Michael PfarrhoferMP

Assistant Professor · WU Vienna

I am an Assistant Professor at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (Department of Economics), specializing in econometrics for macroeconomic and related applications. I am also an Expert for the Joint Research Centre (JRC) Ispra of the European Commission, and serve as an Associate Editor for Macroeconomic Dynamics.

My research interests include empirical macroeconomics and econometric methods for dynamic models, with a particular focus on business cycle analysis and forecasting. Methodologically, my work centers on time series, Bayesian econometrics and machine learning.

My work has been published in leading journals including the Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Journal of Applied Econometrics, International Economic Review, European Economic Review, and International Journal of Forecasting, among others.

Michael Pfarrhofer

Curriculum vitae

Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Economics, WU Vienna
09/2023–
ExpertEuropean Commission “Macro Modelling and Nowcast Pool,” JRC Ispra
12/2020–
Past positions
Professor of MacroeconomicsDepartment of Economics, University of Vienna
09/2022–08/2023
Visiting ResearcherDepartment of Economics, Bocconi University
03/2022–08/2022
Research ScholarInternational Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
11/2020–10/2021
PostdocDepartment of Economics, University of Salzburg
10/2019–08/2022

Activities

Associate EditorMacroeconomic Dynamics
2025–
General SecretaryAustrian Economic Association (NOeG)
2025–2026
Memberships
American Economic Association (AEA), Austrian Economic Association (NOeG), Euro Area Business Cycle Network (EABCN), European Economic Association (EEA), Econometric Society (ES), International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA)
Other
Local organizing committee, Annual Meeting NOeG 2026 (CEU, Vienna); local organizing and scientific committee, 12th European Seminar on Bayesian Econometrics (ESOBE, Salzburg), 2022; scientific committee, OeNB/SUERF Economic Conference 2025, 2026
Departmental
Analysis of student performance (PLUS); Job Market hiring committee (WU, 2023–2025); PhD program hiring committee (WU, 2024); QA teaching peer-evaluation; Key Fields of Expertise selection committee
Referee
Journals
Energy Economics, IMF Economic Review, International Journal of Forecasting, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Economic Dynamics & Control, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Macroeconomic Dynamics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Statistica Sinica, Quantitative Economics, among others
Other
ECB Working Paper Series, OeNB Jubiläumsfonds, Swiss National Science Foundation

Education

Venia DocendiUniversity of Salzburg, Economics — habilitation, “Structural and predictive inference with parametric and nonparametric models in economics”
01/2023
Ph.D., EconomicsWU Vienna — “Bayesian inference in high-dimensional multivariate time series models with applications in macroeconomics and finance”
09/2019
M.Sc., EconomicsWU Vienna
06/2018
B.Sc.WU Vienna, Business, Economics and Social Sciences
07/2016

Honors

Award of Excellence (Staatspreis)For the dissertation, awarded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research
2020
Klaus Liebscher Economic Research ScholarshipAwarded by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB, KLERS)
2021

Grants

Inference with Bayesian nonparametric models in the presence of measurement errors and outliersJubiläumsfonds der OeNB (PI) — EUR 168,000 · project 18765
2022–2024
Between fostering and limiting central bank independence: the impact of constitutional court decisionsJubiläumsfonds der OeNB (co-PI, PI: F. Huber) — EUR 118,000
2020–2022

Presentations

Recent
7th Vienna Workshop on High-Dimensional Time Series in Macroeconomics and Finance (IHS); 13th ECB Conference on Forecasting Techniques; SNB Research Seminar (Zürich); Insightful Minds in International Macro Seminar (IMIM); Economics Research Seminar (JKU Linz); 15th RCEA Bayesian Econometrics Workshop (Universidad del Atlántico Medio)

Teaching

Undergraduate
Econometrics II (WU); Economic Modeling (WU, macro part); Macroeconomics (PLUS; univie; WU)
Graduate
Advanced Macroeconometrics (WU, science-track syllabus; univie); Macroeconometrics (WU, applied-track syllabus; PLUS); Macroeconometrics: structural and predictive inference (PLUS; univie); Methods in Economics (PLUS); Foundational Econometrics (univie); Introduction to Bayesian Econometrics (univie)
Other
EIPA course “Macroeconomy-at-Risk: Advanced Methods for Density and Tail Risk Predictions” for the European Commission (DG ECFIN); Rethinking Economics, “Predictive inference and forecast evaluation metrics” (University of Tübingen); Sommerakademie (Talente OÖ, high-school students)
Committee member
Habilitation commission (Heimberger, 2025); PhD committee (Scheckel, Agati)
Thesis supervision
15 BSc/MSc theses (WU), 1 MSc thesis (univie) — supervision guidelines