Publications

Research Interests

Social, Cultural and Economic History of the 19th and 20th Century
History of Economic Thought
Banking History/Financial History
Historical Methodology
History of Tax Morale

CV

• Since March 2018 project leader in the Heisenberg-Program at Goethe-University Frankfurt: "International History of Tax Morale"
• Nov. 2016 Postdoctoral lecture qualification at University Duisburg-Essen. Manuskript: "Financers Entering New Grounds: European Banks and Greece in the 19th Century"
• Oct. 2016 until Sep. 2017 research fellow at the Historical College, Munich
• April 2009 to February 2018 Assistant Professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Historical Institute, Chair of Economic and Social History, Prof. Dr. Ute Schneider
• Thesis: "Knowledge and Visions. Theory and Politics of the Economists in the Stefan George Circle." Recipient of the Friedrich Sperl Award of Goethe University Frankfurt
• 2005-2008: Research assistant at Goethe University Frankfurt in the collaborative research centre "Culture of Knowledge and Social Change"
• 2003-2005: Grammar school teacher on probation: Second State Examination
• Summer 2003: Graduation as teacher for secondary school: First State Examination
• 1999-2000: Erasmus-Studies at Aristotle’s University Thessalonica, Greece
• 1997-2003: Studies of History, German Language and German Literature at Regensburg University

Research projects

Why did people pay taxes? The Cultural history of tax morale

Why do people pay taxes? Why do worldwide levels of tax compliance differ so greatly? One factor that determines tax compliance is tax morale. Its improvement is one of the most important challenges that states are confronted with. Social scientists emphasise the significance of gender, education, levels of taxation, religious affiliations etc. for the level of tax morale – factors which are subject to historical change. But social scientific data do not go back further than the 1980s. The historical dimension of the question has not been the subject of research until today. The project focusses on the process of moralizing tax payment behaviour in transnational comparison.

Financiers' desired spaces. European banks and Greece in the 19th century (Habilitation project)

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International banking networks contributed importantly to the financing of industrialization in the 19th century. But how were decisions for certain projects taken within the banks? The book researches the decision taking process in banks with Greece as a case study. Her war of independence from the Ottoman Empire (1821-1830) was the subject of highly emotional discussion in most European countries. Donations, loans, but also investment from all over Europe started to arrive in Greece. When the country was finally able to become an independent nation state in 1830, it was henceforward seen as an emerging but high risky investment market by bankers from Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany. The investigation sheds light on the complexity of these bankers' investment decisions between 1821 and 1911: Why did they decide to transfer their funds to the new Hellenic nation state? Which financial, ideological, familial and political aspects worked together to motivate them to invest in Greece? The project applies a combination of methods from economic, political and cultural history, questioning traditional rational choice approaches. Attention is focused on the risk perception, the risk management techniques and the constitution of confidence behind the involvement of International banking networks contributed importantly to the financing of industrialization in the 19th century. But how were decisions for certain projects taken within the banks? The book researches the decision taking process in banks with Greece as a case study. Her war of independence from the Ottoman Empire (1821-1830) was the subject of highly emotional discussion in most European countries. Donations, loans, but also investment from all over Europe started to arrive in Greece. When the country was finally able to become an independent nation state in 1830, it was henceforward seen as an emerging but high risky investment market by bankers from Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany. The investigation sheds light on the complexity of these bankers' investment decisions between 1821 and 1911: Why did they decide to transfer their funds to the new Hellenic nation state? Which financial, ideological, familial and political aspects worked together to motivate them to invest in Greece? The project applies a combination of methods from economic, political and cultural history, questioning traditional rational choice approaches. Attention is focused on the risk perception, the risk management techniques and the constitution of confidence behind the involvement of European bankers and investors in Greece.

The project was funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundationand finished during a scholarship at the Historical College in Munich. The book is out of press in October 2017.

For more information see the publisher Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Decision Making, Risk Management and Confidence in Banks from Early Modernity until the 19th Century (Conference volume in English)

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​How do bankers make their decisions? How do they perceive risks and what does their risk managemnt look like? How is confidence built up and how does it work in everyday banking praxis? The volume, originating from a workshop at the KWI Essen in February 2015, offers methodological approaches for historical research (from System Theory to Behavioral Finance, from New Institutional Economics to Praxeology, from Convention Theory to Network Analysis). The various methodological approaches are put to the test in case studies based on archive material from five hundred years of banking (from Early Modern European banking networks until International Computerization, with a focus on 19th century banking.) The investment decisions of bankers and their risk management techniques over the course of time are two special interests of the book, besides the decisions connected with the recruitment of partners and personnel in banks. The aim is to connect banking history more closely to political and cultural history.

See also Palgrave MacMillan´s Homepage.

Ruhr Area and Istanbul: The economies of urban diversity (Conference Volume in English, together with Monika Salzbrunn and Darja Reuschke)

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The Economics of Urban Diversity explores ethnic and religious minorities in urban economies. In this exciting work, the contributors develop an integrative approach to urban diversity and economy by employing concepts from different studies and linking historical and contemporary analyses of economic, societal, demographic, and cultural development. Contributors from a variety of disciplines—geography, economics, history, sociology, anthropology, and planning—make for a transdisciplinary analysis of past and present migration-related economic and social issues, which helps to better understand the situation of ethnic and religious minorities in metropolitan areas today.

The conference volume was published in 2013. See also Palgrave MacMillan´s Homepage.