A warm welcome
The Institute of Economics (IVWL) covers the entire range of economic contents and methods. The research takes on a behavioral economics direction with a strong emphasis on applications. Main focus areas are environmental and energy economics, innovation and entrepreneurship research, as well as regional economics. The key objective of the research is to contribute to the solution of societal problems. The research results are presented on relevant conferences and published in internationally renowned scientific journals.
Together with the Institute of Management and Business Studies (IBWL), the IVWL manages the bachelor program “Wirtschaftswissenschaften”. In addition, the IVWL coordinates the research-related, interdisciplinary, and method-oriented master programs „Economic Behaviour and Governance (EB&Go)“, „Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften“, and „Wirtschaft, Psychologie und Management“. Besides qualifying for challenging non-university fields of employment, these master programs also aim at preparing students for a successful academic career.
Furthermore, one of the top priorities of the IVWL is the support and promotion of young academics, for example, as part of the institute’s own doctoral program „Graduate School of Economic Behavior and Governance (GS EBGo)“ or the inter-university graduate program „MAGKS"
Click here for the institute's units.
Sandra Ohly and Andreas Ziegler on Stanford most cited list
In October 2023, Stanford University published its updated list of the top 2% most cited scientists. The publicly accessible database lists a large number of standardized citation indicators. For 2022, Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler and Prof. Dr. Sandra Ohly from IVWL are among them. Further information can be found here.
DFG Project FORGIVE at IVWL
In the research project FORGIVE, Prof. Dr. Dannenberg studies the role of signals, forgiveness and reputation for cooperation. The aim of this research project is to analyze a factor that has received little attention in economic research so far: Forgiveness. To gain a more sophisticated understanding of the role of forgiveness in solving cooperation problems, new variants of the infinitely repeated prisoner's dilemma are used. Experimental methods are used to examine whether people are willing to forgive in situations where they have been betrayed. Another focus is on the strategic use of forgiveness when a long-lasting reputation can be established.
Federal Government Appoints Guido Bünstorf to Expert Commission on Research and Innovation
Prof. Dr. Guido Bünstorf and Prof. Dr. Friederike Welter are new members of the Expert Commission on Research and Innovation (EFI). With their appointment by the Federal Cabinet, Bünstorf and Welter strengthen the expertise of the EFI, especially in the areas of SMEs and entrepreneurship as well as knowledge economy and people-based knowledge transfer.
Studies on measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic at the IVWL
In the study “The Covid-19 containment effects of public health measures - A spatial difference-in-differences approach“, a team of researchers from the universities Kassel, Mainz, Darmstadt and Sønderborg around apl. Prof. Dr. Reinhold Kosfeld examined the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the first wave 2020. While the closure of zoos, museums, and also non-essential stores contributes rather little to flatten the curve, the mask duty and contact restrictions proved to be very effective. The new study met with great interest in press, radio and television (e.g. ARD extra), as well as online magazines. It is available on „medrxiv“ as preprint and accepted for publication in Journal of Regional Science. The difference-in-differences approach especially confirms the strong containment effect of wearing face masks that has been found by the same researchers in a preceding study with synthetic control methods. This previous study “Face masks considerably reduce COVID-19 cases in Germany“ has been published in the prestigious interdisciplinary journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America).
New DFG research group at the IVWL
Prof. Dr. Guido Bünstorf is member of the new DFG research group “Multiple competition in higher education”, where researchers from sociology, economics, and business administration are working together in eight sub-projects at eight universities. The overall objective of this research group is to develop a comprehensive understanding of multiple competition in the field of higher education, based on contributions from sociology, economics, and business administration. Multiple competition in higher education means that individual and collective actors are simultaneously embedded in and nested within several interconnected competitions. The relationship between these individual competitions leads to a complex netting of requirements, which actors have to face. For more information about the research group please click hier.
Helpful information on seminar papers and theses and key points on the formal design of seminar papers and theses can be found here and in the Infothek under Seminar papers and theses
In the following several selected recent publications are provided. Further publications of the IVWL can be found here.
