CV

Current position

Postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin

Joint appointment between the Department of Business and Economics and the Institute for Latin American Studies

Education

PhD Economics, Freie Universität Berlin, 2025: Thesis: The 2003-2013 Commodity Boom and its Impact on the Productive Structure and Social Policies in Latin America

Master Pluralist Economics, Siegen University, 2021

Bachelor Regional Studies of Latin America with Economics, University of Cologne, 2018

Semester abroad, Havana University, Cuba, 2016/17

Academic Career

01-02/2025 Visiting Researcher, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2022-2025 Doctoral Researcher: IRTG ”Temporalities of the Future” funded by the German Research Foundation, Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

05/2021-01/2022 External scientific consultant, German Development Institute (IDOS)

12/2020-02/2021 Scientific Internship, German Development Institute (IDOS)

05/2015-06/2016 and 05/2017-04/2018 Student Assistant, Latin American Center (Centro Latino Americano de Colonia), University of Cologne

Podcast

In der Wirtschaft (https://inderwirtschaft.home.blog/)

Scholarships and Awards

2021 Artur Woll Preis, award for the best graduation in the Master Pluralist Economics in 2020/2021, Siegen University

2018-2021 Deutschlandstipendium

Languages

German – mother tongue; English; Spanish: Excellent; Portuguese – Very good; French – Good

Wintersemester 2025/26

Extraktive Ökonomien und globale Energy Transition in Lateinamerika: Soziopolitische und wirtschaftliche Dimensionen (M.A. Interdisziplinäre Lateinamerikastudien)

Sommersemester 2025

Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung: Lateinamerika in vergleichender Perspektive (B.Sc. Economics/B.A. 30 LP Lateinamerikastudien)

Wintersemester 2020/21

Einführung in die Erstellung wissenschaftlicher Podcasts, Masterkurs, Universität Siegen 

I am an empirical macroeconomist working in the fields of development and ecological economics. My research lies at the intersection of development economics, political economy, and ecological economics, with a strong regional focus on Latin America. I investigate how global economic structures—particularly commodity price cycles and trade relations—shape national development trajectories, inequality dynamics, and policy space in the Global South. A central concern in my work is understanding how resource booms affect income distribution, social policy, and productive structures from a macroeconomic perspective.

I also explore the structural trade-offs between socio-economic goals and ecological sustainability. This includes work on inequality’s impact on climate outcomes, as well as on industrial policy options for structural change in the energy transition in developing economies.

Research and Publications

Peer reviewd journal articles

• Flechtner, S. & Middelanis, M. (2024). The Role of the Commodity Price Boom in Shaping Public Social Spending: Evidence from Latin America. World Development 182 (October): 106717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106717 

Work in Progress

• “The role of the commodity price boom in Latin America's inequality reduction” (with Svenja Flechtner and Diego Sánchez-Ancochea)

• “The Climate Cost of Inequality: Trade-offs and Structural Effects” (with Svenja Flechtner)
• “Income inequality and the trade-off between socio-economic and ecological goals” (with Svenja Flechtner)
• “Endogenous resource rents: Shedding light on a neglected effect of commodity booms” (with José Carlos Orihuela)
• ”Industrial policy options for the energy transition in developing countries: Neo-developmentalist perspectives” (with Barbara Fritz and Luiz Fernando de Paula)
• ”Regional South-South trade and the Dutch Disease: The Case of Latin American Manufacturing Exports” (with Melike Döver)
• ”Sector-specific Dutch Disease Effects in Developing Economies”

Other publications

• Döver, M., & Middelanis, M. (2025). The Global South and US trade policy: Structural exposure and economic vulnerability in selected Latin American countries (IDOS Discussion Paper 26/2025). German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS). https://doi.org/10.23661/idp26.2025

• Middelanis, M. (2025). The 2003-2013 Commodity Boom and its Impact on the Productive Structure and Social Policies in Latin America (Dissertation). Freie Universität Berlin. http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/refubium-45928