Ph.D. Economics
Welcome to my academic homepage
Foto: Lukas Böhm
About me
My name is Claudius Gräbner and I am an economist working as a Junior Professor (W1 TT) at the Europa University Flensburg (Germany) and as a research associate at the Institute of Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy (ICAE) of the Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria). I am also a research fellow of the Institute for future-fit economies (ZOE).
My research is mainly concerned with the socio-economic effects of globalization, the determinants for international competitiveness, economic complexity, institutions and socio-economic development. Besides, I am also interested in economic methodology, in particular how economic models can be helpful in understanding real economic systems.
On this homepage I provide some information and material about the research projects I am responsible for, my teaching and lecturing activites, my research, and myself.
Current research projects
I am currently working on the following third-party funded research projects.
Funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
The project triangulates theories and methods from the social sciences and the humanities to shed light on the impact of an increasing reliance on “competitiveness” as a prime mode of social organization and as a core concept for designing institutions on different ontological levels. For more information visit the project website.
The green transition
and economic polarization in Europe
A multi-level assessment with Germany and Poland as case studies
Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Polish National Science Center (NCN)
The green transition
and economic polarization in Europe
A multi-level assessment with Germany and Poland as case studies
The project studies the implications of the European green transition on the national, regional, and local level, and whether heterogeneous impacts bear the risk of fuelling a socioeconomic polarization within the EU. It is planned to start in mid 2023. More information will be provided soon.
Completed research projects
Country capabilities, product complexity and finance in the EU
(05/2019 - 10/2020, funded by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, NISER )
International Competitiveness - A Multi-Level Assessment
(01/2020 - 12/2021, funded by the Austrian National Bank, OeNB )
Recent news
Click here for a full list of news and announcements.
Two publications on Degrowth and the Global South
Posted August 18 2023
Two of our recent publications study the role of the Global South within the Degrowth discourse. The paper „Degrowth and the Global South: The twin problem of global dependencies“ was recently published in the journal Ecological Economics. It builds on a systematic literature review and not only describes the various ways that the existing literature on degrowth considers the Global South, but also delineates implications for future research in this subject area. It stresses that it is particularly the challenge of structural dependencies between the Global North and South that should receive more attention in the future.
In a companion paper, which has been published in the Journal of Economics Issues, we studies to what extent this challenge could be addressed by referring more to work from the field of institutionalist studies.
New publication on the development model of the European Union
Posted June 1 2023
In a recent publication, myself, Theresa Hager and Anna Hornykewycz discuss the new development model of the European Union. The study "Competing for Sustainability? An Institutionalist Analysis of the New Development Model of the European Union" has been published in the Journal of Economic Issues and discusses whether the EU's new economic development model of competitive sustainability could serve as a blueprint for environmentally sustainable development models for advanced economies in general.
On the link between regional inequalities the green transition in the EU
Posted March 8 2023
On Macrch 3 I gave a presentation for the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion (DG EMPL) of the European Commission in which he discusses the relationship between climate and cohesion policy in the European Union. The presentation builds on work done in cooperation with the ZOE Institute for future-fit economies and took place within the Speaker Series ‚Social Policy Unpacked: Exploring pathways for fair green and digital transitions’. The presentation was public and followed by an internal discussion with the members of the Commission. The recording of the public part of the event and the corresponding slides are publicly available.
New paper on trade models in the European Union
Posted January 30 2022
Together with some colleaques I have published a paper on "Trade models in the European Union". In this paper we study the factors underlying differences in trade performance across European economies and delineate six different “trade models” for 22 EU countries. We do so clustering countries on the basis of four key dimensions of trade performance: endowments, technological specialisation, labour market characteristics and regulatory requirements. Subsequently, we provide a comparative analysis of the economic development and trends in inequality across these trade models. The paper is available open access here.
Public lecture on "Agent-based modelling and complexity economics" at the University of Siegen
Posted January 27 2022
On January 26 I gave an invited lecture introducing the topic of "Agent-Based Modelling and Complexity Economics" (German: "Agentenbasierte Modellierung und Komplexitätsökonomik") at the University of Siegen. The talk was on German an was meant as a first overview. You can find the slides here.
Presentations at the 2023 ASSA meetings
Posted January 11 2022
I gave a presentation at this year’s AFEE session on “Dependency and Structuralism in the Current Crisis” during the ASSA meetings in New Orleans. The title was “Degrowth and the Global South? How institutionalism can complement a timely discourse on ecologically sustainable development in an unequal world” and it extends another paper of ours by asking how institutionalist contributions can help addressing blind spots in the current discourse on degrowth and the Global South. The slides are available here, and the current draft of the underlying paper here. Earlier, my colleague Theresa Hager presented a joint paper of ours at the ICAPE conference earlier. The current version of the paper, which analyzes the merger of “competitiveness” and “sustainability” in the current development model of the EU can be found here.
Keynote on "Applied Economic Methodology" at the Second Philosophy & Economics Conference in Vienna
Posted September 29 2022
I was invited to give a keynote on the merits and challenges of an "Applied Economic Methodology" at the Second Philosophy & Economics Conference in Vienna. In my talk I argue that concepts developed from economic methodologists can greatly help in improving actual economic practice. During the discussion, some of the methodologists in the audience pointed out that in their experience, most economists were less receptive for the work of methodologists - something that I find very sad and hopefully changes in the future. You can find the slides of the talk here.
Copyright © All Rights Reserved