Krisztina Kis-Katos

Krisztina Kis-Katos joined the University of Göttingen as professor for International Economic Policy in 2016.

She studied Economics in Szeged and Konstanz, attended the Swiss Doctoral Program at the Study Center Gerzensee, and received her doctoral degree in Economics in 2010 at the University of Freiburg in Germany.

Her research interests lie in the fields of applied development economics and political economy. Her recent research projects focus on the effects of (de-)globalization and more generally of macro-economic processes or related public policies on a range of social and economic outcomes, including labor market and firm outcomes, land use change and deforestation, or conflict.

Current memberships and affiliations

Chairwoman of the Standing Field Committee of Development Economics of the German Economic Association (Verein für Socialpolitik)
Chairwoman of the Scientific Advisory Board of RWI Leibniz Institute for Economic Research
IZA research fellow; RWI research fellow
Associate editor of the Journal of Labour Market Research
Editorial board member of the European Journal of Political Economy
Editorial board member of the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies
Member of the Scientific Advisory Council of IfW, The Kiel Institute for the World Economy

Current third-party funded projects

BMZ-DEval funded "Rigorous Impact Evaluation": "Ecological and socio-economic effects of the forest restoration program PLAE in Madagascar", 2023-2025, PI

DFG-funded long-term panel project "Thailand-Vietnam Socioeconomic Panel (TVSEP)" (U. of Hanover and U. of Göttingen), 2020-2023 project management, 2024-2027 PI

DFG-funded Research Training Group (RTG) 2654: "Sustainable Food Systems" (U. of Göttingen), 2021-2025, PI, member of the management board

Leibniz Association, Leibniz-Kooperative Exzellenz, Project: “China in Africa: Exploring the Economic and Social Consequences” (IfW Kiel and U. of Göttingen), 2021-2024, PI


Past third-party funded projects and selected honors

2018-2023: DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre 990: "Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia)" (U. Göttingen), PI
2021-2023: EU Horizon 2020, Marie-Currie Project: "PlanetHealth: From human to planetary health: Global land-use impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic" (U. Göttingen and U. Texas, Austin), Supervisor
2020–2022: Spokesperson of the Research Training Group (RTG) 1723: “Globalisation and Development” (U. Göttingen and Hannover, PI from 2018)
2019 Teaching prize for the best doctoral course in RTG 1723, University of Göttingen
2014 Teaching prize of the Student Union of Economics of the University of Freiburg for best master course
2013 BMZ/GIZ Public Policy Award
2011 Friedrich-August-von-Hayek-award (First dissertation prize of the Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences of the University of Freiburg)
2011 Excellence award of the KfW Development Bank for policy relevant development research (First dissertation prize)

Current working papers

Alexandra Avdeenko, Maximilian Kaiser, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Leonie Reher (2024): Sanctions, sales, and stigma: A tale on the performance of international brands in Russia, SSRN.

Tobias Hellmundt, Elías Cisneros, Krisztina Kis-Katos (2024): Land-use transformation and conflict: The effects of oil palm expansion in Indonesia, SSRN.

Esther Gehrke, Robert Genthner, and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2024): Regulating manufacturing FDI: Local labor market effects of a protectionist policy in Indonesia, IZA Discussion Paper 16835, IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn.

Elías Cisneros, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Jan Priebe and Lennart Reiners (2023): Cash transfers and violent crime in Indonesian communities, SSRN.

Marina Dodlova, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Anna Kochanova and Olivia Wirth (2023): Mobile technologies and firm formalization: Evidence from Uganda, WIDER Working Paper 2023/99, Helsinki: UNU-WIDER.

Elías Cisneros, Tobias Hellmundt and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2023): Oil palm expansion and the economics of forest fragmentation, SSRN.

Elías Cisneros, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Lennart Reiners (2023): Losing territory: The effects of administrative splits on land use in the tropics, SSRN.

