In Memory of Berthold Herrendorf

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our former colleague Berthold Herrendorf who passed away last week. Berthold held a position of Lecturer in the Department of Economics between 1995 and 2001 and many of our staff remember him with fondness.

Berthold left Warwick in 2001 to take up a position of Assistant Professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain and in 2003 he moved to the Department of Economics at Arizona State University where he became professor of economics in 2014.

Berthold grew up in Germany and studied mathematics and economics at the University of Bonn, the University of California at Berkeley, Indiana University and he received his PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Italy.

Berthold specialised mainly in macroeconomics and his recent research interests were in growth and development, in particular structural transformation, markups, productivity growth slowdown. He published his research in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, the Journal of The European Economic Association, and the Review of Economic Studies. He was a research fellow of CEPR (UK) and CESifo (Germany).

Here are messages from staff expressing fond memories of Berthold:

From Professor Ben Lockwood:

“I already knew Berthold when I arrived at Warwick in 1999, as we had started collaborating on a paper that was eventually published in the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. We also shared a house in Kenilworth for a short period of time – as I recall, he liked cooking Italian food, and was rather good at it! He had strong opinions on economics, and on many other things, but underneath it all, was a kind and thoughtful person. Since moving to Arizona State, his career really took off: he produced a series of well-published and highly cited papers on growth and structural transformation. His early death is a great loss to the profession.”

From Emeritus Professor Marcus Miller

“Berthold was a larger-than-life figure in the department, with a ready smile and an open manner that he combined with deep commitment to the subject of Macroeconomics. Thus when one colleague advised me - as a macroeconomist - that one should subscribe to the Financial Times, Berthold argued one should instead read the latest issues of the top journals – in which he was later to publish with considerable success!

Having sampled academic life in Germany, Italy, England and Spain, he finally settled in the United States where he pursued his academic interests with characteristic vigour and professionalism. Now he has moved on to a higher plane, Berthold is doubtless burnishing his analytical tools for challenges new!”

From Emeritus Professor Mike Waterson:

“Berthold was a valued colleague in the Department of Economics, and we were very sorry to see him leave when he decided to move to Madrid. He was an excellent researcher and a very good teacher. A larger-than-life figure, he was a big man with strong opinions and a very obvious ability in Economics. This meant he sometimes courted controversy and clashed intellectually with colleagues, but he was pleasant and straightforward on a personal level.”

From Professor Sascha Becker:

“Berthold was one of the driving forces behind the annual Christmas Meeting of "German Economists Abroad", a high point of the year, when we all met for two days at a German university on 22+23 December each year, before heading home to parents and family. I will miss Berthold's humour and kindness. He left us far too soon.”