Dr. Ulrich Gunter, new Assistant Professor in Economics

Dr. Ulrich Gunter is the newest addition to the department of Tourism and Service Management as Assistant Professor in Economics.

Ulrich is an industry specialist as well as an academic, and comes to us from his last post as a Financial Markets Analyst at the Austrian National Bank (OeNB) from 2010-13. His in-the-field economic experience also includes internships at the Austrian Financial Markets Authority (FMA), Deutsche Bundesbank and the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).

He received a Dipl.-Volkswirt Univ. from the University of Regensburg (equivalent to MSc in Economics with Honors) within the graduate program "Honors in Business, Economics, and Information Systems" by the Elite Network of Bavaria, which is an initiative of the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts to give the best support possible to exceptionally talented students and young researchers at Bavarian universities. During these studies he spent a quarter abroad at Santa Clara University in California.

He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Vienna, where he wrote his dissertation on "Monetary DSGE Models of Two Countries: Set-Up, Estimation, and Forecasting Performance’ for which he received three years of full scholarship within the initiative group "Issues in the Global Economy: Dynamics, Governance, and Information”. Initiative groups are structured doctoral study programs offered by the University of Vienna and are targeted to promote early stage researchers.

Within the realm of tourism, Ulrich's primary research interests are the application of the related economic theory and suitable empirical methods, with a particular focus on forecasting. His additional fields of interest include macroeconomics, monetary policy, banking, financial stability, and sustainable development.

He has previously taught courses in "Principles of Economics", "Introduction to Macroeconomics", and "Applied Econometrics" at the Universities of Regensburg and Vienna, and will begin co-teaching in the "Operational Analysis and Forecasting" in the BBA program together with Dr. Irem Önder in the upcoming semester.

Ulrich is not all about numbers and spreadsheets; he is also pursuing a post-graduate Master of Arts degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Vienna in co-operation with the Austrian Latin America Institute (LAI). His interest in Latin America runs deep – he speaks both Spanish and Portuguese and has been to the region five times so far.

A native of Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany, he is still enraptured with his adopted home of Vienna (except for in January and February, his preferred time for travel: city trips within Europe, or further abroad to the Americas, and Asia). When at home, he’s an avid runner and is currently training for the Vienna half marathon in April.