Andreas Fuchs, Lennart Kaplan, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Sebastian S. Schmidt, Felix Turbanisch and Feicheng Wang (2022): Tracking Chinese aid through China Customs: Darlings and orphans after the COVID-19 outbreak, SSRN.

Andreas Fuchs, Lennart Kaplan, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Sebastian S. Schmidt, Felix Turbanisch and Feicheng Wang (2020): Mask wars: China’s exports of medical goods in times of COVID-19, cege Discussion Paper No. 398, Center of European, Governance and Development Research, University of Göttingen, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3661798.

Articles in refereed journals

Elias Cisneros and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2024): Unintended environmental consequences of anti-corruption strategies, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103073.

Kerstin Unfried and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2023): The heterogeneous effects of conflict on education: A spatial analysis in Sub-Saharan Africa, Journal of Peace Research, https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433221099557.

Fabian Wölk, Tingting Yuan, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Xiaoming Fu (2023): A temporal-spatial analysis on the socioeconomic development of rural villages in Thailand and Vietnam based on satellite image data, Computer Communications, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comcom.2023.02.017.

Feicheng Wang, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Minghai Zhou (2022): Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China, Journal of Human Resources, https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.1220-11399R3.

Jacqueline Seufert, Andre Python, Christoph Weisser, Elías Cisneros, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Thomas Kneib (2022): Mapping ex-ante spatial risks of COVID-19 in Indonesia using a Bayesian geostatistical model on airport network data, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, http://doi.org/10.1111/rssa.12866.

Kerstin Unfried, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Tilman Poser (2022): Water scarcity and social conflict, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2022.102633, earlier version at IZA DP.

Robert Genthner and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2022): Foreign investment regulation and firm productivity: Granular evidence from Indonesia, Journal of Comparative Economics, 50 (3): 668-687, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2022.02.003.

Gillian Kant, Levin Wiebelt, Christoph Weisser, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Mattias Luber, Benjamin Säfken (2022) An iterative topic model filtering framework for short and noisy user-generated data: Analyzing conspiracy theories on twitter, International Journal of Data Science and Analytics, https://10.1007/s41060-022-00321-4.

Christoph Weisser, Friederike Lenel, Yao Lu, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Thomas Kneib (2021): Using solar panels for business purposes: Evidence based on high-frequency power usage data, Development Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.deveng.2021.100074.

Elías Cisneros, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Nunung Nuryartono (2021): Palm oil and the politics of deforestation in Indonesia, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 108, 102453, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2021.102453, Earlier version at SSRN.

Felix Stips and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2020): The impact of co-national networks on asylum seekers' employment: Quasi-experimental evidence from Germany, PLOS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236996.

Patrick Meyfroidt, Jan Börner, Rachael Garrett, Toby Gardner, Javier Godar, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Britaldo Soares-Filho, Sven Wunder (2020): Focus on leakage and spillovers: informing land-use governance in a tele-coupled world, Environmental Research Letters, 15, 090202

Krisztina Kis-Katos, Janneke Pieters and Robert Sparrow (2018): Globalization and social change: Gender-specific effects of trade liberalization in Indonesia, IMF Economic Review, 66(4): 763-793, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41308-018-0065-5.

Krisztina Kis-Katos and Bambang S. Sjahrir (2017): The impact of fiscal and political decentralization on local public investment in Indonesia, Journal of Comparative Economics, 45(2): 344-365, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2017.03.003.

Krisztina Kis-Katos and Robert Sparrow (2015): Poverty, labour markets and trade liberalization in Indonesia, Journal of Development Economics, 117: 94-106, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.07.005.

Jan Börner, Krisztina Kis-Katos, Jorge Hargrave and Konstantin König (2015): Post-Crackdown Effectiveness of Field-Based Forest Law Enforcement in the Brazilian Amazon, PLoS ONE, 10(4): e0121544,

Krisztina Kis-Katos, Helge Liebert and Günther G. Schulze (2014): On the Heterogeneity of Terror, European Economic Review, 68: 116-136. Stata Code for encoding terror groups

Bambang Suharnoko Sjahrir, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Günther G. Schulze (2014): Administrative Overspending in Indonesian Districts: The Role of Local Politics, World Development, 59: 166-183, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.01.008.

