Research

In 2019 and 2020, the School further increased its publication rate in international A+/A journals. This development underscores its successful internationalisation and increased research performance, as do the additional DFG funding it has secured for its own projects and its increased involvement in DFG-funded collaborative projects. The German Research Foundation currently funds Professor Alf Kimms’s project on logistic planning issues in disaster relief, Professor Martin Hibbeln’s project on agency problems in loan securitisation, Professor Eugen Kovac’s project on the theory and practice of timing games, and Professor Tobias Seidel’s project on innovation, technology diffusion and income inequality in interdependent market launches. Professor Marie Paul participates in the DFG priority programme no. 1764, ‘The German Labor Market in a Globalized World’. Her sub-project is titled ‘Female Employment Patterns, Fertility, Labor Market Reforms and Firms: A Dynamic Treatment Approach’.

The DFG research training group no. 2428, which focuses on regional inequality and economic policy, is a joint endeavour by the Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund and the University of Duisburg-Essen. Professor Tobias Seidel from the MSM is its spokesperson alongside Professor Marie Paul and Professor Jens Wrona, who also represent the School in this particularly significant project.

Nearly 20 other externally funded projects contribute to the research output of the MSM during the relevant period. They include various BMBF-funded projects, such as Professor Margret Borchert’s study ‘AKTIV-kommunal’, which examines ways of structuring work for communal companies in digital innovation and change processes, and Professur Gertrud Schmitz’s study ’smart Market²’ on interactive shopping experiences in inner cities. The IN-EAST School of Advanced Studies, managed by Professor Markus Taube, and Professor Thomas Bienengräber’s project BEaGLE, which focuses on qualifying teachers for inclusive education, also receive funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

In 2019 and 2020, like in the previous years, the MSM (co-)hosted many academic meetings, conferences and workshops in Duisburg, three of which will be outlined here as examples. On 19 November, Professor Werner Pascha and Professor Markus Taube contributed to the organization of the symposium ‘The EU-Japan EPA in Action: First Experiences and Further Steps’. Both are members of the Institute of East Asian Studies, which celebrated its 25th anniversary at the 23rd East Asia Day held on 14 June 2019. The focus of the event was the future of industrial policy in Japan, China and Germany. On 20 March 2019, the Department of Banking and Finance (chaired by Professor Bernd Rolfes) organised the 23rd banking symposium, an event with a long tradition at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Its topics included sustainable and climate finance and cultural change resulting from the digital transformation.