Employees

Univ.Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer

Projektleitung

Harald Oberhofer is Senior Economist at WIFO and has been working in the Research Group “Indus-trial Economics, Innovation and International Competition” since 2015. He is Professor of Economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. His research interests include International Economics, empirical Industrial Organisation and Applied Econometrics. Harald Oberhofer studied at the University of Innsbruck and holds a doctorate in Economics and So-cial Sciences from the University of Innsbruck. Prior to joining WIFO, he worked as Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Salzburg where he received his habilitation (venia docendi) in Economics. He regularly serves as a consultant to international organisations such as the OECD and the World Bank, where he analyses the impact of institutional regulations on firm performance, also over the business cycle.

Univ.-Doz. Dr. Robert Stehrer

stv. Projektleitung

Robert Stehrer is Scientific Director at wiiw. His expertise covers a broad area of economic research, ranging from issues of international inte-gration, trade and technological development to labour markets and applied econometrics. His recent work has focused on the analysis and effects of internationalisation of production and value added trade on economic performance and labour markets. . He has published in leading journals in these fields and has been working on numerous projects funded by European Research Framework Programmes, notably in EU KLEMS (FP6), WIOD, SPINTAN and PRONTO (all FP7), as well as for international and national clients, such as the Europe-an Commission, the Joint Research Council, the European Central Bank and OECD. He studied economics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, and sociology at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna and is lecturer of economics at the University of Vienna.

Jelena Milosevic

Project-Office

Jelena Milošević is Project Manager at wiiw, where she is mainly responsible for the management of projects funded by the OeNB Jubilee Funds, and the FIW project. She joined wiiw in 2024 and has a background in project management, interpreting and research on socio-cognitive aspects of translation. She has a university degree (M.A.) in Interpreting from the University of Graz.

Mag. Alexander Hudetz

Project-Office

Alexander Hudetz is Senior Economist at WIFO and has been working in the Research Group “Industrial Economics, Innovation and International Competition” since 2014. He holds a Master’s degree in International Development from the University of Vienna. Since 2014, he has headed the project office of the “Research Centre International Economics (FIW)”, which provides support to the Austrian scientific community, offers expert analysis on a number of current policy related issues in the field of international economics and organises several scientific events and lecture series.

Chiara Castelli

PhD-Student

Chiara Castelli is Economist at wiiw and PhD candidate in Economics at the WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business). Her research focuses on foreign direct investment, global value chains, labour markets and environmental protection policies. She holds a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Pisa and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (2020). Previously, she worked as an economic researcher in several institutions, including the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, the University of Brescia (Italy) and the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM, Italy).

Bettina Meinhart

PhD-Student

Bettina Meinhart is economist and has been working in the research area “Industrial Economics, Innovation and International Competition” since 2020. In addition, she is currently studying for a PhD at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Her research focuses on topics of international economics and environmental policy, in particular the relationship between foreign trade and the environment, but also the analysis of transformation and European integration. In her dissertation she deals with applications of the gravity model and works, among other things, on the analysis of environmental norms in trade agreements and on external effects in international trade. In the course of her previous work at WIFO, she participated in projects such as the macro study Transformation and “Just Transition” in Austria or the evaluation of special hardship cases in the context of the National Emissions Trading Act. Bettina Meinhart holds a master’s degree in Political and Empirical Economics, which she completed in the form of a double degree from the Universities of Graz and Udine. She spent part of her master studies in Italy. She also completed her bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of Graz with a focus on environmental economics. Before joining WIFO, Bettina Meinhart worked at Advantage Austria in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Javier Flórez Mendoza

PhD-Student

Javier Flórez Mendoza is Economist at wiiw. His research focuses on international trade, environmental economics and regional economics. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Universidad Santo Tomas Bucaramanga in Colombia and a Master’s degree in International Economics from the University of Tübingen in Germany. Currently he is enrolled in a pre-doc position funded by the FIW.

Isabel Pham

PhD-Student

Isabel Pham has been an economist at WIFO since 2022 and is a PhD candidate in economics at WU Vienna. She is currently working on her PhD as part of a pre-doctoral position funded by FIW.