Tom Schmitz, a Polyglot at the Department of Economics

THE NEW ASSISTANT PROFESSOR INVESTIGATES HOW BUSINESS CYCLES AND GLOBALIZATION AFFECT FIRMS' RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT DECISIONS

Tom Schmitz will be joining the Economics Department as an Assistant Professor this fall from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, where he obtained his Ph.D. in Economics.
 
At Bocconi he expects to be doing research in Macroeconomics and in International Economics and will work with people in the Macroeconomics group (such as Tommaso Monacelli and Nicola Pavoni), and he also hopes to collaborate with Fabiano Schivardi from the Finance Department.
 
He is especially interested in studying how the business cycle or economic globalization affect firms’ research and development decisions, but his research also focuses on the impact of offshoring and on the credit boom and bust in Spain.
 
Tom will be teaching two classes in International Economics – one to the students in the masters program and one to the third year students in the undergraduate program. Both classes will mainly focus on international trade.
 
He looks forward to seeing the San Siro stadium for the first time. He has not decided yet whether to root for Milan or Inter, but the decision will have to happen fast. He would also like to learn Italian. Given how much he likes it and based on the number of languages he has in his arsenal (German, Luxembourgish, Spanish, Catalan, French, and English), learning Italian will be a piece of cake for Tom.

by Bojana Murisic