Profile

Professors Aleksander Berentsen and Yvan Lengwiler have been running Economic Theory Group since 2001; Professor Georg Nöldeke joined them in October 2006. In January 2011 Professor Yvan Lengwiler left the Department of Economic Theory and joined the Department of Finance Theory.

The group vouches for high standards of quality in its research and teaching, being both innovative and socially relevant, setting its performance aspirations and measuring its achievements in line with an international standard of excellence. The group’s teaching focuses on Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Game Theory, and Information Economics. Students gain a broad base of knowledge in the tools of economic theory. In addition, they learn how to apply theory to questions of economic policy. For the Master’s course, the group concentrates primarily on in-depth analysis of markets, institutions, monetary economics and financial markets.

Prof. Dr. Aleksander Berentsen

Aleksander Berentsen was born on the 7th of December, 1962. He studied Economics at the University of Basel and at the London School of Economics. He received his PhD in 1996 from the University of Bern, where he also received his postdoctoral lecture qualification in 2003. Research residencies and visiting professorships took him to the University of California in Berkeley, to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and to the Center of Economic Studies in Munich. Since 2001, he has held a full professorship at the Center for Economic Sciences at Basel University as well as working as a visiting professor for Monetary Economics at Zurich University. He was appointed full professor for Economics in October 2005 at the Faculty of Business and Economics at Basel University.

Berentsen’s research focus is on Monetary Theory, which analyzes the role of money and the policies of the central banks in the economy as a whole. A further area of his research centers on analyzing incentive structures operative in markets and institutions from the viewpoint of game theory. Professor Berentsen’s research here has been applied concretely to current problematic issues, such as doping in sport, for example. In addition to Professor Berentsen’s teaching activities, he also writes numerous academic articles for famous international journals (The Journal of Economic Theory, The Review of Economic Studies and The Journal of Monetary Economics, to name but a few).

Prof. Dr. Georg Nöldeke

Georg Nöldeke was born on the 19th of November 1964. He studied Economics at the University of Bonn, the University of California at Berkeley and at the London School of Economics. On acquiring his doctorate in Bonn, he took up the position of assistant professor at the University of Princeton. He held a professorship in Bonn from 1994 to 1997 and from 1999 to 2006. In October 2006, he was appointed to the Faculty of Business and Economics at Basel University, where he had previously held a full professorship for Economics between 1997 and 1999.

Professor Nöldeke’s major research focus is on Game and Contract Theory. His published papers (appearing in journals such as The Review of Economic Studies, The Rand Journal of Economics, The Journal of Economic Theory and the Journal of Theoretical Biology) span a wide range of fields from information processing in financial markets to behavioral biology.