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Staff Profile

Professor Nils Braakmann

Professor of Economics

Background

Introduction

I'm a Professor of Economics. My work focuses on empirical microeconomics, typically using large-scale datasets and microeconometric techniques to investigate questions mainly drawn from labour economics, the economics of crime, health economics, international economics and urban economics. I am also currently Deputy Head of the Economics Group. I joined Newcastle University in September 2010, first as a Lecturer until 2013, from then as Senior Lecturer until July 2017 and from August 2017 to April 2018 as Reader in Labour Economics. Before coming to England I was a PostDoc in Economics at Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany, where I also completed my doctoral degree in Economics in 2009 as well as Master's degrees in Business and Economic and Social Sciences.

See here for further information, here for google scholar profile and here for full CV.

Consultation and feedback hours for students ("office" hours): tbd for 2023/24

Qualifications

Dipl.-Kaufmann. (~Master in Business), University of Lueneburg, 2006

Dipl.-Oekonom (~Master in Economics and Social Sciences), Leuphana University of Lueneburg, 2007

Doctor rerum politicarum in Economics, Leuphana University of Lueneburg, 2009

Previous Positions

  • Researcher (grant funded), Leuphana University of Lueneburg, 2006-2010 (2009-2010 as PostDoc)
  • Lecturer in Economics, Newcastle University, 2010-2013
  • Senior Lecturer in Economics, Newcastle University, 2013-2017
  • Reader in Labour Economics, Newcastle University, 2017-2018

Administration, editorships, etc.

Current

2013 - Member of the Student Discretionary Award Forum, Newcastle University

09/2022 - Deputy head of economics, Newcastle University

09/2023 - Associate Editor, Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik

Past

04/2017 - 04/2023 Member of the council, Scottish Economic Society

08/2019 - 07/2022 Elected member of Senate, Newcastle University

2017 - 2021 Co-Editor, International Journal for Re-Views in Empirical Economics (IREE), an open access journal focused on replication studies and descriptions of new micro data sets

05/2016 - 02/2020 Director of Accreditation, Newcastle University Business School, ex officio member of the School Executive Board and the Business School’s Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Committee

04/2017 - 09/2018 Acting (until 11/2017) and joint head of economics (with Bartosz Gebka), Newcastle University Business School, ex officio member of the School Executive Board

10/2016 - 2018 Member of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee / part of the Athena Swan submission team, Newcastle University Business School

02/2016 - 08/2016 (Interim) deputy head of economics, Newcastle University Business School

07/2015 - 08/2016 Research Ethics Coordinator, Newcastle University Business School, ex officio member of the Faculty Research Ethics Committee and the Business School’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee

09/2015 - 08/2016 Chair, personal extenuating circumstances committee, Newcastle University Business School, ex officio member of the Business School’s Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Committee

09/2012 - 08/2016 Senior Tutor, economics programmes, Newcastle University (2012-2015 undergraduate and postgraduate, 2015-2016 undergraduate),ex officio member of the Business School’s personal extenuating circumstances committee and the staff-student committee for economics

Internal subject review/Learning and teaching review panels: Chemistry (2014), Education (2015), Dentistry (2016), Faculty of Medical Sciences Postgraduate programmes (2018)

Programme approval panels: BA Film and Media (2014), MRes and MSc Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security (2014), MA Landscape Architecture Studies (2014), MSc/MRes in Urban Energy Technology and Policy (2015), MSc Genomic Medicine (2015), MA in Media and Society (Research) (2016), MRes and PG Cert in Geospatial Data Science (2019)

2013 - Member of the Student Discretionary Award Forum, Newcastle University

various hiring committees/interview panels for academic and professional staff at Lueneburg (2008-2010) and Newcastle, ranging from Teaching Fellows to the Director of the Business School

2008-2010 Member of the faculty commission on research, Leuphana University Lueneburg



Research

Research Interests

Empirical microeconomics, in particular in labour economics, health economics, economics of crime, international economics and urban economics.


At the moment, I work mainly on topics in labour economics - such as understanding the impact of economic shocks, such as mass layoffs or COVID-19, on individual outcomes - and the economics of crime, where I'm particularly interested in understanding hyperlocal determinants and consequences of criminal activity using geocoded data.


