Upcoming activities
Researchers
Partner institutions
Benjamin BRAUN
I am a PhD student at the University of Warwick. My field of research is International Political Economy, and my PhD project is on the governance of expectations in the context of monetary policy. The Erasmus Mundus GEM School is an extraordinarily cosmopolitan community. I suddenly have colleagues and friends not just from across Europe, but from all over the world. Even though we are based at different universities, the GEM School provides ample opportunities to meet and to debate. It is great to be part of this unique network.
Academic Degrees
04/2005 - 11/2009: Studied economics at the University of Munich; final degree: Diplom; title of thesis: ‘Methodological Reflections on the Microfoundations of Modern Macroeconomics’
10/2004 - 07/2009: Studied political science (major) and international law (minor) at the University of Munich; final degree: Magister Artium; title of thesis: ‘From Securitization to Economization – The Economization of Immigration in Germany’
Work Experience
04/2011 - 09/2011 and 04/2010 - 09/2010: Worked as research and teaching fellow at the Chair of International Politics, University of Munich
10/2006 - 08/2007 and 09/2008 - 10/2009: Worked as student assistant to the Chair of International Politics, Department of Political Science, University of Munich
05/2007 - 07/2007: Taught sessions of an International Relations tutorial to prepare students for the University of Munich’s intermediate examination in political science
Specific Research Title, Area and Promotor(s)
Research Area: International Political Economy
Specific Research Title: “Governing Expectations: The Politics of Macroeconomic Management during the ‘Great Moderation’”
Promotor: Prof. Matthew Watson
Description of research work
The general topic of this PhD project is the governance of expectations in the context of monetary policy and its effects on the economy. The underlying research question is: In what ways does the central bank change the economy by actively managing private sector expectations about the future? The central hypothesis is that by making market actors adopt its own macroeconomic models and forecasts, the central bank to a certain extent ‘performs’ these models and forecasts. This imposition of economics on the economy – which actually amounts to a form of central planning – has far-reaching political implications. The ultimate goals of this research are therefore (i) to make these implications visible in the first place, (ii) to analyse the power relations that underpinned the inflation targeting regime of the ‘Great Moderation’, and thus (iii) to contribute to a better understanding of how the economic actors, mechanisms, and laws that make up ‘the economy’ are socially constructed.
Participation in Conferences and Seminars
Augmenting the nations human capital: Economization and the new politics of immigration, presentation given at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) in Madrid, June 23-25.
How the European Union deals with its banking crisis, paper presented at the joint conference of the sections ‘Political Economy’ and ‘International Political Economy’ of the German Association for Political Science (DVPW) in Marburg, May 27-28, 2011 (co-author: Dieter Kerwer).
The economy is what macroeconomists make of it – how macroeconomics performs the economy, presentation given at the 5th ESRN Interim Conference in Bielefeld, December 3-5, 2010.
The construction of governability and the performativity of macroeconomics, paper presented at the EAEPE Annual Conference in Bordeaux, October 28-30, 2010.
Informal Institutional Change: Coping with the global banking crisis in Europe, paper presented at the 7th Pan-European Conference on International Relations in Stockholm, September 9-11, 2010 (co-author: Dieter Kerwer).
On the politics of economics: New Keynesian governability and the practice of inflation targeting, paper presented at the 7th Pan-European Conference on International Relations in Stockholm, September 9-11, 2010.
Neoliberal moves: The (de-)politicization of economic freedom, presentation at the 7th Pan-European Conference on International Relations in Stockholm, September 9-11, 2010.
Theory, (un-)certainty, (in-)stability: Makroökonomisches Denken und Handeln zwischen De- und Repolitisierung, paper presented at the Young Researchers Conference of the Section ‘International Politics’ of the German Association of Political Science (DVPW) in Arnoldshain, May 28-30, 2010.
Overview of Publications
...