Veni grant for Groningen economist Michael Koetter

NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) has awarded Dr Michael Koetter (32) of the Department of International Economics & Business of the Faculty of Economics a so-called Veni grant. This grant, which can be up to EUR 280,000, is intended for young academics who have recently gained their doctorates. It enables them to conduct three years of research and to develop their ideas. Applications for Veni grants are assessed by scientists from at home and abroad and selected on the basis of original and remarkable talent for conducting innovative academic research.

The Veni grants are one of three types of grants within the ‘Innovational Research Incentives Scheme’. The other two are the Vidi grant (for experienced postdocs) and the Vici grant (for experienced researchers). The Innovational Research Incentives Scheme was set up in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, the KNAW and the universities.

'Regions are not isolated islands'

Koetter’s project is entitled: Regional economic growth, macroeconomic inefficiency and financial development . ‘In today’s global village, regions must not be treated as isolated islands’, explains the German assistant professor, ‘Economic activity in one economic agglomeration area will most likely affect the prosperity of neighbouring regions and vice versa. I analyze these interdependencies and their relation to regional financial development and the potentially inefficient use of production factors to explain why regions continue to grow differently.’

Curriculum vitae

Michael Koetter (Germany, 1974) joined the IE&B department as an assistant professor in February 2006. His research interests include banking and finance, efficiency and productivity measurement and the relationship between financial stability and economic growth. He is a graduate of the University of Maastricht and the Stern School of Business at NYU and obtained his Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Maastricht in 2000. He then joined the Boston Consulting Group and did his PhD research at the Utrecht School of Economics. He was awarded his PhD on German bank efficiency and mergers in June 2005. He then worked as a researcher at the German Central Bank (Deutsche Bundesbank) before joining the University of Groningen.

More information: Dr Michael Koetter, tel. (050)363 36 33, e-mail: m.koetter@rug.nl