Current Work in Progress 


  1. “Spatial inequality in unsolved crime: Evidence from small neighbourhoods” (with Bahadir Dursun and Diego Zambiasi, Newcastle), revise and resubmit
  2. “Energy price shocks and the demand for energy-efficient housing: Evidence from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, (with Bahadir Dursun and Harry Pickard, Newcastle), revise and resubmit
  3. “Crime prevention through private actors: Evidence from a policy change at a large UK supermarket chain” (with Wednesday Croft), revise and resubmit
  4. “Juvenile courts and recidivism” (with Bahadir Dursun and Diego Zambiasi)
  5. “Regional employment and productivity effects from mass lay-offs” (with Wessel Vermeulen, OECD)
  6. “Can unions impose costs on employers in education strikes? Evidence from pension disputes in UK universities” (with Barbara Eberth, Newcastle)
  7. “Assessing the Role of Headteachers for Pupil Outcomes and Workforce Retention in UK Schools: Evidence from Administrative Data” (with Joana Cardim Dias and James Zuccolo, Education Policy Institute) 


Prospective PhD students

I'm happy to supervise students in my areas of interest. Feel free to drop me an email in these cases to discuss an application. Given my interests, PhD projects for which I make some level of sense as a supervisor will inevitably involve data work, often using large scale micro data, and advanced econometrics. I am not interested in time series stuff or the vast majority of finance topics (and you honestly don't want me to supervise this sort of stuff either as I wouldn't have a clue).


PhDs supervised


Hasan Ankara (joint with John Wildman), Field: Health Economics, “Analyses of health and health related policies in Turkey”, 01/2011 - 06/2015, funded by Turkish government, after PhD: Lecturer, Hacettepe University, Ankara; currently Assistant Professor, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul

Muhammad Waqas (joint with John Wildman), Field: Labour Economics, “Investigating aspects of immigration and attitudes towards immigration in England and Wales”, 09/2011 - 12/2015, funded by Peter and Norah Lomas Scholarship in Economics, after PhD: Research Associate, InstEAD, Department of Economics, Sheffield University; currently Lecturer in Economics, University of Bradford

Bo Gao (joint with Sara Maioli and Mich Tvede), Field: International economics, “Firm Exporting Behaviour and Trade Policy in China”, 09/2012 - 09/2016, funded by ESRC doctoral training centre, after PhD: Teaching Fellow, Business School, Durham University; currently Lecturer in Economics, Loughborough University.

Eduardo Gonzalo Almorox (joint with Volodymyr Bilotkach and John Wildman), Field: Health/IO, “Essays on the empirical economics of long term care”, 09/2015 - 06/2019, funded by ESRC doctoral training centre, after PhD/currently: Data Scientist, International Olympic Committee

Ana Noveria (joint with Barbara Eberth and John Wildman), Field: Development/Labour/Health, “Empirical Analysis of Labour, Education, and Health-related Policies in Indonesia”, 09/2016 - 07/2020, funded by Indonesian government, after PhD/currently: Lecturer, School of Business and Management Institute Teknologi Bandung

Saule Kemelbayeva (joint with John Wildman), Field: Education/Labour, “Access and returns to education in Kazakhstan”, 09/2016 - ongoing (viva passed 08/2020), funded by Kazakh government, after PhD/currently: Dean, Higher School of Economics, M. Narikbayev KAZGUU University

Kerry Bray (joint with John Wildman), Field: Immigration/Labour, “Attitudes to immigration in times of crisis: Austerity, cuts, and media attention”, 9/2017 - 09/2021, funded by NUBS scholarship, job after PhD: Technical Analyst, CloudTrade, currently Policy Analyst, Valuation Office Agency

Liangxun Xie (joint with Smriti Sharma and John Wildman), “Planes, prices, and pay: Contributions to the economics of the public sector and public infrastructure”, 09/2019 - 03/2024 (viva), funded by Peter and Norah Lomas Scholarship in Economics 



