21.05.2026

Tübingen Reloaded: Insights with Microeconomist Dr. Giacomo Brusco

In this series, we invite research alumni, who returned to the University of Tübingen on a Tübingen Reloaded grant, to reflect on their experiences by responding to 10 short prompts. Learn what inspires their research and how they experienced their return to Tübingen.

The most underrated thing about being an economist is…
…how much time you spend thinking carefully about seemingly simple questions. The hard part isn’t the maths. It’s working out what the right question actually is.

When friends ask me for financial advice at dinner parties, I…
…tell them to start saving when they are young, put their money in indexed funds, and forget about it until they retire.

If people understood this one thing about taxes, the world would be…
…a better place: if people realized a simple fact that we teach in all introductory microeconomics courses around the world: prices usually adjust after tax changes, meaning that who legally pays a tax is often very different from who actually ends up bearing the cost. For example, if a tax is placed on gasoline companies, fuel prices at the pump may rise, so drivers end up paying much of the tax.

A research result that genuinely surprised me was…
…while I was in Tübingen I ran a randomized control trial in Rome to measure how much of the gains from tax evasion seem to be passed on to consumers. We expected at least some sharing, but found essentially none, which was very surprising to me.

One economic myth I would be happy to see disappear is…
…that “you can just tax firms.” In practice, taxes get passed through prices, wages, and profits in ways that are often very far from what policymakers and the public intend. It is always someone and not something that ultimately bears the burden of a tax.

Picture of two male researchers having an academic debate. — Andrea Tulli and Giacomo Brusco engage in a debate after a seminar at the Business School on Nauklerstraße in 2022.

Working with colleagues from different countries has taught me that…
…institutions matter enormously, but so do small, often invisible cultural norms.

My time in Tübingen changed the way I think about…
…Germany and the future of Europe. As an Italian, I came to Germany with many expectations that were largely shattered during the years I spent here, for both better and worse. I now think the two countries are much more similar than I used to believe. On one hand, that warms my heart -- in the end, fundamental values and attitudes overlap a lot, even if people in both countries don’t always see it. On the other hand, I think many of Italy's long-standing problems stem from overly zero-sum thinking and institutions that are often too rigid to adapt to rapidly evolving global conditions. My time in Germany has taught me that, unfortunately, we overlap a lot in this dimension as well -- largely destroying the view of Germany as the locomotive of the continent that I held growing up as a teenager in Italy during the financial crisis. Part of me worries that the current slowdown of economic growth in Germany is not a bug but a feature, something like what started happening in Italy some 20 or 30 years ago. I really hope I'm wrong.

If I had not become an economist, I would probably be…
…sometimes I think I would have loved to be a linguist. Language is by its nature a social phenomenon, and I find it endlessly fascinating how it constantly evolves in a million nuances.

Something I return to again and again is…
…The Office. I am not ashamed to say I have re-watched all nine seasons of The Office (US) at least once a year for I don't know how many years. It started at some point in grad school. If you haven't watched it, I recommend it: it is a cure for the soul.

What makes Tübingen special for me is…
…the setting. Tübingen has a way of making daily routines - walking to the office, grabbing coffee, crossing the Neckar - feel unusually pleasant.

Tübingen Reloaded

Tübingen Reloaded brings international research alumni back to the University of Tübingen. The program strengthens global academic ties, supports joint research projects and publications, and helps grow an international alumni network connected to Tübingen. Find out more here.

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