Brief CV

2022-2024 Project Leader "Immigration Enforcement across the World" (funded by Thyssen Foundation)

2017-2021 Visiting Professor (DAAD-Langzeitdozent) at the Faculty of Economics at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). On leave from FU Berlin.

2015 (Nov/Dec) Visiting Scholar, University of Texas in Austin

2014 (Feb/March) Visiting Scholar, Columbia University, New York

since 2012 Research Associate and Lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Latin American Studies

2012 Ph.D. in Economics at Freie Universität Berlin

2010 - 2011 Member of the DFG Research Training Group "Between Spaces. Movements, Actors and Representations of Globalisation". Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

2007- 2009 Research Associate ("Wisenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter") in the Research Project "Financial Development and Macroeconomic Stabilisation Through Remittances? Potential Benefits and Governance" at Collaborative Research Center 700: Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood. Freie Universität Berlin

2007 Master’s Degree (M.A.) in International and Development Economics at University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Berlin

2004 - 2006 Development Consultant (Freelance)

2003 Diplom (equivalent to a Master’s degree) in Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin

2000 Diplôme du Programme International de Sciences Politiques et Sociales at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (IEP) de Paris

1998 Vordiplom in Political Science (secondary: sociology, economics), University of Leipzig

Scholarships and Fundings

2022-2024 Funding by Thyssen Foundation for the Project "Immigration Enforcement across the World"

2014 scholarship by Freie Universität Berlin (Research Alumni Program) for a visting scholarship at Columbia University, New York

2013 scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a short-term lectureship at Universidad Simeón Cañas, San Salvador, El Salvador

2010 – 2011 Scholarship by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as member of the International Research Training Group “Between Spaces. Movements, Actors and Representations of Globalisation”

2007 Scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for writing a Master Thesis at UNDP Morocco

Wintersemester 2024/25

Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung: Lateinamerika in vergleichender Perspektive (B.Sc. Economics/B.A. 30 LP Lateinameristudien)

Sommersemester 2024

Finanzen und Entwicklung (V/S, M.Sc. Economics/M.A. Lateinamerikastudien), mit Barbara Fritz

Global South History of Economic Thought (S, .Sc. Economics/M.A. Lateinamerikastudien)

Wintersemester 2023/2024

Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung: Lateinamerika in vergleichender Perspektive (B.Sc. Economics/B.A. 30 LP Lateinameristudien)

Sommersemester 2023

Finanzen und Entwicklung (V/S, M.Sc. Economics/M.A. Lateinamerikastudien), mit Barbara Fritz

History of Capitalism in the Americas (S, M.A. Lateinamerikastudien) mit Michael Goebel

Wintersemester 2022/2023

Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung: Lateinamerika in vergleichender Perspektive (B.Sc. Economics/B.A. 30 LP Lateinameristudien)

Sommersemester 2022

Finanzen und Entwicklung (V/Ü, (M.Sc. Economics/M.A. Lateinamerikastudien), mit Barbara Fritz

Interdependencias globales en América Latina desde los tiempos coloniales hasta hoy (M.A. Lateinamerikastudien, mit Debora Gerstenberger)

Wintersemester 2021/2022

International Economics, Area Studies and Comparative Development (M.Sc. Economics/M.A. Lateinamerikastudien)

Migration in Lateinamerika: Ursachen und Konsequenzen (Bachelor)

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2017-2021)

Seminario de Investigación (posgrado)

Experiences Comparadas de Desarrollo Economico (posgrado)

Globalización y Desarrollo (posgrado)

Desarrollo Económico (posgrado)

Macroeconomía III (posgrado)

Historia de Desarrollo Económico II (pregrado)

Wintersemester 2016/2017

Interinstitutionelles Forschungsseminar Entwicklungsökonomie (M.Sc. Economics), mit Kati Krähnert (DIW)

Economic Development (V/S), mit Alejandro Márquez Velázquez

Sommersemester 2016

Economic History of Latin America (M.A. Lateinamerikastudien), mit Michael Goebel

Wintersemester 2015/2016

Projektmodul (M.A. Lateinamerikastudien), mit Martina Sproll

Sommersemester 2015

Develoment Economics (V/S), mit Philipp Lepenies und Alejandro Márquez Velázquez

Wintersemester 2014/2015

A Continent of Crises? Economic History of Latin America (HS), mit Michael Goebel

Sommersemester 2014

Finanzen und Entwicklung (V/Ü), mit Dirk Ehnts

(links zu Lehrveranstaltungskonzept und Syllabus)

Lateinamerika als Laboratorium der Moderne (HS/Ü): Fallstudien, mit Martina Sproll

