Dear members of the Verein für Socialpolitik,

With this newsletter, we would like to inform you about the latest developments in and around our Verein für Socialpolitik.

Last year, we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Verein für Socialpolitik with various events. We have now been able to add a worthy final to the many activities, from newspaper articles, a text and video series produced jointly with the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, a poster exhibition and a festive event at the 2023 Annual Conference: In May, the publisher „Frankfurter Allgemeine Buch“ brought out an anthology of the texts that were produced as part of our anniversary activities: „Wirtschaft verstehen, Zukunft gestalten“.

Since May 1, 2024, Karolin von Normann, the head of our office, has been working full-time for the association again after taking parental leave. The association is very grateful to Rico Chaskel, who has taken over from Karolin von Normann in the meantime, for his great commitment and outstanding work. In addition to many other projects, the association is currently renegotiating its contracts with De Gruyter, the publisher of our journals. We will report on this at the next general meeting.

The Association’s Working Group for Improving Access to Research Data continues to work intensively to ensure that public and private data will be widely available and linked for research in Germany in the future - as is the case with our European neighbors. In March, the BMBF’s key points for the Research Data Act were announced. Since then, we have held many discussions with ministries, research institutions and the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag to explain our requirements. The draft is expected soon, after which we will enter the “hot phase” in order to achieve the best possible framework conditions for research.

Preparations for our Annual Conference in Berlin are currently in full swing. We are looking forward to the top-class program on Upcoming „Labour Market Challenges“ that Bernd Fitzenberger has put together for us.
I hope to see you all again in Berlin. Until then, I wish you a relaxing and productive summer!

With best regards,

Regina T. Riphahn
Chairwoman of the Verein für Socialpolitik

Following the publication of the BMBF’s key points for the Research Data Act, the Verein für Socialpolitik, the RatSWD and the Leopoldina responded to the plans with statements. The key points show many welcome approaches: For example, the Federal Statistical Office is to be given a research mandate and a Micro Data Center (with a then different - still secret - name) is to be set up. Key issues for empirical research have not yet been clearly formulated in the key points:

1. Data from public bodies must be made available for research in compliance with data protection.
2. Laws must be changed so that data from different sources can be linked.
3. We need legally secure identifiers that make linking possible behind the protective walls of a fiduciary body.
4. And finally, we need a cultural change towards “enabling data protection”. We are curious to see whether the draft bill for the Research Data Act will address these points. 

For this year’s VfS Annual Meeting, I am delighted that we have once again been able to put together a comprehensive and diverse gender and diversity programme:

• The „Mentoring Workshop for Women“ (Sunday, 15 September, 12:30-14:30) will offer young female academics the opportunity to receive valuable advice on research strategies, career paths and work-life balance from experienced female researchers.
• The 1st Generation Academics workshop (Wednesday 18 September, 14:00-16:00, registration required) will discuss social barriers in the economy and strategies to overcome them.

Registration for this workshop is part of your conference registration.

In her presentation „Recognising Patterns of Power Abuse in Academia“ (Tuesday 17 September, 11:00-12:30), author and trainer Sara Hassan will highlight early warning signs of problematic power dynamics in the workplace that may be linked to sexual harassment.

In addition the Women’s Networking Lunch (Tuesday 17 September, 12:35-13:45) and the European Committee of LGBTQ+ Economists Networking Event (Tuesday 17 September, 19:30-22:00) will provide informal networking opportunities.
To register, please contact Marianne Saam (m.saam@zbw-online.eu at ZBW).

There will also be a workshop „It´s all about the money? Women economists at the Bundesbank“ (Wednesday, 18 September, 10:30-12:00, registration with conference registration). Female economists from different departments of the Bundesbank will present their careers and their daily work.

As part of this year’s keynotes, Jessica Pan will talk about persistent gender inequalities. Numerous other contributions in the open conference section will address a variety of gender-specific phenomena and gender gaps.

I look forward to an inspiring and enriching conference and wish us all interesting discussions!

The promotion of the next generation of economists is one of the Association’s core activities. Our promotion of young talent begins at several stages of school and academic careers: With the VfS Abiturpreis Wirtschaft we honour outstanding achievements in the Abitur. At the Students‘ Day, young people are given the opportunity to gain an insight into university life. The Conference Subsidy Programme promotes international networking in economics studies, and the Job Market Preparation Seminar teaches students how to present themselves in job interviews and career presentations.

Together with Benjamin Born (Frankfurt School of Economics) and Amelie Schiprowski (University of Bonn), I am organising the Job Market Preparation Seminar at this year’s conference in Berlin. Through practical exercises, the young academics learn how to present the quintessence of a paper in just a few minutes (elevator pitch), how to pass academic interviews and useful techniques for job interviews. This year we received many applications. These are currently being reviewed and feedback is expected by 5 August. The job market seminar will take place on 16 and 17 September at the TU Berlin.

