Seminare
Our chair regularly offers seminars on labor market, financial, economic and social policy, and behavioral economics topics. The seminars are always announced on our homepage well in advance of the start of the lecture period; preliminary discussion and assignment of topics take place in the first few weeks after the start of the lecture period. Registration always takes place after the preliminary meeting. Please also note our instructions for the preparation of seminar papers and theses.
Seminar: Selected Fields of Action in Social Security (Bachelor, Winter term 2025)
Language: German, literature might be in English
The seminar deals with topics of social policy as part of the financial and economic policy module. Participants learn how to deal with theoretical and empirical literature and gain an initial insight into academic work. In addition, participants are introduced to the institutional framework of German social policy and work through current reform proposals from academia, the political arena and German social organisations. What they have learnt is applied and deepened in joint discussions based on current issues and the derivation of their own economically sound policy recommendations. In terms of content, the focus is on social security using the example of the German basic social security system and social insurance using the example of statutory health insurance.
Seminar: International Business Taxation (Master, Winter term 2023/24)
The seminar focuses on tax policy and international taxation issues, with an emphasis on multinational enterprises’ activities and the tax implications of these activities. It addresses numerous themes in between, with a variety of topics ranging from the discussion of corporate taxation to tax challenges occurring as a result of the digitalization of the economy.
Seminar: Behavioural Welfare Economics (Master, Winter term 2022/23)
In the seminar, students discuss the foundations of welfare economics and learn about intersections and fundamental debates with behavioral economics. We discuss the importance of different concepts of welfare for policy and economic research.
Seminar: Renten- und Gesundheitspolitik – Reformbedarf aus ökonomischer Perspektive? (Master, Winter term 2022/23)
The seminar deals with topics of social policy with a focus on the areas of health/care and old-age security. Students will be introduced to features and stylized facts of the German welfare state and will be shown relevant interfaces of the current social security system. They will learn about challenges, proposed political solutions and reform approaches of social policy and discuss them against the background of economic theory.
Seminar: Behavioural Public Economics (Master, Sommer term 2021)
The seminar deals with topics in finance at the interfaces with behavioral economics. The course imparts basic knowledge on various welfare concepts and the practical application in the context of happiness research. Students develop and learn concepts of behavioral economics, which can be relevant as an instrument in the design of political processes (nudging, political framing, taxation of "sin goods", etc.). In addition, from an individual perspective, students will explore the extent to which the image of a homo economicus can be dissolved and, in turn, what challenges arise for policy (self-control and poverty, personality and tax fraud, etc.). By specifically contrasting standard theories with the behavioral economics perspective, the course creates an important complement to existing courses in finance.
Aktuelle Forschungsfragen der internationalen Finanzpolitik (Master, Winter term 2020/21, 2021/22)
The seminar deals with current issues in international financial policy, international trade and international taxation. Students will gain insights into the current literature of the different topics and learn in-depth theoretical and empirical approaches to analyze fiscal policy problems. The goal is to develop an independent research question and analyze it. In addition, participants learn how to prepare their findings in a non-technical summary.
Finanz- und Wirtschaftspolitik (Bachelor, Winter term 2020/21)
The seminar deals with basic topics of financial and economic policy. The focus is on understanding theoretical economic models. Participants learn how to deal with scientific literature and get a first insight into scientific work. In addition, participants receive an introduction to the institutional framework of German social and economic policy. The knowledge gained will be applied in joint discussions on the basis of current issues and the derivation of own policy recommendations.
Aktuelle Forschungsfragen der theoretischen Finanzwissenschaft (Sommer term 2020)
The seminar deals with basic theoretical models of finance. Participants will become familiar with existing theoretical literature on relevant topics in finance and work through it systematically. The focus is on understanding and applying theoretical models as well as critically questioning the model construction based on a discussion of the underlying assumptions. The aim is to train the application competence of economic modeling and scientific work.
Theoretische Grundlagen der Sozialpolitik (Master, Winter term 2017/2018)
In the course of the seminar, comprehensive problem areas of social policy are discussed with the help of theory-based analysis. The focus is on the critical examination of the modeling as well as the transfer to current challenges.
Seminar Mindestlohn (Bachelor, Winter term 2016/2017)
The seminar will deal with issues surrounding the minimum wage. The focus will be on the introduction of the nationwide minimum wage in Germany.
Determinanten des Arbeitsangebots (Bachelor, Winter term 2014/2015)
Labor supply depends on a variety of individual and institutional factors. The seminar will examine how individual factors affect labor supply. The focus will be on the design of social security systems and family-related regulations and benefits (e.g. parental leave, parental allowance). In addition, new findings from economic happiness research on the individual determinants of labor supply are examined (e.g. status consumption).
Arbeit und Glück (Bachelor, Sommer term 2014)
Why do humans work? Classical labor supply theory has a simple answer to this: we want to consume. Otherwise, working mainly brings us "costs" through the loss of time for other activities. The view of economic happiness research is different: When people become unemployed, they suffer far more than the loss of income can explain - and this despite the fact that they gain leisure time. This is one example of many where economic happiness research opens up a new perspective on economic models and their assumptions. The seminar Work and Happiness reviews some of the findings of this research area, questions them methodologically and discusses the insights for labor economics.
The seminar is aimed at advanced bachelor students who are interested in empirical questions in the field of labor economics and who want to prepare for their bachelor thesis with a first scientific seminar paper.
Armutsvermeidung in der Arbeitsmarkt- und Sozialpolitik (Master, Sommer term 2016, 2019)
The seminar deals with various issues of poverty reduction in labor market policy and social policy. Students are introduced to the theoretical foundations of the statutory social security system and labor market policy in Germany. Topics include the tax and transfer system, labor market, old age security, housing policy, education and family.
Behavioral Public Economics (Master, Winter term 2014/2015, Sommer termr 2011)
The seminar considered the utility concept in economics in the context of choice, expectations, relative comparisons, social norms, and fairness preferences.