Refereeing

Journals


Aggression and Violent Behavior, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Applied Economics (2x), Applied Economics Letters, Applied Economics Quarterly (Special Issue ``The Internationalisation of Services''), BE Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy (2x), British Journal of Industrial Relations (3x), British Journal of Sociology (2x), Cities, Contemporary Economic Policy, Criminology, Demography, Economica (3x), Economic Inquiry (4x), Economic Journal (4x), Economics and Human Biology (2x), European Journal of Health Economics, Economics of Education Review, Education Economics, Empirical Economics, Global Health Research and Policy (2x), Health Economics (2x), Housing Policy Debate, International Economics and Economic Policy, International Journal of Human Resource Management (4x), International Journal of Manpower (2x), International Migration Review, IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik (10x), Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (2x), Journal of Business Ethics (4x), Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Crime and Justice, Journal of Demographic Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (5x), Journal of Economic Inequality, Journal of Economic Psychology (3x), Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Journal of Health Economics (5x), Journal of Housing Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Labor Research (2x), Journal of Political Economy: Microeconomics, Journal of Population Economics (2x), Journal of Public Economics (2x), Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Regional Science (3x), Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Journal of Urban Economics, Labour, Labour Economics (6x), Manchester School, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Oxford Economic Papers (2x), Paper in Regional Science, Political Studies, Real Estate Economics (2x), Regional Science and Urban Economics (4x), Regional Studies, Review of Development Economics, Review of Economics of the Household (2x), Review of International Political Economy, Schmollers Jahrbuch (7x), Small Business Economics, Social Science and Medicine (4x), Southern Economic Journal, Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment (2x), Urban Studies (2x), World Bank Economic Review, World Development, Zeitschrift fuer ArbeitsmarktForschung/Journal for Labour Market Research (10x)


Grant awarding bodies, other activities

Grants: ESRC Peer Review College (2024--ongoing), EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre, ESRC grants (6x), ESRC centre competition, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Veni grant, Scottish Economic Society small grant scheme

Programme committee, Scottish Economic Society conference 2021

Programme committee/co-organiser (with David Jaeger, St. Andrews), Scotland and Northern England Applied Microeconomics Workshops Crieff Hydro Hotel, 2022, 2023, 2024

PhD applications for ESRC North East Doctoral Training Centre (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)

External examiner/referee for PhDs, Habilitations and chair promotions in England, Germany and Macau

External examiner UG Economics programmes, University of Aberdeen (09/2019 - )


Conference presentations (* coauthor, ^ multiple papers)


Academy of Management Annual Meeting (2010*)

American Economic Association (2011)

Asian and Australasian Society of Labour Economics (2019*)

European Association of Labour Economists (2007, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 , 2018*)

Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association (2020*)

European Economic Association (2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2020)

European Society for Population Economics (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017*)

Royal Economic Society (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016*, 2019*)

Scottish Economic Society (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 , 2017 )

Verein fuer Socialpolitik (German Economic Association) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)

User Conference of the RDC of the BA at the IAB (2006, 2008, 2010), AFiD Workshop “Nutzung komplexer Datenbestaende der amtlichen Statistik” ’ (2010); DIME-ISGEP Workshop “Firm Selection and Country Competitiveness” (2010), Goettinger Workshop Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen (2010), ZEW/IAB- Workshop “Spatial Dimensions of the Labour Market” (2010), CREPS (2006, 2010), Statistische Woche (2009), G-Forum (2006, 2007)



Teaching

Current undergraduate teaching

I usually teach ECO3008 Advanced Econometric Analysis, a course focused on causal inference and quasi-experimental methods

Current postgraduate teaching

n/a

Current PhD teaching

I teach a specialised course on causal inference and quasi-experimental methods and co-teach a course on research practice for PhD students in economics and related fields.

Full list of present/past courses:

Undergraduate:
  • Advanced Econometric Analysis (Newcastle, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24)
  • Economic Applications (Newcastle, 2012/12, 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20)
  • British Economy (Newcastle, 2011/12)
  • Introductory Economics (Newcastle 2010/11, 2011/12)
  • Statistical Methods for Economics (Newcastle, 2010/11)
  • Economics of Happiness (Lueneburg, 2009/10)
  • Causal inference and treatment effect estimation (Lueneburg, 2008/09)
  • Current Topics in Labor Economics and Social Policy (Lueneburg, 2008/09)
Postgraduate (taught):
  • Cross sectional and panel econometrics (Newcastle, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18)
  • Intro to Maths and Stats (Newcastle, 2010/11, 2011/12)
  • Methods of Public Economics, Law and Politics I (Quantitative methods) (Lueneburg 2009/10)
PhD:
  • Causal inference and applied microeconometrics (Newcastle 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24)
  • Research Practice in Economics and Finance (2022/23, 2023/24)
  • Causal inference and quasi-experimental methods (Newcastle, 2011/12, 2013/14, 2015/16, 2017/18, 2019/20; Lueneburg 2008/09, 2014/15; HEFCE 05/2017)
  • Applied Microeconometrics (Newcastle, 2012/13, 2014/15, 2016/17)
  • Applied Econometrics (Lueneburg, 2009/10)
  • Empirics in a Nutshell (Lueneburg, 2008/09)


Publications