Tobias Seidel is a professor of Economics at the Mercator School of Management (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany). His current research interests are in Regional and Urban Economics and International Economics. He is currently the chairman of the graduate program "Regional Disparities and Economic Policy", funded by the German Research Foundation, and the chairperson of the Standing Field Committee "Regional and Urban Economics" of the German Economic Association (Verein für Socialpolitik).