Institute of Economics

Study Management and Economics (Master) with an Economics specialization

Do you study Management and Economics or one of our interdisciplinary management programmes? Are you interested in the big picture - the cogs that drive our modern economies? Have you ever asked yourself one of the following questions:

  • How to psychological factors, incentives and missing information shape the structure of firms, markets and states?
  • What are the drivers of human decision making beyond the theoretical construct of utility maximization?
  • How can we translate empirical data into policy recommendations or corporate strategies?
  • Why can empirical analysis go horribly wrong, even though the data basis is great?

Combine your Management and Economics master at Ulm University with a specialization in economics! We provide you with the skills and tools to answer such questions and let you choose from a great variety of areas in economics to apply your aquired skills: energy economics , environmental economics, banking regulation, sports and many more. Both in courses and seminars and during your thesis you will profit from our excellent mentoring quota and high quality standards in research and teaching.

Note: You can choose economics as a standalone specialization or combine it with a second specialization like Finance, Accounting, Insurance or Controlling (all possibilities can be seen here).

Courses (7 credit points each)

Behavioral Economics

Which cognitive, emotional and social factors drive economic behaviour? How can we expand on microeconomic theory to move beyond the homo economicus, towards a more realistic model of economic actors like consumers and employers?

Market Analysis with Econometrics and Machine Learning

[Translate to english:] Verschiedene Eissorten am Eisstand

How can I estimate the reaction of consumers, suppliers and competitors to changes in product and pricing policy using empirical data, econometrics and machine learning techniques?

 

Information Economics

[Translate to english:] Symbolbild Informationsökonomik

How can we model decision making under uncertainty or in between actors with asymmetric information? How do problems of moral hazard or adverse selection arrise and how do we cope with them?

Organizational Economics

[Translate to english:] Handschlag vor Wolkenkratzern

How can corporations align the interests of their employees and their shareholders? What are the incentive effects of variable payment schemes and how do emotional and social factors like envy, inequality aversion and status concerns interfere?

Energy Economics

[Translate to english:] Düsteres Atomkraftwerk im Abendrot

What makes the markets for electricity and energy stand out to other goods markets and what are the challenges in modelling them? How do we calculate an optimal mix of energy sources? What does empirical data say about energy demand?

Competitive Strategy

[Translate to english:] Frau vor großem Schachspiel

How can game theory and industrial economics explain the success and failure of corporations? How can we estimate the impact of market changes on future success?

Courses of other institutes

Money and Currency

[Translate to english:] Geldmünzen und Scheine

Why do we need money in the first place? How does monetary policy and fiscal stimulus work? What factors drive exchange rates?

Growth and Trade Policy

[Translate to english:] Frachter mit Containern

How can we implement economic growth and technical progress into economic models? What are the assumptions and implications of the neoclassic growth theory, the AK model and the Romer model? How can policy makers spur economic growth?

Empirical Economic Research

[Translate to english:] Candlestick Chart

How does economic forecasting work and what kind of data is required to make good forecasts? How can we cope with the challenges of economic forecasting: multicolinearity, heteroscedasticity, endogeneity and autocorrelation?

 

Labor Economics

[Translate to english:] Werkzeuge auf Werkbank

Why is the labor market a special kind of market? What drives labor demand, labor supply and wages? How do technical progress and globalization shape future job markets?

Career Perspectives

The economics specialization turns you into a sought-after generalist! You know how to analyse economic issues, understand and manage complex systems, estimate markets and leverage data to make well founded recommendations on policy or corporate strategy. Additionally, our application specific courses give you specific knowledge of areas like the energy sector or the banking system. Especially finance companies, tech companies and consulting agencies appreciate these skills.

There are also many options in public service beyond universities: as an economist, you can work for ministries, regulatory authorities (such as the BaFin or the Bundesnetzagentur), central banks, international organisations (world bank, IMF) and NGOs and shape our future.

Innovation in Teaching

Innovative Courses

[Translate to english:] Verleihung Ulmer Preis für Lehre

Gerlinde Fellner-Röhling und Sandra Ludwig received the University Ulm Teaching Award 2018 for their innovative integration of economic decision experiments into their courses.

Innovative Thesis

[Translate to english:] Seite aus einer Abschlussarbeit

The economics specialization offers you a master thesis that spans a bridge from research to teaching. In the attached example, M.Sc. Clara Ulmer converted a study on the effects of soap operas on fertility rates in South America into an interactive R-Tutor problem set which can be used as teaching material in empirical courses.

[Translate to english:] Computerlabor ULESS

Ulm Laboratory for Economics and Social Sciences (ULESS)

Economic experiments in a computer laboratory are a method to analyse human decision behavior in a controlled environment. Experiments can be used to test and develope theories of human behavior, but also to infer policy recommendation from the results. As a student, you can participate in ULESS experiments to promote our research and even earn some money while doing so. You will also experience ULESS in some of our courses: "learning-by-doing" is not only fun, it also deepens the understanding of theoretical concepts.

Our Research

[Translate to english:] Industrial Organization

Online sales are killing the traditional brick and mortar stores. This is bad for the store owners, but is it good for the consumer? Georg Gebhardt shows how online sales in Germany drive retail prices lower and traditional brick and mortar stores out of existence.

[Translate to english:] European Economic Review

Why are women usually less successful on the job market? Sandra Ludwig and Gerlinde Fellner-Röhling show with a third coauthor, how women are suffering from shame. Women are less optimistic when asessing their own performance if this performance is observable by potential employers. Men rarely feel this type of shame; they sometimes are even overconfident about their own performance.

[Translate to english:] Journal of Public Economics

Do higher taxes induce more tax evasion? This question is a hard one to tackle, not least because data on tax evasion is usually not available. With innovative methodology, Gerlinde Fellner-Röhling and her coauthors show that higher taxes indeed induce more tax evasion.

[Translate to english:] Games and Economic Behavior

What kind of moral principles work if people have different levels of moral motivation? Sebastian Kranz analyses a game theoretical model that finds the following principle as an answer to this question: "Behave the way, how you would like morally motivated persons to behave, given a certain share of people are egoistic".