Overview of Selected Externally Funded Projects
The faculty’s researchers are involved in numerous externally funded projects, e.g. of the German Research Foundation (DFG). On this page, you can learn more about selected projects / ERC grants and obtain an overview of the diversified research work underway at the faculty. Further information, e.g. on contact persons, can be found by clicking on the respective link.
You can view the faculty’s current publications here.
“The faculty’s researchers play an active role in numerous externally funded projects in the area of basic research, which attract a great deal of interest from the scientific community and the general public. The many publications in prestigious journals and a regular presence in the press and other media underline the high impact and importance of their research contributions as well as the expertise that exists at the faculty.”
(Prof. Dr. Ferdinand von Siemens, former Dean of Research)
Research groups
Assigned person: Prof. Dr. Rainer Haselmann
Summary: The Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance (LawFin) is Germany’s first interdisciplinary research group in economics and law, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It explores how institutional and regulatory parameters influence financial market decisions and outcomes. LawFin examines the connections between legislation, economics, and politics to measure and evaluate the impact of law as a dynamic and evolutionary system on the financial sector and the economy, informing researchers how theoretical and empirical scholarship should optimally reflect these insights. The Center focuses on green finance and regulation. Believing interdisciplinary work enhances understanding of the interdependence of law and finance, LawFin seeks to integrate the comparative strengths of involved disciplines and provides a forum for global scholars from various disciplines to collaborate.
Contact / Further information: here
Assigned person: Prof. Dr. Leo Kaas
Summary: MIIHD is the newly established DFG research unit on “Macroeconomic Implications of Intra-Household Decision Making” at the Faculty of Economics and Business composed of a core group of six researchers: Georg Dürnecker, Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, Zainab Iftikhar, Leo Kaas (spokesperson), Chiara Lacava and Alexander Ludwig.
Our main research goal is to enrich our understanding of intra-household decisions for macroeconomic outcomes, and how those and government policy interventions through tax and transfer programs in turn affect intra-household decisions such as household formation, labor supply, savings and fertility decisions. Our research will build on sound microeconometric data analysis and theoretical models to develop quantitative structural models with heterogeneous populations to address the three-way feedback between intra-household decisions, policy and the macroeconomy with a specific emphasis on inequality, both within and across households.
Contact / Further information: here
Current ERC Advanced & Consolidator Grants
Assigned person: Prof. Dr. Bernd Skiera (Department of Marketing)
Summary: Cookies enable businesses to collect data on users’ online activity and to analyze them systematically. The insights gained serve, among other things, to increase revenue from online advertising. However, the collection of such information and the associated processing of the data curtails user privacy. That is why the EU restricts the use of cookies (e.g. through the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)). At the start of the project, very little empirical knowledge existed about the economic value that advertisers derive from cookies. As a result, political decision-makers, among other groups, can hardly judge whether the restrictions on cookies in the interest of privacy do not go hand in hand with negative effects on the profits of companies, which are also a political goal. The COOKIES project (Economic Consequences of Restrictions on the Usage of Cookies) led by Professor Bernd Skiera addresses this research gap.
Contact / Further information: here
Assigned person: Prof'in Ph.D. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln (Department of Money & Macroeconomics)
Contact / Further information: here
Selected DFG projects
Assigned person: Prof. Dr. Jan Landwehr (Department of Marketing)
Summary: Professor Jan Landwehr's project “Robustness and Replicability of ‘Fluency’ Effects in Marketing Research” aims to examine the significance of subjectively perceived cognitive processing fluency for a better understanding of consumption decisions. Despite numerous publications, there is still no systematic overview or quantitative meta-analysis of the robustness and replicability of the effects of perceived processing fluency on consumption decisions. A meta-analysis will therefore be conducted to identify factors that increase or decrease the occurrence of fluency effects.
Contact / Further information: here
Assigned person: Prof. Dr. Maik Schmeling (Department of Finance)
Summary: Professor Maik Schmeling's project “Monetary Policy, Intermediaries, and Asset Prices” analyzes the role of monetary policy and intermediaries in asset pricing. It aims to identify a monetary policy effect channel that runs through intermediaries, and examines monetary policy shocks in financial markets. By developing a methodology that links monetary policy shocks to monetary policy communication—in particular, the analysis of word lists from central bank communications—the project aims to gain a better understanding of the interaction between intermediaries, monetary policy communication, and asset prices. The project contributes to the development and use of a comprehensive dictionary of central bank communication and aims to quantify monetary policy transmission through intermediaries.
Contact / Further information: here
Assigned person: Prof. Dr. Thomas Otter (Department of Marketing)
Summary: Professor Thomas Otter's project “Application of Rational Inattention in Discrete Choice Models” focuses on the development of discrete choice models (DCMs) based on the theory of rational inattention (RI) in order to better capture the incomplete processing of information by decision-makers and to take into account the generation of cognitive costs in information processing. It includes the development of a method for estimating preferences that takes into account the strategic adjustment of attention, as well as empirical experiments to demonstrate the relevance of this adjustment. By applying RI theory to situations with many multi-attribute alternatives and the identification of cost structures, the project aims to offer new insights into the design of regulations, particularly with regard to the complexity and effectiveness of regulations involving heterogeneous individuals.
Contact / Further information: here
Assigned person: Prof. Dr. Oliver Hinz (Department of Business Informatics and Information Economics)
Summary: The project “Understanding the Market Reaction to Audio Cues in Earnings Conference Calls” led by Professor Oliver Hinz aims to explore the possibilities of the machine processing of information from earnings conference calls. While previous research was primarily based on text data, this project aims to identify hidden information from audio files, known as “audio cues”, and incorporate it into forecasting models. Through this work, the project aims to find out whether and how certain market stakeholders could gain a forecasting advantage through this additional information.
Contact / Further information: here
