Moritz Schularick

Professor of Economics and Economic History

John F. Kennedy Institute of the Free University of Berlin

Moritz Schularick is professor of economics at the John F. Kennedy Institute of the Free University of Berlin, Germany. He has also been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University and worked in the financial industry for several years. His current work focuses on credit cycles, the determinants of financial crises, and the international monetary system. Together with Niall Ferguson, he coined the term “Chimerica” to describe the intimate financial relations between the United States and China. Working at the crossroads of monetary and international economics as well as economic history, his contributions can be found in the American Economic Review, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Economic Growth, the Journal of Economic History, and several other journals.

My Video Content

Moritz Schularick: Instability in Financial Markets 4/5

Moritz Schularick, Professor of Economics and Economic History, Free University of Berlin speaking at the breakout panel entitled "Instability in Financial Markets: Sources and Remedies" at the Institute for New Economic Thinking's (INET) Paradigm Lost Conference in Berlin. April 14, 2012. #inetberlin

Discussion and Q&A: Instability in Financial Markets 5/5

Discussion and Q&A at the panel entitled "Managing the Global Commons: Growth, Inequality, and New Thinking for Sustainable Economics" at the Institute for New Economic Thinking's (INET) Paradigm Lost Conference in Berlin. April 14, 2012. #inetberlin

Moritz Schularick: Credit Booms Gone Bust

About the Interview

Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff tell the history of financial crisis as a tale of excessive public debt. But what more commonly drives financial instability, says Moritz Schularick, is excessive private debt. Financial crises are credit booms gone bust. Schularick and his collaborators compile a long-run data set of disaggregated credit flows, separating loans for productive investment from loans for the purchase of existing assets. A marriage of economic history and modern statistical methods to investigate the role of finance in the macroeconomy -- this is new economic thinking.