Dr. Steffen Murau
Research Group Leader in International Political Economy
I am a political economist specialized in international money and finance.
My research covers four major themes: private credit money accommodation, the international monetary system, the European Monetary Union, and financing large-scale transformations.
Currently, I work as the principal investigator of the OBFA-TRANSFORM project, an Emmy Noether research group at Global Climate Forum in Berlin. I am also a fellow at the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements.
Moreover, I teach political economy courses at Freie Universität Berlin. In the winter term 2022-23, I worked as a lecturer at Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München.
Previously, I had postdoctoral affiliations at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs of Harvard University, the Global Development Policy Center of Boston University, the City Political Economy Research Centre (CITYPERC) at City, University of London, and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam.
I hold a PhD in International Political Economy from City, University of London (2017); a Magister Artium in political science, philosophy and international law from LMU München (2012); and a Bachelor of Science in economics from LMU München (2011). In 2015, I was a visiting doctoral research scholar at Columbia University, New York.
Research themes
The political economy of the modern credit money system
Private Credit Money Accommodation
Private credit money accommodation is a theory on the long-run transformation of the modern credit money system. During financial upswings, new forms of private credit money emerge as “shadow money”. At the end of the boom, they implode in a systemic financial crisis. When the state steps in and guarantees them, they are “accommodated” into the public money supply. Public money today is accommodated private credit money of the past.
International Monetary System
The international monetary system of the 21st century should be understood as Offshore US Dollar System. This arrangement has gradually evolved since the 1950s and replaced the state-planned Bretton Woods System when it collapsed in the 1970s. Today, international monetary affairs are primarily organized through private banks and shadow banks that use the US dollar as the unit of account and operate offshore, outside of the US monetary jurisdiction.
European Monetary Union
The European Monetary Union is a unique experiment in monetary history. Its initial design only made central bank money truly European, but left commercial bank and shadow bank money predominantly national. After a decade of smooth sailing, it entered into crisis mode in 2009 and has never fully recovered. Through endogenous change and political interventions, it now has an architecture that nobody has planned. It is continuously transforming and difficult to govern.
Financing Large-Scale Transformations
The Green Transition to net-zero carbon emissions is the greatest challenge of our age. We broadly know what technically needs to happen, but where should the money come from to pay for it? Financing large-scale transformations is a process that requires macro-financial governance, which involves manufacturing an initial balance sheet expansion, organizing long-term funding, stabilizing against financial crises, and facilitating an orderly final contraction.
GEGI Studies
A series of studies that represents the Eurozone in today's Offshore US-Dollar System as a hierarchical web of interlocking balance sheets. Published by the Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) at the Global Development Policy (GDP) Center of Boston University.
Affiliations
Funding bodies
