Thilo Klein

Thilo Klein is a Professor of Quantitative Economics at Pforzheim University and a Senior Economist at the ZEW Research Institute in the Market Design Department. He holds a PhD in Business Economics and an MPhil in Operations Research from the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on market design applications in allocation systems, including matching markets for childcare, food donations, environmental subsidies, and microfinance. Key contributions include developing deferred acceptance algorithms for fair childcare assignment and analyzing the impact of market rules on policy outcomes.

Education: PhD and MPhil in Economics from University of Cambridge. Prior to academia, he worked at OECD, ILO, and Spandana (India). Funded projects include grants from DAAD, ESRC, Leibniz Association, and German Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Awards include the ZEW Prize for Best Economic Consulting Project.

Research emphasizes combining microeconomic theory with empirical methods to design efficient and equitable allocation mechanisms. Notable software contributions include the R package matchingMarkets for structural estimation and algorithm implementation. He also coordinates the KitaMatch platform for childcare allocation solutions. Teaching includes quantitative methods at Pforzheim University and advanced courses at institutions like University of Cambridge.

Awards: ZEW Sponsors' Association Prize for Best Economic Consulting Project (202X). Grants: Led projects funded by DAAD, ESRC, Leibniz Association, Bertelsmann Foundation, and German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Consulting focuses on applying market design principles to public sector challenges. Active in policy briefs for efficient food donation systems and environmental subsidy mechanisms. Software tools include the KitaMatch Toolbox and matchingMarkets package for stable matching analysis.