Earlier he spent ten years on the faculty of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

After leaving secondary school in his hometown, he studied law for seven terms at the University of Salzburg.

During this time, he competed successfully in the International Physics Olympiad and the Austrian Young Programmers Contest.

(Econ) from the London School of Economics, and in 2001 the venia docendi on (among others) information law at the University of Graz.

In 1998 he joined the faculty of Harvard Kennedy School, where he worked and taught for ten years.