Bambang Suharnoko Sjahrir, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Günther G. Schulze (2013): Political Budget Cycles in Indonesia at the District Level, Economics Letters, 120 (2): 342-345, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2013.05.007.

Jorge Hargrave and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2013): Economic Causes of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: A Panel Data Analysis for the 2000s, Environmental and Resource Economics, 54 (4): 471-494.

Krisztina Kis-Katos (2012): Gender Differences in Work-Schooling Decisions in Rural North India, Review of Economics of the Household, 10 (4): 491-519.

Krisztina Kis-Katos, Helge Liebert and Günther G. Schulze (2011): On the Origin of Domestic and International Terrorism, European Journal of Political Economy, 27 (Suppl.1): 17-36.

Krisztina Kis-Katos and Günther G. Schulze: (2011): Child Labour in Indonesian Small Industries, Journal of Development Studies, 47 (12): 1887-1908.

Krisztina Kis-Katos and Robert Sparrow (2011): Child Labor and Trade Liberalization in Indonesia, Journal of Human Resources, 46 (4): 722-749, https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.46.4.722.

Mathias Czaika and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2009): Civil Conflict and Displacement - Village-Level Determinants of Forced Migration in Aceh, Journal of Peace Research, 46 (3): 399-418.

Krisztina Kis-Katos (2007): Does Globalization Reduce Child Labor?, Journal of International Trade and Economic Development, 19 (1): 71-92.

Conference articles, invited articles, articles in collected volumes and other publications

Fabian Wölk, Tingting Yuan, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Xiaoming Fu (2021): Measuring Consumption Changes in Rural Villages based on Satellite Image Data -- A Case Study for Thailand and Vietnam, The 17th IEEE International Conference on Mobility, Sensing and Networking (MSN 2021), Exeter, UK, IEEE, 12/2021.

Andreas Buchmüller, Gillian Kant, Christoph Weisser, Benjamin Säfken, Thomas Kneib, Krisztina Kis-Katos (2021), Twitmo: Twitter Topic Modeling and Visualization for R. R package version 0.1.2., https://cran.r-project.org/package=Twitmo.

Mattias Luber, Christoph Weisser, Benjamin Säfken, Alexander Silbersdorff, Thomas Kneib and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2021): Identifying Topical Shifts in Twitter Streams: An Integration of Non-negative Matrix Factorisation, Sentiment Analysis and Structural Break Models for Large Scale Data, in Bright J., Giachanou A., Spaiser V., Spezzano F., George A., Pavliuc A. (Eds), Disinformation in Open Online Media. MISDOOM 2021. Oxford Internet Institute. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 12887, Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87031-7_3

Krisztina Kis-Katos, Janneke Pieters and Robert Sparrow (2018): Gender, labour markets and trade liberalization in Indonesia, in Arianto A. Patunru, A., M. Pangestu, and M.Ch. Basri (eds.) Indonesia in the New World: Globalisation, Nationalism and Sovereignty, Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, pp. 157-179.

Krisztina Kis-Katos and Günther G. Schulze (2014): Context-specificity of economic research: The example of corruption research in Southeast Asia, in Huotari, M., J. Rüland and J. Schlehe (eds.) Methodology and Research Practice in Southeast Asian Studies, London: Palgrave, August 2014, pp. 187-210.

Krisztina Kis-Katos and Günther G. Schulze (2013): Corruption in Southeast Asia: A survey of recent research, Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, 27 (1): 79-109.

Krisztina Kis-Katos and Günther G. Schulze (2005): Regulation of Child Labor, Economic Affairs, 25 (3): 24-30. Reprinted in: Globalization and Free Trade ed. by Phillip Booth and Richard Wellings, Cheltenham/UK: Edward Elgar, chapter 23, 2009.

Krisztina Kis-Katos and Günther G. Schulze (2002): Labor Standards and International Trade, World Economics, 3 (4): 101-129.