The research area of Economics both belongs to the Institute for Latin American Studies and to the School for Business and Economics. One research areaof Economics is the role of money and currency during the process of economic development. Diverse aspects of this area of study are examined, like the consequences of remittances sent by immigrants to their home countries, microfinance, the causes and problems of debt, the issues of adequate currency and exchange-rate regimes as well as forms of regional monetary cooperation within the context of developing and emerging countries.

Some of these topics are investigated in third-party funded research projects, such as:

• Remittances als Beitrag zu Finanzieller Entwicklung und Makroökonomischer Stabilisierung? Potential und Governance am Sonderforschungsbereich 700 („Governance in Räumen Begrenzter Staatlichkeit“), funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation, concluded in December 2009)
• University Meets Microfinance, a joint network with Planet Finance, funded by the European Commission
• Regional Monetary Cooperation and Growth-Enhancing Policies: The New Challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean, in collaboration with UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development)

Furthermore, the research area of Economics is a member of several interdisciplinary research co-operations at the Institute for Latin America Studies:

• International Research Training Group "Between Spaces. Movements, Actors and Representations of Globalisation", funded by the DFG
• DesiguALdades – Research Network on Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America, funded by the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research)