The chairs of several VfS Standing Field Committees have changed in the last six months. The new chairs are

•     Committee on Social Sciences: Henrik Orzen
•     Committee on Macroeconomics: Leo Kaas
•     Committee on Environmental and Resource Economics: Martin Quaas

Many thanks to the former committee chairs for their commitment!

This year’s Schmölders award went to Maria Waldinger for her work on „The economic consequences of long-term climate change“: Evidence from the Little Ice Age‘. Congratulations Maria!

The Schmölders Award, sponsored by the Schmölders Foundation for Behavioural Research in Economics, is endowed with 3,000 euros and is awarded annually in rotation by the Committee on Social Sciences, the Committee on Public Economics and the Committee on Economic History.  This year, the prize was awarded by the VfS Committee of Economic History at its spring meeting in Cologne.

Each year the Foundation honours a work in the field of economic history research that is characterised by originality and a high academic standard.

Waldinger, M. (2022). The economic impact of long-term climate change: Evidence from the Little Ice Age. Journal of Political Economy, 130(9), 2275-2314.

Our journal PWP aims to show how economics can contribute to political issues in German-speaking countries. The journal is firmly anchored in the academic world and accessible to the general public: contributions are peer-reviewed and editorially supervised.

With the publication of volume 25, issue 2, I have the honour of taking over the editorship of „Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik“. My intention is to do even more to bridge the gap between the academic world and the interested public. PWP will have a new structure:  

The first part, ‚From Science & the Association‘, will present information from the Association as well as interesting developments from the world of science. I am delighted to begin this series with an interview with health economist Ariel D. Stern, who is moving from Harvard to the University of Potsdam as a Humboldt Professor.

In the second part, ‚Contributions to Economic Policy‘, we will continue to publish articles that demonstrate the contribution of science to understanding and solving economic policy problems. The next issue will look at a future quota for evaluating government spending, the public perception of CO2 pricing and much more. Have a read! Announcements of new issues will also be sent by e-mail, as will this newsletter.

I would like to draw your attention to the call for a special issue that has come from the Association’s Finance Committee. Niklas Potrafke and Robert Schwager are in charge of the special issue ‚Fiscal Rules: Rationales, Effects, Design Options‘ as guest editors.

I would like to thank my predecessor, Christoph Schmidt, for handing over PWP in excellent condition. The editorial team and the staff of the publishing house and the association have also contributed to this. In particular, I would like to mention our co-editor Karen Horn, who leads the discussions and provides editorial support for all the work. Many thanks to all of them. This excellent team makes it easy to take on the role of Editor-in-Chief.

In times of transition, new geopolitical tensions and the ever-increasing impact of demographic change, economics and its analysis and proposed solutions are more in demand than ever. I look forward to receiving your contributions!

Achim Wambach
Managing Editor

On 1 January 2024 I took up my position as Editor-in-Chief of the German Economic Review. I have set myself two goals for my tenure.

First, I would like to continue the successful development of the German Economic Review and further increase its impact factor.

Second, I would like to bring the journal even closer to the Verein für Socialpolitik and, in particular, present the topics of the Annual Conference in a special issue. In order to achieve these goals, I am relying on a team of highly motivated editors and, last but not least, on the members of the Verein für Socialpolitik and authors from outside the association, who I hope will continue to support the journal with contributions and citations.     

Hartmut Egger
Managing Editor

This year’s conference of the Association will take place from 15 to 18 September at the TU Berlin under the headline ‚Upcoming Labour Market Challenges‘. In three keynote speeches and a keynote panel, leading experts will address regional inequalities, the role of women in the labour market and immigration, discuss the latest research findings and evaluate policy solutions.

Jessica Pan (NUS Singapore) starts from the observation of persistent gender gaps in the labour market. These are even more in need of explanation as women today are better educated and better prepared for the labour market. In her keynote speech, she focuses on explaining the persistent negative impact of children on women’s careers and provides new insights to explain aggregate gender inequality.

David Card (UC Berkeley, Laureate of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics) will provide an overview of wage inequality within and across cities, based on ongoing work using new administrative data. He discusses the causes and consequences of these wage differentials, which have rarely been considered in a comprehensive way.

Christian Dustmann (University College London, RF Berlin) outlines the effects of immigration on the economy, the challenges of measuring these effects and the impact of immigration on the political discourse.

These and similar questions about the challenges facing the labour market will also be addressed by the conference’s keynote panel, which will bring together representatives from academia and politics. There will also be many other panels, award ceremonies and workshops.

Many thanks to the conference organisers 2024:

• Almut Balleer (RWI Essen and TU Dortmund), Chair of the Open Conference
• Dirk Engelmann (HU Berlin) and Radosveta Ivanova-Stenzel (TU Berlin), Local Organisers
• Bernd Fitzenberger (IAB, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg), Chair of the Core Conference

We look forward to welcoming you at the TU Berlin.

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Find press releases about the Association here.

Check out our conference calendar here.

We would like to thank all members who have been loyal over the years and those who have recently joined. Please do not hesitate to contact the VfS office if you have any questions or suggestions. We look forward to your visit to Berlin.