Green light for the research project “Financial and Corporate Research from a Long-Term Perspective”

Since the proclamation of the German Empire in 1871 until today, the country’s economic and financial system has experienced a considerable number of massive upheavals and shocks. The most critical situation in the recent past was the global financial crisis of 2007/2008, which the scientific community was unable to predict, partly because impact analyses were too short-term. The objective of the new research project is to create a comprehensive data basis that records information on German companies and financial markets over a period of 150 years. This data should facilitate a better understanding of past, present and future economic and social challenges. Beyond that, the project will safeguard valuable historical data sets, using digital technologies to process and make them accessible. The research project is important for science, politics, business and interested members of the public.
The Joint Science Conference (GWK) of the German federal and state governments approved the application for the new research project, which was submitted by Uwe Walz, Professor of Economics at Goethe University Frankfurt and the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE. It will be implemented at the institute under his leadership, with research hubs in Frankfurt and Mannheim. The starting date is January 1, 2025, and the project will run for 18 years.

The initiative is supported by the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. It is part of the Academies Program and funded by the Joint Science Conference (GWK). The Academies Program has been jointly funded by the federal and state governments since 1979/80. Its goal is to preserve cultural heritage and make it available to researchers and the public – increasingly in digital form.

Collaborating in this project are the following partners: Goethe University Frankfurt, the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, the University of Mannheim, Mannheim University Library, IBF – Institute for Banking and Financial History, and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.

Contact
Professor Uwe Walz
Goethe University Frankfurt 
and Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE
uwalz@econ.uni-frankfurt.de
walz@safe-frankfurt.de