two letters of recommendation
from university faculty members
who have taught the applicant
(to be submitted directly by the
referees).
• Degree certificates/diplomas as
well as an official transcript of
course grades (with official trans-
lations into English or German, if
needed). Scanned copies are used
for the application process. Origi-
nals or certified copies need to be
submitted prior to enrolment.

• Applicants whose native language
is not English are required to
submit Test of English as a
Foreign Language (TOEFL) or
International English Language
Testing System (IELTS) scores,
unless they have a BA degree
from an English-speaking college
or university. The minimum
TOEFL (or comparable IELTS), is
580 paper-based, 237 computer-
based, or 93 internet-based.
A GRE test is not required but
strongly recommended.
For details about deadlines and the
online application system please see
the instructions on the programme
homepage: -
frankfurt.de/ieep.0.html .
Admission and Requirements
Editor/Publisher:
Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Goethe University Frankfurt
Grüneburgplatz 1
D-60323 Frankfurt, Germany
www.wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de/ieep.0.html
Hotline: + 49 (0) 69 798-7749
The program is funded by the State
of Hesse and the tuition fee has
been waved recently. However,

students pay an administrative
fee for registration with Goethe
University‘s student services (at
present approximately 250 euros
per semester, entitling students
to services such as the unlimited
use of public transportation in the
Frankfurt area).
In general, German institutions
of higher education do not them-
selves award scholarships. As an
exception, the University offers a
scholarship for international degree
students who possess German
language competence and who
take their degree here (end-of-
study grant). You can find more
information at -
frankfurt.de/english/international/
students/funding/index.html.
There are, however, several
scholarship-awarding organizations.
The most extensive scholarship
program is that offered by DAAD
(German Academic Exchange
Service). Advanced students may
apply for DAAD scholarships;
depending on their country of
origin and subject, in some cases
only graduates may apply. Other

scholarship-awarding institutions
have varying conditions, for
example, regarding country of
origin, subject, previous study
achievements, or duration of
support. A very quick and efficient
way of finding out about the
appropriate scholarship is through
the scholarship database of DAAD.
For more information, see http://
www.daad.de/
Further Information
For further information about the
master‘s program in International
Economics and Economic Policy,
please do not hesitate to contact
us via email at
frankfurt.de.
Tuition Fees and Scholarships
Coordination: Barbara Kleiner · Design: Stählingdesign · Photos: Uwe Dettmar · January 2009