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UBS Center Newsletter
Dear reader
With Christmas just around the corner, we would like
to share recent highlights of the UBS Center with you.
We look back at a very successful Forum on the Eco-
nomics of War and Peace, which took place in No-
vember 2015. After the devastating attacks in Paris,
the event took an unexpected and somber signifi-
cance. It was a great privilege for the UBS Center to
host Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dr. Mohamed El-
Baradei, who opened the forum with a powerful and
moving address. Furthermore, the interest in the Zu-
rich Lecture of Economics in Society on The Past,
Present and Future of Violence by Prof. Steven Pinker
of Harvard University was immense.
The UBS Center is pleased to announce that, in the new
academic year, Hans-Joachim Voth was appointed to
the Professorship in Macroeconomics and Financial
Markets, endowed by the UBS Center. On that occa-
sion, we are pleased to feature his work on the econom-
ic history of conflict and sovereign debt in this issue, in
which he offers a historic perspective on two themes
that have been dominating the headlines for months.
A special welcome goes to our two new assistant pro-
fessors, both endowed by the UBS Center. David Hé-
mous, formerly of INSEAD in Paris, was appointed
Assistant Professor in the Economics of Innovation &
Entrepreneurship, and Pietro Biroli, formerly of the
University of Chicago, Assistant Professor of Econom-
ics. We also extend this warm welcome to our two
promising UBS Center Scholarship holders who joined
the Zurich Graduate School of Economics in Septem-
ber 2015.
Furthermore, we are proud to launch the fourth UBS
Center Public Paper, which focuses on how computers
have changed our working life. The author, David
Dorn, raises the question whether computers are just
about to take over from humans.
We wish you an interesting read and hope to welcome
you at one of our future events. But first of all, Sea-
son’s Greetings to you all.
Ernst Fehr
Fabrizio Zilibotti
Director
Scientific Director
No. 6, December 2015
Mohamed ElBaradei speaks at the Forum for Economic Dialogue
Content
Research......................2
Publications. ................7
Dialogue and Events.......9
Scholarships............... 14
Outlook. ..................... 15