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Research Overview

RGS Econ’s combination of a prominent research institute’s with three universities’ research environments offers our PhD students in Economics numerous research opportunities, ranging from theoretical to applied, policy-oriented research - conducted in large or small teams of researchers. Our students often utilize these opportunities to collaborate and engage in different environments and work on projects that build bridges between theoretical and applied work or between sub-disciplines.

Research at RGS Econ

You can find our current students' recent publications here and dissertations here.

You can find selected RGS Faculty publications here.

Next to research-oriented workshops and courses for our students, we prominently organize an annual refereed RGS Doctoral Conference in Economics, with around 75 presentations from top PhD students from around the world.

Faculty members of RGS Econ can be grouped into three major clusters of research interests. These research interests and their expertise cover almost all areas of economics. Exchange and cooperation within and across clusters is extensive. Doctoral students are usually assigned to a (primary) supervisor at entry based on research interests. Nevertheless, RGS Econ explicitly encourages them to contribute to exchanges across subdisciplines by following their own interests and working with a variable set of colleagues.

Cluster 1: Applied Microeconometrics and Policy Analysis

This cluster is comprised of faculty members who cover the applied research fields such as labor economics, population economics, health economics, development economics, natural resource economics and more. Microeconometric methods are the main tools in these research areas, sometimes complemented by microsimulation and computable equilibrium analysis. (Field) Experimental methods are also increasingly used. Often, research in this cluster involves policy impact analysis and evaluation.

Prof. Dr. Ronald Bachmann
Research Interests: Labor Economics, Labor Market Dynamics, Applied Microeconometrics
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Prof. Dr. Thomas K. Bauer
Research Interests: Migration, Population Economics, Applied Microeconometrics
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Prof. Dr. Michael J. Böhm
Research interests: Labor Economics, Applied Econometrics, Firm Performance, Personnel, Technological Change, Macroeconomics
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Prof. Dr. Matthias Busse
Research interests: International Trade, Foreign Direct Investment and Development Economics
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Prof. Dr. Manuel Frondel
Research Interests: Applied Econometrics in the Fields of Environmental, Resource, and Energy Economics
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Prof. Dr. Christiane Hellmanzik
Research Interests: Applied Microeconomics, International Trade, International Finance, Urban Economics, Labour Economics, Economic History, Economics of Creativity
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Prof. Martin Karlsson, Ph.D
Research Interests: Health Economics
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Prof. Dr. Daniel Kühnle
Research Interests: Health and Labour Economics, Early Childhood Education, Family Economics, and Policy Evaluations
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JProf. Dr. Sanne Kruse-Becher
Research interests: International Economics, Applied Econometrics, Labor Economics
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Prof. Dr. Andreas Löschel
Research interests:Energy Economics and Policy, Climate Change Economics, Behavioral Economics, Quantitative Economic Modeling
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Prof. Dr. Sebastian Otten
Research Interests: Labor Economics, Migration Economics, Education Economics, Public Economics
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Prof. Dr. Marie Elina Paul
Research interests: Labor Economics, Applied Microeconometrics
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Prof. Dr. Christoph M. Schmidt
Research Interests: Applied Econometrics, in particular Labor and Population Economics
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Prof. Dr. Colin Vance
Research Interests: Applied Econometrics in the Fields of Environmental, Transportation, and Energy Economics
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Prof. Dr. Ansgar Wübker
Research Interests: Health Economics, Applied Econometrics
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Prof. Dr. Jens Wrona
Research Interests: International, Regional, and Labour economics
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Cluster 2: Macroeconomics, Econometrics, and Finance

Beyond the core area of macroeconomic policy analysis and (time-series) econometrics, research interests of the members of this cluster include related fields such as international trade, economic geography, behavioral macroeconomics, and Finance. Research within this cluster is mainly based on general equilibrium analysis and in quantitative terms. Econometric and computational methods are extensively used.

Cluster 3: Microeconomics, Game Theory, Mechanism Design, Public Finance

This cluster covers broad areas of theoretical, applied and experimental Microeconomics, Public Finance and Economic Policy recommendations based on microeconomic modelling. These areas include Industrial Organization, Public Finance, Political Economy and pure game theory. Examples of research topics include the theory of contests and its applications (see recent publications in journals such as Economic Theory, European Journal of Political Economy or Public Choice), theory of taxation (see recent publications in the Journal of Public Economics, European Economic Review, International Tax or Public Finance) and market entry and regulation (see recent publications in Games and Economic Behavior or Review of International Economics).

Prof. Dr. Erwin Amann
Research interests: Game Theory, Auction Theory, Evolutionary Game Theory
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Prof. Dr. Eugen Kovac
Research interests: Industrial organization and Microeconomic theory
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Dr. Michael Kramm
Research Interests: Game Theory Applied to Industrial Organization, Public Choice, Public Economics, Political Economy; Behavioral Economics, Evolutionary Dynamics
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JProf. Dr. Lars Metzger
Research interests: Microeconomics, Game Theory, Information Theory, Industrial Organization, and Bounded Rationality
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Prof. Dr. Julio R. Robledo
Research interests: Public Goods, Industrial Organization, Economics of Innovation, Network Economics
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Prof. Dr. Galina Zudenkova
Research Interests: Political Economy, Public Economics, Applied Microeconomic Theory, Industrial Organization, Contract Theory
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Research Environment

Next to the departments at the cooperating universities, the RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research as one of Germany's leading economic research institutes serves as a hub for research in the area and for RGS Econ:

  • Research Groups and Competency Areas at the RWI
    • Labor Markets, Education, Population
    • Health Economics
    • Environment and Resources
    • Macroeconomics and Public Finance
    • Education
    • Migration and Integration
    • Climate Change in Developing Countries
    • Sustainability and Governance
    • Poverty and Education
    • Demographic Change
    • Regional Analyses

In terms of graduate education, RGS Econ closely cooperates with

RGS Faculty further direct and participate in numerous prominent research institutions and centers directly situated in our environment, providing our students with access to additional resources (e.g. courses, networks, experimental labs, data) and opportunities for prominent and high-quality research projects.

Our faculty members participate as principal investigators in numerous research projects funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG), e.g.:

Research Network and Seminars

Our doctoral students profit heavily from the extensive international research network supported by our faculty members and the cooperating institutions as well as our alumni. RWI, for example, maintains a formal network of research fellows.

Next to our own courses, activities and events, the cooperating institutions additionally offer a wide range of research seminars, brown bag lunches and workshops, a selection of which can be found under the following links (or you can subscribe to a summary of upcoming seminars here):

RTG Regional Disparities Research Seminar

TU Dortmund Economics Research Seminar

TU Dortmund Statistics Workshops

TU Dortmund Statistics Seminars

UDE -Essen Economics Research Seminars

UDE - MSM Economics Research Seminar

RUB Economics Research Seminar

RWI Research Seminar

Essen Health Economics Seminar

Forschungskolloquium am Institut für Sozioökonomie

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