Valentin Klotzbücher

Welcome to my personal website!

I am an economist and applied statistician, living in Basel and working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Freiburg. I am always open to connecting—feel free to email me, schedule a meeting, or explore my CV. I’m also interested in new opportunities and happy to discuss potential roles.

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I believe that rigorous, quantitative analysis is essential for effective policy and real progress. In my published work, I have analyzed high-frequency data on crisis helpline calls to track public health trends^1–3 and examined the political economy of terrorism and organized violence.^4,5 I have also contributed to meta-science projects on reproducibility in social science,^6,7 and I support The Unjournal in commissioning independent evaluations of high-impact research.⁸

My teaching includes introductory courses in microeconomics, as well as advanced courses in institutional economics and applied econometrics. Moreover, our Meet a Boss lecture series is now open to registered external guests - contact me if you want to attend!

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1.

Brülhart, M., Klotzbücher, V., Lalive, R. & Reich, S. K. Mental health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic as revealed by helpline calls. Nature 600, 121–126 (2021).

2.

Brülhart, M., Klotzbücher, V. & Lalive, R. Young people’s mental and social distress in times of international crisis: Evidence from helpline calls, 2019–2022. Scientific Reports 13, 11858 (2023).

3.

Armbruster, S. & Klotzbücher, V. Lost in lockdown? COVID-19, social distancing, and mental health in Germany. Covid Economics: Vetted and real-time papers 22, 117–153 (2020).

4.

Klotzbücher, V., Krieger, T. & Meierrieks, D. Class warfare: Political exclusion of the poor and the roots of social-revolutionary terrorism, 1860-1950. Defence and Peace Economics 32, 6681–697 (2021).

5.

Klotzbücher, V. & Schulze, G. Terror and tourism. Handbook of the Economics of Terrorism (forthcoming).

6.

Huntington-Klein, N., Pörtner, C., et al. The sources of researcher variation in economics. Institute for Replication (I4R) Discussion Paper 209, (2025).

7.

Brodeur, A. et al. Comparing human-only, AI-assisted, and AI-led teams on assessing research reproducibility in quantitative social science. Institute for Replication (I4R) Discussion Paper 195, (2025).

8.

Reinstein, D. & Klotzbücher, V. Evaluation summary and metrics: "Selecting the most effective nudge: Evidence from a large-scale experiment on immunization". The Unjournal (2024).