Büchele, Stefan, Guido Bünstorf, Matthias Huegel, Johannes Koenig, and Maria Theissen (2026), Is the dominance of graduates from top-tier universities among tenured faculty driven by prestige or output? Evidence from 50 years of university appointments in Germany, Research Policy 55 (3), 105411.
Bühren, Christoph, Astrid Dannenberg, and Elina Wiederhold (2026), Would you lie for me? Lying behavior in a principal-agent relationship, Journal of Economic Psychology 112, 102869.
Dannenberg, Astrid, Giorgio Dini, Alessandro Tavoni, and Eva Weingärtner (2026), Food choice with increased visibility - A field experiment at an environmental economics conference, Ecological Economics 240, 108816.
Das, Sourav, Patrick Hufschmidt, Fabian Mankat, and Konstantinos Theocharopoulos (2026), Political budget cycles in federal systems: The case of India, European Journal of Political Economy 93, 102811.
Frank, Björn and Blanca Tena-Estrada (2026), Exploring the last man argument: Evidence on society’s disposition toward nature’s legal rights, Earth Stewardship 3, e70049.
Gründler, Klaus, Niklas Potrafke, Ramona Schmid, and Jan-Egbert Sturm (2026), Globalization and gender equality, World Development 197, 107183.
Mankat, Fabian (2026), Norms as a solution to the tragedy of the commons: A co-evolutionary model, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 243, 107433.
Neufeld, Katharina, Sandra Ohly, Didem Sedefoglu-Ulucak, Isabel Steinhardt, and Sylvi Mauermeister (2026), Analyzing the role of family socio-economic status, education and work characteristics in times of generative artificial intelligence and digital divide, Career Development International 31 (3), 354-372.
Schmitt, Antje, Sandra Ohly, Anne-Kathrin Kleine, and Ann-Kathrin Schnafel (2026), Relationships between human energy and work-related constructs: A meta-analysis, Applied Psychology 75 (1), e70073.
Aziz, Abeer I. and Ivo Bischoff (2025), Social media campaigning and voter behavior–Evidence for the German federal election 2021, European Journal of Political Economy 88, 102685.
Bischoff, Ivo, Sourav Das, and Reinhold Kosfeld (2025), Does inter-municipal cooperation reduce the intensity of tax competition? Evidence on inter-local industrial parks in Germany, European Journal of Political Economy 87, 102649.
Büchele, Stefan and Carina Marten (2025), Unpacking skill growth in higher education: how initial competencies and engagement shape mathematics achievement, Higher Education, 1-28.
Büchele, Stefan, Lisa Feiste, Raphael Müller, and Mirko Schürmann (2025), Online self-assessments and student engagement: A causal analysis in university mathematics, Education and Information Technologies 30 (18), 26235-26260.
Büchele, Stefan, Matthias Hügel, Valon Kadriu, and Johannes König (2025), A longitudinal analysis of research dynamics at German public and private universities, Higher Education, 1-24.
Diederich, Johannes, Timo Goeschl, and Israel Waichman (2025), Trading off autonomy and efficiency in choice architectures: Self-nudging versus social nudging, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 229, 106859.
Dräger, Lena, Klaus Gründler, and Niklas Potrafke (2025), Supply shocks and inflation expectations: Evidence from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Journal of International Economics 153, 104029.
Engler, Daniel, Gunnar Gutsche, Amantia Simixhiu, and Andreas Ziegler (2025), Social norms and individual climate protection activities: A survey experiment for Germany, Energy Economics 142, 108103.
Fait, Larissa, Jens J. Krüger, Moritz Tarach, and Heike Wetzel (2025), Trend projections of greenhouse gas emission reduction potentials: A bootstrap-based nonparametric efficiency analysis, International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy 15 (1), 607-620.
Fischer, Beate, Tom Schütte, and Heike Wetzel (2025), How to get photovoltaics on the roofs? Empirical evidence on homeowner support for a residential solar mandate in Germany, Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy 1-30.
