Economics for Executives – Understanding Markets to Make Better Decisions

When: 13 September (08:30 – 12:30)
Where: USI Executive Center, Blue Room
Professor: Lorenz Küng

We are back on campus!
At USI, we strongly believe in the value of classroom learning and in-person exchange. For this reason, the Economics for Executives module of our EMBA will be offered as a half-day immersive session. This class experience is part of our admissions process, designed to give candidates a first-hand taste of the EMBA learning journey.

Why Economics Matters for Executives

Every executive makes economic decisions daily—whether about pricing, investments, or strategic positioning in competitive markets. This session introduces the fundamental tools of microeconomic analysis and shows how to apply them to real business contexts.

Participants will:

• Learn how economists think and approach decision problems.

• Experiment with supply and demand models to understand market behavior.

• Analyze how firms make pricing and investment decisions under different cost structures.

• Explore challenges such as market inefficiencies, externalities, and the digital economy

Through an interactive case and discussion, executives will practice thinking like economists, gaining a powerful lens to interpret both firm-level and market-wide challenges.

Join Us at the Executive Center

This exclusive session provides a unique chance to experience the EMBA classroom atmosphere while engaging with one of our leading faculty members.

Come join us at the Executive Center, 13 September (08:30 – 12:30).
Limited places – book now at emba@usi.ch

Lorenz Küng BIO

Associate Professor of Economics

Prof. Lorenz Küng joined the Department of Economics at USI in 2019. He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and degrees in economics and mathematics from the University of Fribourg, as well as a diploma from the Swiss National Bank’s Study Center Gerzensee.

Before USI, he was Assistant Professor of Finance at the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University), Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and Research Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He is a Research Affiliate of the CEPR (London) and Faculty Member of the Swiss Finance Institute (SFI).

His research focuses on household economics and finance, public finance, and applied macroeconomics. Recent work has examined the risks of owning versus renting housing, the impact of unconditional cash transfers on household consumption, and how borrowing constraints shaped fiscal policy during the financial crisis. His studies are published in leading journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, and the Journal of Public Economics.

His work has also been featured in international media, including The Economist, Financial Times, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and NZZ.

At USI, Prof. Küng teaches Household Economics and Finance (Bachelor and PhD levels, jointly with SFI) and Corporate Finance at the Master’s level.