(link zum Seminarprogramm)

Wintersemester 2013/2014

Lateinamerika als Laboratorium der Moderne (HS/Ü): Fallstudien, mit Martina Sproll

(link zum Lehrveranstaltungskonzept)

Entwicklungstheorie und -politik: Fallstudien (HS/Ü)

(link zum Lehrveranstaltungskonzept)

Sommersemester 2013

Entwicklungstheorie und -politik: Fallstudien (HS/Ü)

Finanzen und Entwicklung: Fallstudien (HS), mit Barbara Fritz

(link zum Lehrveranstaltungskonzept)

Wintersemester 2012/2013

Finanzen und Entwicklung (V/Ü), mit Barbara Fritz

(links zu Lehrveranstaltungskonzept und Syllabus)

Grundfragen der Politischen Ökonomie Lateinamerikas (PS), mit Constantin Groll

(link zum Lehrveranstaltungskonzept)

Sommersemester 2012

Entwicklungstheorie und -politik: Fallstudien (HS/Ü)

(link zum Lehrveranstaltungskonzept)

Wintersemester 2010/2011

Finanzen und Entwicklung (Ü), mit Barbara Fritz

Wintersemester 2009/2010

Migration und Entwicklung (HS), mit Ursula Stiegler und Christiane Ströh

My research interest is economic development and comparative economics, migration, and finance with a special attention to the experiences of Latin American countries. Building on a background in both political science and economics, I am particularly interested in topcis at the intersection of both disciplines.

Currently I am leading two externally funded projects. The project "Immigration Enforcement across the World: Drivers and Consequences of Deportation Risk" (DEPRISK) is funded by Thyssen Foundation for three years (09/2022-09/2025). The project "The Long Shadow of Immigration Enforcement: Consequences of Forced Returns in Migrants´ Countries of Origin" (DEPCON) is funded by the German Research Foundation (10/2024 – 10/2026). The goal of the former is to assemble the first country-by-country data base on deportations from administrative sources in host countries in order to unpack aggregate patterns and mechanisms related to the political economy of deportation regimes in host countries as well as their consequences in migrants’ countries of origin. The latter aims to explore how forced returns affect families and communities at origin for the paradigmatic case of El Salvador. To this end, surveys shall be applied to households connected to a close relative who had to return as the result or in anticipation of a deportation order, compared to a carefully matched control group of transnational households unaffected by deportation shocks but with similar average pre-treatment conditions.

See publications for ongoing and past research.

Research and Publications

Papers I am currently working on

• Aid Allocation and Deportation Enforcement (with Marina Monteiro Luna. Conference Paper available)
• Country-by-Country Deportation Corridors: Stylized Facts from a New Database (with Marina Monteiro Luna)
• Deportation Externalities: Evidence from El Salvador (with Andrea Velásquez and Juliana Quirioga)
• Bad Luck or Bad Policy? External Constraints and the Length of Recession Spells at the Global Periphery

Selected Journal Articles (Peer-Reviewed)

• A Deportaton Boomerang? Evidence from US Deportations to Latin American and Caribbean Countries (with David Leblang). Based on a previous working paper: Immigration Demand and the Boomerang of Deportation Policies: Was the Migrant Caravan created in the United States? (for a short summary see here) (forthoming at Demography)
• Violent Crime and the Long Shadow of Immigration Enforcement: Evidence from Mexico. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2024, Online First
• Forced Returns Fuel Anti-Americanism: Evidence from U.S. Deportations to Latin America (with Cova Meseguer). February 2023. Global Networks. An ungated previous version can be found here.
• What Drives Remittances During a Global Shock? Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mexico (with Raymundo M. Campos-Vázquez and Gerardo Esquivel). November 2023, IZA Journal of Development and Migration
• Deportations and the Transnational Roots of Gang Violence in Central America. World Development (April 2021). Previous version as Discussion Paper 2018/12. School of Business and Economics, Freie Univ. Berlin, for short summaries in spanish see here and here)
• Return Migration, Crime, and Electoral Engagement in Mexico  (with Covadonga Meseguer, Electoral Studies 66, August 2020)
• Exporting Murder: Deportations and the Spread of Violence (with David Leblang, International Studies Quarterly, March 2020, paper covered in the monkey cage at Washington Post, as well as in The Crime Report). Previous version as Discussion Paper 2018/13. School of Business and Economics, Freie Univ. Berlin
• Government Reactions to Private Substitute for Public Goods: Remittances and the Crowding-Out of Public Finance. Journal of Comparative Economics 47:2 (2019), 396-415 (for a summary in spanisch, see here)
  
