Kerstin Unfried

Kerstin Unfried was a research assistant and PhD graduate at the Chair of International Economic Policy. She studied Economics at the University of Freiburg and Psychology at the University of Hagen. In March 2021, she successfully defended her PhD at the University of Göttingen on "The causes and consequences of violent conflict". Currently she is a postdoctoral researcher at the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Her research focuses on the long-term consequences of conflicts. Moreover, she is interested in topics dealing with economic policy, global development, health, and the interlinkages between psychology and economics.
Please go to her personal website for further information.

Research projects


  • Unfried, Kerstin and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2020): The heterogenous effects of conflict on education: A spatial analysis in Sub-Saharan Africa, IZA discussion paper no. 13069, Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn. (fth. Journal of Peace Research)
  • Unfried, Kerstin, Marcela Ibanez Diaz and Lina Restrepo Plaza (2021): Discrimination and intergroup contact in post-conflict settings: Experimental evidence from Colombia. (fth. World Development)
  • Unfried, Kerstin, Tilman Poser and Krisztina Kis-Katos (2021): Water scarcity and conflict, IZA discussion paper no. 14707, Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn. (fth. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management)
  • Kammerlander, Andreas and Kerstin Unfried (2021): Sending peace home?! The effects of political favoritism on conflict.
  • Unfried, Kerstin and Feicheng Wang (2021): Plastic waste imports and air pollution: Evidence from China.
  • Dreher, Axel, Andreas Fuchs, Andreas Kammerlander, Lennart Kaplan, Charlotte Robert and Kerstin Unfried (2021): Light of their life: country leaders' spouses and regional favoritism.

  • Conference presentations


    • European Public Choice Society Meeting, April 2017 in Budapest, April 2019 in Jerusalem, April 2021 online
    • Annual Conference of the European Society for Population Economics, June 2017 in Glasgow
    • Jan Tinbergen European Peace Science Conference, June 2017 in Antwerpen
    • 14th Annual HiCN Workshop, October 2018 in Medellin
    • Doctoral workshop of the Development Economics Commitee of the German Economic Association (AEL-FHM), May 2019 in Mannheim
    • Annual Conference of the Research Group on Development Economics, German Economic Association, June 2017 in Goettingen and June 2019 in Berlin

      • Teaching experience


        • Tutorial: Makroökonomik II
          (Bachelor, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
        • Seminar: Schooling in developing countries: current issues
          (Bachelor, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
        • Seminar: The causes and consequences of conflict
          (Bachelor, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
        • Tutorial: Empirical political economy
          (Master, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
        • Tutorial: Urban economics
          (Bachelor, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
        • Tutorial: International Economic Policy
          (Bachelor, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)