University of Mannheim: Economic perspectives on societal challenges

The Collaborative Research Center Transregio 224 “Economic Perspectives on Societal Challenges”, established in 2018, is a cooperation between the University of Bonn and the University of Mannheim. In various project fields, the researchers deal with three central societal challenges: How can equal opportunities be promoted? How can markets be regulated in view of the internationalization and digitization of the economy? And how can the stability of the financial system be ensured? The scientists consider these challenges to be inherently linked. The aim of the SFB is to analyze them and to submit political proposals for coping with them.

In the second funding period, the research program of the SFB will be supplemented by two new projects on the subjects of “Behavioral determinants of inequalities in the labor market” and “Heterogeneity, financial frictions and macroeconomic stabilization”. The SFB thus integrates a new labor market perspective on the one hand and broadens the macroeconomic orientation of its research program on the other. The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the project fields of the SFB will remain part of the research activities in the second funding period.

“In its first four years, the Collaborative Research Center not only made scientific contributions at the highest international level, but also built innovative and high-performance structures in the promotion of young talent and science communication,” says economist Prof. Dr. Sven Rady from the University of Bonn. “As the spokesman for the first funding period, I am very proud of what has been achieved and look forward to the further development of our research network under the direction of my Mannheim colleague Volker Nocke.”

“For many years now, the universities in Bonn and Mannheim have created an environment for top-class economic research that is unique in Germany. The decision by the DFG to continue to fund the Collaborative Research Center and to an even greater extent than before is the well-deserved result of these efforts, but above all a huge success for the researchers involved, ”emphasizes Prof. Dr. Volker Nocke from the University of Mannheim, who will head the association as spokesman for the next four years.

The content of the SFB Transregio 224 is very closely linked to the transdisciplinary research area “Individuals and Societies” at the University of Bonn through its research on important societal challenges. At the same time, his research methods also contribute to the mathematically oriented transdisciplinary research area “Modeling”.