• What Explains the Speed of Recovery from Banking Crises? Journal of International Money and Finance, Vo.l 70 (February 2017), pp. 257-287
• Remittances and the Use of Formal and Informal Financial Services. World Development, Vol 77 (Jan 2016), pp. 80–98 (with Alfredo Cuecuecha). Previous Version as Discussion Paper 2014/19, School of Business and Economics, Freie Universität Berlin
• Remittances and Financial Access: Is There Really a Link and for Whom? Evidence from Mexican Household Data. The World Economy, Vol.39(7) (July 2016), pp. 664-982. Previous version as Discussion Paper 2012/8, School of Business and Economics, Freie Universität Berlin
• Remittances for Financial Access: Lessons from Latin American Microfinance. Development Policy Review 32(6), 2014, pp. 733–753 (with Barbara Fritz and Ursula Stiegler)
• Are Remittances a Substitute for Credit? Carrying the Financial Burden of Health Shocks in National and Transnational Households. World Development 46(6), 2013, pp. 143-152 (with Alfredo Cuecuecha). Previous version as Discussion Paper 2012/9, School of Business and Economics, Freie Universität Berlin

Other Articles (Selection)

• Large-Scale Deportations May Have Unintended Consequences. Migration Information Source. The Online Journal of the Migration Policy Institute. 2. Oktober 2024 (with A. Velasquez)
• Kasino-Kapitalismus in den Tropen. Lateinamerika Nachrichten, Vol. 28, Februar 2022, pp. 28-30
• Das Bitcoin-Paradis. Südlink Magazin, Dezember 2021
• Centro y Periferia en las Relaciones Monetarias Globales. In: América Latina: movimiento de capitales y su efecto sobre el modelo liderado por las exportaciones (ed. Noemu Levy and Jorge Bustamente, 2020, UNAM)
• Chapter 19: Remittances. In: Kaltmeier et al. The Routledge Handbook to the Political Economy and Governance of the America (with Barbara Fritz and Ursula Stiegler, 2020)
• So weit von Gott, so nah an Trump. Das mexikanische Wahljahr steht unter dem Zeichen von "America First". In: Internationale Politik, 29.Juni 2018
• Remittances and the Transformation of Local Spaces. The Case of Financial Markets in Mexico. Iberoamericana, No. 48, 2012. Dossier "Entre espacios: entrelazamientos y movimientos en América Latina"
• Remittances and Financial Development: Lessons from the Salvadoran Case. Savings and Development 35(1), 2011, pp. 1-27
• Arbeitsmigration als Entwicklungschance? Remittances und die Rolle des Finanzsektors im lateinamerikanischen Kontext. Leviathan, Special Edition „Globalisierung Süd“, 2011, pp. 267–292 (with Barbara Fritz and Ursula Stiegler
• Remittances and the Financial Sector. Insights from Latin America. Forum for Interamerican Research 6(2), 2013, Special Edition „Migrations Between Spaces in the Americas“ (with Barbara Fritz and Ursula Stiegler)
• Finanzmärkte in Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit: Makroökonomische Stabilität und Finanzielle Inklusion aus Governance-Perspektive. In M. Beisheim et al., eds. Wozu Staat? Governance in Räumen konsolidierter und begrenzter Staatlichkeit. Baden Baden: Nomos, 2011, pp. 221–250 (with Ursula Stiegler)
• O potencial das remessas dos migrantes para a governação e o desenvolvimento financeiro no contexto EUA-México. In A. Malamud and F. Carrillo, eds. Migraciones, Cohesión Social y Gobernabilidad: Perspectivas Euro-Latino-Americanas. Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2011, Lisbon: ICS-Lisboa (with Barbara Fritz and Ursula Stiegler), pp. 101-128
• Financial Development and Macroeconomic Stabilization through Migrant Remittances? Potential Benefits and Policies. In: Knerr, Béatrice (ed.): Transfers from International Migration: A Strategy of Economic and Social Stabilization at National and Household Level. 2012, Kassel: Kassel University Press, pp. 129-161 (with Barbara Fritz and Ursula Stiegler)
• Finansysteme Lateinamerikas. In: Lateinamerikalexikon, Peter Hammer Verlag. 2013, pp. 109-112
• Remittances. Online Dictionary Social and Political Key Terms of the Americas: Politics, Inequalities, and North-South Relations, Version 1.0 (2012) (with Barbara Fritz and Ursula Stiegler)
• Geldsendungen von Migranten in ihre Heimatländer - ein "Manna" für wirtschaftliche Entwicklung? In: GIGA Focus Global Nr. 10, 2008 (with Barbara Fritz and Ursula Stiegler