Close sidebar Home » Alumni » Max Weber Alumni Bio Open sidebar menu Barta, Zsofia Assistant Professor of European Political Economy University at Albany, State University of New York, United States [email protected] Hungary Max Weber alumnus Department of Political and Social Sciences Cohort(s): 2011/2012 Ph.D. Institution London School of Economics, United Kingdom Biography My research interests centre on the politics of economic policy. My doctoral dissertation, titled ‘Fiscal Policy as Battlefield – Explaining Unsustainable Public Debt Accumulation in Italy and Belgium’, investigates the socio-political background of fiscal policymaking in general and the accumulation of public debt in particular. As a corollary to this work, I have also conducted research on the European system of fiscal rules and the workings of the European fiscal surveillance, on the mechanisms of market discipline on fiscal policy and on the relationship between debt accumulation and public opinion. Prior to taking up the Max Weber Fellowship, I was an Abernethy Dissertation Fellow at the Bologna centre of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University and a graduate teaching assistant at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. I have taught various courses analysing economic policy from both economic and political angles. I completed my Ph.D. in European Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences in April 2012. I hold a graduate degree in International Economics from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University and an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Finance from the Budapest University of Economics.