Gleue, Marvin, Theresa Luigs, and Andreas Ziegler (2025), The relevance of non-state climate protection activities as motivation for individual climate protection: Results from a framed field experiment, Resource and Energy Economics 81, 101473.
Gräper, Gerrit and Fabian Mankat (2025), Towards efficient pricing in monopolistic markets: A theoretical analysis of cost-based revenue caps employing a base-year-approach, Energy Economics 144.
Gründler, Klaus, Niklas Potrafke, and Timo Wochner (2025), Outside employment and parliamentary priorities, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 237, 107185.
Habla, Wolfgang, Kumai Kokash, Åsa Löfgren, Anna Straubinger, and Andreas Ziegler (2025), Self-interest and support for climate-related transport policy measures in Germany and Sweden, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 144, 104707.
Köbrich Leon, Anja, Elke D. Kanberger, and Janosch Schobin (2025), Making climate-friendly choices in hard times: Panel evidence on the COVID-19 shock and the (in)stability of climate-related preferences in Chile, Appetite 204, 107721.
Ohly, Sandra, Amina Granica, Hannes Herwig, Niklas Kühlewind, Tobias Paetzold, Lana Vinhoven, Luisa Wiemers, and Xi Zhang (2025), Humane work design: How does the digitization of work change core work characteristics in different occupations?, Zeitschrift für Arbeitswissenschaft 79 (4), 569-580.
Ohly, Sandra and Laura Venz (2025), Work design and performance, in Transformative Work Design: Synthesis and New Directions, 147-174.
Opel, Juliane and Julia Guenther (2025), Constructing satisfaction: Mechanisms behind the well-being paradox in entrepreneurship, in Academy of Management Proceedings 2025 (1), 18532.
Opel, Juliane, Manuela Kaiser-Belz, and Maike Mach (2025), Experimentierraum KI-FrAItage: Wie Pilotgruppen an der Universität Kassel die Zukunft mitgestalten, Personal-und Organisationsentwicklung in Einrichtungen der Lehre und Forschung (P-OE) (1).
Prem, Roman, Sandra Ohly, Oliver Weigelt, Katja Siestrup, and Bettina Kubicek (2025), When do challenge stressors promote work motivation? Exploring the role of day-level self-efficacy, in Academy of Management Proceedings 2025 (1), 21972.
Söllner, Matthias, Thomas Arnold, Alexander Benlian, Ulrich Bretschneider, Caroline Knight, Sandra Ohly, Lena Rudkowski, Gerhard Schreiber, and Domenik Wendt (2025), ChatGPT and beyond: Exploring the responsible use of generative AI in the workplace, Business and Information Systems Engineering 67 (2), 289-303.
Voßkamp, Rainer, Frank Feudel, and John Monaghan (2025), Calculus in economics – Important features, challenges, and consequences, International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education 11, 740-772.
Weber, William, Shawna Grosskopf, Kathy Hayes, and Heike Wetzel (2025), Deterministic vs. stochastic methods for frontier estimation: update and illustration, Operations Research and Decisions 35 (2), 121-141.
Weidenbörner, Vincent, Marvin Gleue, Christoph Feldhaus, and Madeline Werthschulte (2025), Which tariff to choose? How individual attitudes and preferences explain demand for flexible electricity tariffs in Germany, Energy Research and Social Science 121, 103978.
The IVWL will continue the IVWL Research Seminar Economic Behavior and Governance in the winter semester 2026/2027. The goal of the seminar is to intensify the scientific exchange with colleagues from abroad, who are offered a forum to present their current research work at our department. The seminar takes place at Moritzstraße 18 (Campus Center) in seminar room 6.
Below you will find the current program:
Wednesday, 04.11.2026, 16:30
Kai Konrad (Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance): “Unilateral climate policy commitments and climate agreements”
Wednesday, 16.12.2026, 16:30
Yaniv Reingewertz (University of Haifa): “t.b.a.”
Wednesday, 27.01.2027, 16:30
Katharina Spieß (Federal Institute for Population Research): “t.b.a.”
Wednesday, 03.02.2027, 16:30
Melanie Arntz (IAB): “t.b.a.”