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EFI 2024 Report Handed over to German Government
On February 28, 2024, the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (Expertenkommission Forschung und Innovation - EFI) handed over its 2025 report to Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger.
Summa cum Laude for Francisco Flores
On December 08, 2023, Francisco Flores Taipe successfully defended his doctoral dissertation "Testing the Impact of Large-scale Digital Support on Students' Paths Toward College Education". Thesis and defense were graded with the top grade "summa cum laude". Francisco's dissertation research was part of the Showing Life Opportunities project that we conducted together with a great team of collaborators. Congratulations, Dr. Flores!
Results from Showing Life Opportunities project published in PNAS
How to organize education online when students cannot go to school? To help answer this question, EPIE researchers Igor Asanov, Anastasiya-Mariya Asanov, Francisco Flores and Guido Buenstorf, joint with our colleagues Tom Åstebro and Mathis Schulte (HEC Paris), Bruno Crépon (ENSAE), David McKenzie (World Bank) and Mona Mensmann (University of Cologne), tested various light-touch interventions to improve students' educational process and knowledge outcomes. Results of this study, which was part of the INCHER project Showing Life Opportunities, have now been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Key findings of the study are summarized in an Innovation Growth Lab blog post.
Evolution, Innovation and Transition
On July 06-08, 2023, the EPIE group hosts the annual conference of the Evolutionary Economics Committee in Verein für Socialpolitik (Economic Association of the German-speaking countries). Ongoing societal and economic transitions - in particular, decarbonization and digitization - and their economic and societal implications are in the focus of the debate. Evolutionary economics is an approach to economics that highlights dynamic processes of innovative change in the economy.
Burcu Ozgun Defended Dissertation at Utrecht University
On May 12, 2023, EPIE team member Burcu Ozgun successfully defended her doctoral dissertation Geography of News - Empirical Studies of German News Mediaat Utrecht University. Her advisors were Ron Boschma (Utrecht University) and Tom Broekel (Stavanger University). Congratulations, Dr. Ozgun!
Self-Help Online Ukraine
After the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, more than 14 million Ukrainians had to flee their country, or were internally displaced, giving rise to the largest human displacement crisis in the world today. Our early onlineassessment of the mental health of 1165 Ukrainian help-seekers across the European Union and Ukraine show that Ukrainian refugees, internally displaced are at exceptionallyhigh risk of depression and have high stress level. To help learning how to overcome high levels of stress, EPIE team members Anastasiya-Mariya Asanov Noha, Igor Asanov and Guido Buenstorf developed an online stress management course (Self-Help Online) . It uses effective offline materials developed by the WHO to help refugees and was tested by our team for the online learning format. The online course on stress management is designed for Ukrainian refugees and temporarily displaced persons who are under severe stress. It is provided free of charge thanks to the financial support of INCHER.
Access to the course: https://www.sho4ukraine.com/
Related publication:
Asanov Noha, A.M., Asanov, I. and Buenstorf, G., 2022. Mental health and stress level of Ukrainians seeking psychological help online.medRxiv, pp.2022-08.
EFI Commission Hands Over 2023 Report
On February 15, 2023, the German Expert Commission for Research and Innovation (EFI) handed over its 2023 report to Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger.
Professorship at Uni Zurich for Katarina Zigova
Dr. Katarina Zigova, EPIE researcher and associated member of INCHER, was appointed to an assistant professorship at the University of Zurich. Congratulations, Katarina!
The Boundary of the Entrepreneur: David McKenzie im IVWL-Kolloquium
Welche Rolle spielen Unternehmensgründungen und Managementpraktiken im Entwicklungskontext? Welche Maßnahmen helfen wirklich bei der Förderung der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung im globalen Süden? Fragen dieser Art stehen im Mittelpunkt der Forschung von David McKenzie, unserem Gastredner im IVWL Research Seminar Economic Behavior and Governance am 23. Juni 2021. Der Vortrag von David McKenzie stellt Ergebnisse eines Feldexperiments vor, in dem die Effekte von Trainings- und Beratungsmaßnahmen für Kleinunternehmer mit der Unterstützung beim Outsourcing von Aufgaben und bei der Rekrutierung qualfizierter Beschäftigter verglichen werden. Diese Ergebnisse zeigen die Bedeutung der "Grenze des Entrepreneurs" auf.