Esra Nur Ugurlu

I'm a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Leeds.  My primary research interests lie in development economics and macroeconomics. My current research focuses on the political economy of real exchange rate policies in developing countries. More specifically, I examine why many developing countries avoid undervalued (or competitive) exchange rate policies or intentionally pursue overvaluation, despite the large body of theoretical and empirical research showing that exchange rate undervaluation can be conducive to growth and development. Other themes I explore in my research include structural change implications of consumer lending policies, the relevance of Modern Monetary Theory to development issues, the effects of labour shortages on capital accumulation, and the impacts of international financial flows on domestic credit dynamics.

My research draws from various schools of thought, including Latin American Structuralism, Post Keynesian economics, and Marxist political economy. Methodologically, I use both formal modelling and empirical tools (panel data and time series econometrics). My work has been published in the Journal of Comparative Economics, Cambridge Journal of Economics, and Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.  

I obtained a PhD in Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2022. I hold master's degrees in economics fields from the Berlin School of Economics and Law, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

I previously worked as a Research Assistant at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI),  as a guest lecturer at Bogazici University in Turkey and at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

You can email me @E.N.Ugurlu@leeds.ac.uk and follow on Twitter @n_esraugurlu.