In the monetary economics lecture, we have studied the theoretical foundations of the New Monetarist Economics framework, a very popular model used in monetary economics. Key issues addressed were the role of liquidity, the frictions that make money essential and the role of credit and financial intermediation for the economy.
In this seminar, we use this knowledge to study Decentralized Finance (DeFi). The term DeFi refers to an alternative financial infrastructure built on top of blockchains such as the Ethereum blockchain. DeFi does not rely on intermediaries and centralized institutions. Instead, it is based on permissionless protocols and decentralized applications (DApps). The promise of this novel technology is to create a financial infrastructure that is more open, interoperable, and transparent in comparison to the existing financial infrastructure.
The seminar can also be attended by students that have not participated in the monetary economics lecture.

Zoom meetings will be held every other week on Tuesdays from 12:15pm - 02:00pm. Presence for all presentations is mandatory. Students are expected to complete the assigned tasks as independently as possible for each zoom meeting and to be able to present resp. discuss their results. Grades will be based on students' contributions during the semester and the Python scripts they will submit at the end of the semester.