Florian Scheuer has been Chairman of the UZH Department of Economics since the beginning of 2023. In an interview with Oec. Magazin, he reveals his goals as director of the institute and how he will ensure that the renowned institute remains a pioneer in the future.

This interview by Jasmin Rippstein was originally published in German in Oec. Magazin, June 2023. Translated and edited for layout purposes by the UBS Center.

Florian Scheuer, you have an impressive academic career behind you, have received many awards for your research, and are now also the chairman of the Department of Economics. Why did you decide to take on this additional task?

We all benefit from the pioneering work of my predecessors, who built up our institute and made it a success. Now it is up to my generation to lead the department into the future, and I am happy to make my contribution. My Stanford colleague Jon Levin, who was department chair during my time there, said at the time that it was a 50% job, but the problem is that it takes up every other minute...

The Department of Economics is one of the world's most renowned research centers for economics. What is the secret of this success?

We are committed to a consistent strategy of excellence. We want to be a globally leading institute and attract the best researchers to Zurich. To this end, we have increased the proportion of third-party funding massively and continue to pursue our own active fundraising strategy, which enables us to grow. We invest a lot of effort in headhunting and filling professorships. And we operate a competitive graduate school with an international orientation based on the Anglo-Saxon model, where we train the next generation of scientists.

How would you like to further (strengthen) this pioneering role?

We have high expectations for our professors’ research performance. This also means that we sometimes must be patient enough to leave a professorship vacant for a long time until we find the right person. In addition to research excellence, we also want to contribute to overcoming specific current challenges. These include, for example, economic policy issues relating to sustainability, digitalization, inequality, and globalization. Modern economic research is of enormous relevance in many social debates, and we would like to make our presence felt there as well.

What is currently the biggest challenge for the Department?

The proportion of women remains a challenge, not only at our institute, but in our field in general. Outstanding female economists are particularly hard to attract in the academic market because of their small numbers. We pursue two strategies in this regard: First, we systematically approach female economists with invitations to give seminar lectures, guest visits, and workshops in order to identify potential candidates for professorships at an early stage, if possible before they come to the attention of our competitors. Second, we pay close attention to the proportion of women in our PhD program in order to increase the pool of excellent female economists in the long term.

How do you experience the current students?

Since arriving in Zurich six years ago, I have been impressed by the quality and dedication of our students. I find the interaction with them one of the greatest privileges of my job. I am particularly pleased with initiatives such as the EconClub, our student association, and ECON Alumni, our alumni association, both of which regularly organize great activities. Our goal is for them to become the hub of the broader economist community in Zurich.

What would you, as the new chair of the institute, like to see from the university?

The University of Zurich (UZH) is doing many things right, and we are grateful for the good institutional framework that has enabled our success to date. The competition becomes continuously more intense, and it will be crucial that we continue to keep up with the academic competition. Universities in the USA and increasingly also in Europe can offer their top researchers increasingly attractive conditions. This applies not only to salaries but also to research funding, infrastructure, and office space. We must be able to react flexibly to these changing requirements.