University of Mannheim: Award for two young scientists

The party programs of the major political parties have become longer and longer over the decades. Some parties need several hundred pages to explain their goals and positions. But can citizens distinguish when parties have concrete goals and when they only use meaningless phrases? The political scientist Roni Lehrer deals with this topic in his project, which is funded as part of the prestigious elite program of the Baden-Württemberg Foundation. His focus is on parties, their political programs and their impact on voters’ decisions.

Teacher is a fellow and project manager at the Mannheim Center for European Social Research (MZES), the largest social science research facility at a German university. His project is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation over 18 months with a total of 135,000 euros.

dr Cornelius Schneider, who is a research associate at the chair of Economics Junior Professor Wladislaw Mill, deals with questions of optimal taxation and public finances, in particular using methods from experimental and behavioral economics. Schneider is receiving DAAD funding for his current research project, in which he is investigating the potentially positive effects of tax evasion opportunities.

Schneider is currently completing the mandatory stay abroad for the PRIME program at the Norwegian Center for Taxation (NoCeT) of the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), an ENGAGE.EU partner university of the University of Mannheim. The funding includes a 12-month phase abroad and a six-month integration phase at a German university, which are financed as postdoctoral positions from the program.