Michèle Tertilt


Michèle Tertilt is a German professor of economics at the University of Mannheim. Prior to joining the University of Mannheim, Michèle Tertilt was an assistant professor at Stanford University. She also spent a year at the University of Pennsylvania and one year as a research fellow at the Hoover Institution . She is currently an editorial board member at the Review of Economic Studies and associate editor of the Journal of Development Economics. In 2017 she received the Yrjö Jahnsson Award – a biennial award by the European Economic Association and the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation to a European economist no older than 45 years old who has made a contribution in theoretical and applied research that is significant to economics in Europe. In September 2013 she was awarded the Gossen Prize – an annual award by the Verein für Socialpolitik which recognizes the best published economist under 45 working in the German-speaking area. Michèle Tertilt is the first woman to win this prestigious German prize in economics.
. Her main focus is around development and intra-family interactions. She has also worked on consumer credit and bankruptcies .

Biography and career

Michèle Tertilt studied economics at Bielefeld University and obtained her PhD from the University of Minnesota. After pursuing her PhD, Michèle Tertilt was an assistant professor at Stanford University for seven years. During that time she also spent a year at the University of Pennsylvania and one year as a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Since 2010 she has been a full professor at the University of Mannheim.

Research

Tertilt's research concentrates on macroeconomics with a special focus on development and intra-family interactions. She has also worked on consumer credit and bankruptcies. Her work has been published in top journals, including the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Review of Economic Studies. Her research has been financed by a European Research Council Starting Grant, through a National Science Foundation CAREER grant, a Sloan Research Fellowship and a NSF grant
Tertilt made important contributions to family economics and household finance. Her work has uncovered the salient implications of gender roles for macroeconomics, development, and fertility. Her research has also contributed to the understanding of the development of consumer credit markets and default rates. Joint with Matthias Doepke, she wrote the chapter "Families in Macroeconomics" for the “,”. This chapter sheds light on "the importance of gender inequality and family dynamics for macro and points to many fruitful avenues for future research", she said in an interview with the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group.

Academic honours & awards