The discipline of Economics at the Institute for Latin American Studies, which is also part of the Department of Economics, concentrates on the economic development of Latin American countries in the context of their international economic integration. One focus in research and teaching is to ask what role money and currency play in economic development. Within this thematic field, different aspects are dealt with, starting with the effects of migrants' remittances to their home countries, up to the causes and problems of indebtedness, the question of adequate currency and exchange rate regimes for real economic development, as well as forms of global and regional monetary cooperation between developing and emerging countries. Another focus is the study of the causes and effects of social and economic inequality and their interactions with economic and environmental sustainability in Latin American countries.

Some of these topics are linked to third-party-funded collaborative projects:

• trAndeS - Postgraduate Program on Sustainable Development and Social Inequalities in the Andean Region, in collaboration with the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), and funded by the DAAD
• DEPRISK - Immigration Enforcement across the World: Drivers and Consequences of Cross-Country Variation in Deportation Risks, funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation

• Global Financial Safety Net Tracker, in collaboration with the Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) at the Global Development Policy Center of Boston University, funded by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

The discipline of economics also collaborates with several interdisciplinary collaborative research projects at the Institute for Latin American Studies and beyond, such as::

• International Research Training Group "Temporalities of Future",  funded by the DFG (German Research Fund), a cooperation between the LAI (FU Berlin), El Colegio de México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and CIESAS
• Graduate School of East Asian Studies, FU Berlin
• Alumni 2023-24

At the Department of Business and Economics, the area of economics at the Institute for Latin America Studies is part of the focus in International Economics and Area Studies.

The research assistants are also working on the following topics:

• Christian Ambrosius: Remittances, banking crises, development
• Alejandro Márquez Velázquez: Exchange rates, technology, and development
• Carmen Rosa Marull Maita: Inequality, income mobility, labor economics, and development

Associated researchers:

• Laurissa Mühlich: Regional monetary cooperation, exchange rate systems, development theory, and policy
• Marina Zucker Marques: Debt and development, Chinese currency internationalization, global financial safety net

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Barbara Fritz

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