NEW YORK - DEC 12: Unidentified Occupy Wall Street protesters march to protest Goldman Sachs on December 12, 2011 in New York City, NY. Protests against the financial system took place nationwide.

Research Center

International Finance

The Research Center “International Finance” investigates the risks and opportunities of financial globalization, including political risks. A large part of the research focuses on classical international financial topics such as cross-border capital flows, sovereign debt and sovereign default, current account imbalances, financial stability and financial crises. The second focus is on political economy and geopolitics, in particular the international financial architecture and the role of (geo)political shocks for the global economy. 

The Research Center is characterized by the fact that it addresses its topics with a wealth of self-collected data in order to gain new insights and inform theory and policy debates. The research is empirical in nature and takes a long-term perspective, drawing on decades or even centuries of data. The results of the projects show that history offers many lessons for tackling current global problems. 

The Research Center focuses on four main research areas and questions. Regarding sovereign debt and financial crises, the Research Center analyzes how risky government bonds are for private investors and the financial system and how over-indebtedness and debt crises can be prevented and/or resolved more effectively. Another focus is on China's role in the international financial system. The RC analyzes the scope and impact of Chinese foreign lending in the recipient countries and how state-sponsored Chinese capital flows affect the international financial system as a whole. Together with the Research Center Macroeconomics, it is investigating whether economic crises promote nationalist and populist electoral successes and what macroeconomic consequences populists in power have. The Research Center also examines how geopolitical risks affect the global economy and the international financial system and how economic instruments are used to achieve geopolitical goals. In view of the increasing international tensions and the lack of economic research, there is a particular focus on the last topic. 

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