Matthias Kehrig

Biography

Matthias grew up in Germany and first studied management at the University of Cologne. He quickly switched to economics when a course in macroeconomics piqued his interest in the theoretical underpinnings of the business world. After completing his undergraduate studies in Cologne and Stockholm, he came to the US to pursue a graduate degree at Northwestern University.

Matthias is interested in how macroeconomic fluctuations impact individual firms differently: Do recessions lead to a shakeout of unproductive firms? Or do these firms crumble under the higher competitive pressure in booms? When do highly productive firms enter the economy and advance the state of technology? To answer these questions, Matthias uses Census plant-level data to establish that there are fewer unproductive firms in booms than recessions. In the future, he plans to quantify how much changes in firm composition drive measured aggregate productivity.

Matthias is excited to join the economics department at UT Austin. The department is growing fast and it is committed to building a great macro group. He is looking forward to contribute to this active research and learning environment at UT.