“It is not enough to collect and use the data without understanding the deeper insight of it. You should have travelled the countries you want to research about to model the economy adequately. This can differ quite much from country to country. “ – Ansgar Belke, University of Duisburg-Essen
We share in collective mourning at Ansgar Belke’s passing away on July 22, 2020. He was an Executive Committee member of the International Atlantic Economic Society (2015-2018) as well as a Best Undergraduate Paper Award judge, reading over undergraduate papers and reviewing them. Dr. Belke was a bright man, always finding a way to help someone with his words or his time. We at the International Atlantic Economic Society hope to honor his memory.
Ansgar Belke was a Professor of Macroeconomics, an “ad personam” Jean Monnet Chair for Macroeconomics, and Director of the Institute of Business and Economic Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He was also a Research Professor at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Brussels. His main areas of interest were international macroeconomics, monetary economics, European integration and applied econometrics. He served as a consultant to the Monetary Committee for the European Parliament, Czech National Bank and served as editor of multiple journals. Dr. Belke was ranked among the top 30 most influential German-speaking economist by the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung.
Dr. Belke was President of the European Economics and Finance Society (EEFS) and was a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of IAW Tubingen, the Council of “Arbeitskreis Europäische Integration” (AEI), the “Institut für Europäische Politik” (IEP), the Executive Committee of the International Atlantic Economic Society (IAES), and the Scientific Committee of the International Network for Economic Research (INFER). He was also a Research Fellow at IZA Bonn, the Global Labor Organization (GLO) and at CELSI, Bratislava; a member of the professional central bank watch group “ECB Observer”; a member of the Bureau of European Policy Analysis (BEPA) Visitors’ Programme of the European Commission; an external consultant to DG ECFIN of the European Commission; and an external consultant to the European Union Committee of the House of Lords (UK). He had conducted successful research projects on behalf of the German Bundesbank, the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry of Finance, and the German Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, among other organizations. He obtained his BA and MA in Economics in Münster, Paris, and Kiel, and a PhD in Economics and Habilitation in Economics and Econometrics from the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
He published in international refereed journals and other outlets, and made regular appearances in the print media and in national and international television broadcasts. He was ranked 19th in the Handelsblatt’s 2017 research ranking of more than 3,000 German-speaking economists. He was among the top 1% in the European Repec/Ideas ranking, and has h-indices of 22 (CitEc), 22 (Scopus) and 43 (Google Scholar). He had been the keynote lecturer at a wide array of conferences, among them the Blockchain Economic Forum (BEF) in Davos, Switzerland in 2019, the Koç University—TÜSİAD Economic Research Forum (ERF) Conference “EU Negotiations, Customs Union, and Economic Growth” in 2017, and at the “Greek Government Roundtable” in Athens, Greece in 2014. He was the plenary speaker at the ECOMOD Conference in Bali, hosted by the Bank of Indonesia, in 2014. He was the keynote speaker at the the “Asan Plenum” and “The Economist Bellwether Series Conference”, both in Seoul, South Korea in 2012, and at the “Jeddah Economic Forum” in Jeddah, Saudi-Arabia, the “Global Economic Forum” in Istanbul, Turkey, and the international conference “Policies for Growth and Financial Stability beyond the Crisis—The Scope for Global Cooperation” in Mumbai, India in 2010.
He liked to spend his spare time with family and traveling. He also found enjoyment in sports such as volleyball and cycling.
Selected Recent Publications: “Equilibrium Real Interest Rates, Secular Stagnation, and the Financial Cycle: Empirical Evidence for Euro-Area Member Countries” (with Jens Klose), Economic Modelling; “Exchange Rate Bands of Inaction and Hysteresis in EU Exports to the Global Economy – The Role of Uncertainty” (with Dominik Kronen), Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 46 (2019); “Did Interest Rates at the Zero Lower Bound Affect Lending of Commercial Banks? Evidence for the Euro Area” (with Christian Dreger), ROME Working Paper No. 2019/07, “Research on Money in the Economy” ROME, 2019; “Depression and Grief as a Result of Economic and Financial Crises – The Example of Greece and Some Generalisations”, Economic Change and Restructuring 2019; “Forecasting ECB Policy Rates with Different Monetary Policy Rules” (with Jens Klose), Ruhr Economic Paper 815, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen 2019; “QE in the Euro Area: Has the PSPP Benefited Peripheral Bonds?” (with Daniel Gros), Ruhr Economic Paper 803, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen 2019. “Monetary Policy and Stock Prices – Cross-Country Evidence from Cointegrated VAR Models” (with J. Beckmann), Journal of Banking and Finance, 2015; “Does Global Liquidity Drive Commodity Prices?” (with J. Beckmann and R. Czudaj), Journal of Banking and Finance, 2014; “Interest Rate Pass-Through in the EMU – New Evidence from Nonlinear Cointegration Techniques for Fully Harmonized Data” (with J. Beckmann and F. Verheyen), Journal of International Money and Finance, 2013.
Selected Professional Activities: Editor, Credit and Capital Markets – Kredit und Kapital; Editor, Konjunkturpolitik – Applied Economics Quarterly; Editor, Financial and Monetary Policy Studies; Research Associate, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS); Research Fellow, IZA Bonn and CELSI; President, European Economics and Finance Society (EEFS); Member, Monetary Experts Panel, European Parliament; Scientific Committee, International Network for Economic Research (INFER); Member, ECB Observer (professional central bank watchers group).