Research department

Department of Macro, International and Labour Economics (MILE)

The Department Macro, International and Labour Economics has an international reputation for excellent teaching and research. Our department members are specialists in the fields of Macroeconomics, Monetary Economics, Labour Economics, Education, International Economics, Innovation and Growth, and Economic Policy.

Fast facts

30 full time faculty and 25 PhD students
excellence in research and education
education in three undergraduate programmes
education in seven graduate programmes

In the spotlight

Inaugural lecture Mark Sanders 25 October 2021

Mark Sanders appointed as professor of International Economics at SBE will accept this position with the delivery of an inaugural lecture on Monday 25th of October 2021 at 13.00 in the aula of Maastricht University, Minderbroedersberg 4-6 Maastricht

Title of his lecture is: Enter the Prince of Denmark; Entrepreneurship for a Resilient and Sustainable Economy.

This lecture is part of the launchweek of the Maastricht Observatory on Responsible, Resilient and Sustainable Societies, Economics and Enterprises (MORSE). Please check the website here: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/morse

Joan Muysken Lecture by Robert Skidelsky on Monday 8 November 2021

The next Joan Muysken lecture will take place on Monday 8 November 2021

Speaker: Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus professor of political economy, Warwick University

Title of Lecture: The Human Condition in the Age of Machines

In the past humans used machines, but did not live in a machine age. In other words, machines did not determine their conditions of life. These conditions barely changed over thousands of years. Today, we depend on machines for the way we work, the way we think, and the way we live. The machine age has come in a rush. It raises three questions. How and why has it come about? What has been its effect on the human condition? And what influence, if any, do we have on the further ‘march of the machines’? This lecture addresses these three questions.

Date: Monday 8 November 2021

Time: 20.00-21.30

Location: Franz Palm Lecture Hall, Tongersestraat 53 Maastricht

Robert Skidelsky is emeritus professor of political economy at Warwick University. His numerous, award-winning books includeKeynes: The Return of the Master (2010), a discussion of John Maynard Keynes and the urgent relevance of his ideas in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and How Much is Enough? The Love of Money and the Case for the Good Life (2012), co-written with his son Edward Skidelsky. A member of the House of Lords since 1991, Skidelsky was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1994. His most recent book is Money and Government (2018) in which he argues against the orthodoxy of small-state neoclassical economics in favour of Keynes’ “big idea”.

For registration: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/events/studium-generale-human-condition-age-machines

This lecture is organized by the School of Business and Economics (SBE) and Studium Generale. The Joan Muysken lecture has been named after Joan Muysken, SBE’s first professor in macroeconomics (1984-2014) and who was the founding father of the department of Economics of SBE.

Trudie Schils appointed as full professor at the chair “The Economics of Education” in our department as of June 1.

Trudie Schils will be appointed as full professor at the chair “The Economics of Education” in our department as of June 1. This chair aims to investigate current questions in the domain of education by using economic theory and empirical research methods as a starting point, complemented with insights from multidisciplinary cooperation and by actively collaborating with educational policymakers and practitioners. The main research area of the chair is to study the relation between cognitive ability, social-emotional skills and outcomes in education and at the labour market. Education is one of the key factors that can explain economic growth and is a central element in the literature on skill-biased technological change. A better understanding of the relations between skill development in schools and several outcomes on the individual and aggregate level can add to the explanation of observed country differences in macroeconomic outcomes. Some of the questions in this area are: What is the predictive power of cognitive ability and social-emotional skills for various outcomes? How can cognitive ability and social-emotional skills be measured in education? Which (undesired) inequalities do we observe in the development of both types of skills, or in their relation with relevant outcomes at the individual and aggregate level?

The full-time chair will be partially endowed (0.2 fte) by Stichting Solberg-Verlinden, facilitated by University Fund Limburg (SWOL). The endowed part focuses on the above questions in relation to the transition from primary to secondary education. As of the second half of primary school, children enter a new learning phase, where they develop new skills – including social-emotional skills such as planning, communication, creative thinking, being able to work independently-, and where they transit to secondary school. This involves the choice of an educational track that fits the students’ talents and needs. Instruments are needed as a basis for this tracking decision, including teacher recommendations. The chair holder will actively contribute to the development of assessment instruments that teachers can use in practice to support their tracking recommendation in the transition from primary to secondary education.

Link to UM profile page: maastrichtuniversity.nl/t.schils

Link to personal website: trudieschils.nl

About us

Fields: Macroeconomics, Labour Economics, International Economics, Education Economics
Section head: Clemens Kool
Secretaries: Silvana de Sanctis, Marion Muitjens
Management: Sylvia Beenen

Contact

Secretarial office MILE:
Room A0.03
Phone: +31 43 38-83821
Fax: +31 43 38-82000

Mailing address:
Department of Economics
P.O.Box 616
6200 MD Maastricht
The Netherlands