Hans-Joachim Voth, professor in the UPF's Department of Economics and Business and ICREA (Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies) research fellow, has been deemed worthy of an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This is a distinction given to European scientists that are already established as exceptional leaders in their research field and has been given to him in recognition of his work.
Having gained a Ph.D. in
Economics from Oxford University in 1996,
Hans-Joachim Voth has carried out his research in the field of
economic history, particularly on topics to do with financial markets and economic
growth, as well as macro-economic instability and risk-related policies.
Many of the studies of asset prices (physical, financial, etc.) have been on periods of economic, political and social stability. What is new about the project Joachim Voth is about to engage in now is that it is a study of periods of economic instability, characterised by the lack of data on investment yield and liquidity. The research will focus on compiling data on various types of assets in times of crisis and on the repercussions crises have had on different ethnic and social groups.
Voth is a member of the International Economics Research Centre (CREI), a research institute sponsored by the Catalan Autonomous government and attached to the UPF; a research fellow in International Macro-economics Programme at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), London (United Kingdom); and a member of the editorial committee of the Journal of Economic History. In 2009 he is due to become editor of the European Review of Economic History.
In this first round of awards, the European Research Council has given four Advanced Grants to researchers belonging to the UPF group in recognition of their scientific track record. It should also be pointed out that the first time the Starting Grants were awarded, the UPF group received five , two for researchers in the Economics Department and three in the Centre for Genomic Regulation.
The UPF Economics and Business Department scoops the most ERC grants in Europe
The UPF Department of Economics and Business is the group that has obtained the most ERC grants in the economics field in Europe, ahead of the London School of Economics (LSE) and University College of London (UCL). Recently Jordi Galí, professor of the Foundations of Economic Analysis in the UPF Department of Economics and Business, received an Advanced Grant and, prior to that, Marta Reynal Querol and Jan Eeckhout, researchers in the same department, were awarded two Starting Grants, making four ERC grants in all awarded to this UPF Department.
Other grants awarded to researchers in the UPF groups
In the Social Sciences and Humanities field, the historian Juan Carlos Garavaglia, an ICREA researcher in the UPF Department of Humanities, obtained an Advanced Grant in recognition of his studies on the construction process of the states of Latin America in the 19th century.
In the Biomedical Sciences sphere, Luís Serrano, a researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), which is attached to the UPF, and an ICREA research fellow, was the only researcher in the health and medicine field to receive an Advanced Grant in Spain. However, this award follows on the Starting Grants obtained by three young CRG researchers ( Ben Lehner, Mark Isalan and Hernan López-Schier) a few months ago.