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Faculty of Management, Economics and Social SciencesCenter for Economic Research (CER)

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The Center for Economic Research at a glance

The Center for Economic Research (CER) is part of the Department of Economics of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne.

The following professorships are currently based at the CER: Prof. Dr. Martin Barbie, Prof. Dr. Felix Bierbrauer, Prof. Dr. Peter Funk, Prof. Dr. Erik Hornung, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Sonja Kovacevic, Prof. Michael Krause, Ph.D., Prof. Dr. Johannes Münster, Prof. Dr. Pia Pinger, Prof. Dr. Christopher Roth, Prof. Dr. Andreas Schabert, Prof. Dr. Christoph Schottmüller, Prof. Dr. Sonja Settele, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Siegloch (Executive Director), Jun.-Prof. Dr. Raoul van Marseveen, Prof. Dr. Alexander Westkamp and Prof. Dr. Johannes Wohlfart.

Professors  |  Jun.-Professors & Postdocs  |  Research & Teaching Assistents  |  Offices

Teaching and Research in Cologne

The main research and teaching areas of the CER are Macro- and Microeconomics, Applied and Public Economics, with 14 professors, two junior professors, several postdoctoral researchers and more than 30 research assistants dedicated to teaching and research in these fields. Moreover, the CER is integrated In the interdisciplinary experimental research of the Center for Social and Economic Behavior (C-SEB), which investigates human behavior and decision-making from the perspective of economics and psychology.

The broad research spectrum of the CER is extended by the cooperation with two affiliated Cologne-based research institutes, whose respective directors are chairs at the CER: the FiFo Institute for Public Economics (Director Prof. Dr. F. Bierbrauer) and the Institute for Economic Policy (iwp, Directors Prof. M. Krause, Ph.D. and Prof. Dr. Steffen J. Roth).

In close cooperation with the Cologne Graduate School in Management, Economics and Social Sciences the CER offers a research-oriented PhD Programme in Economics .

Cutting-edge research at an international level

The ECONtribute Cluster of Excellence, which is embedded in the academic research structure of the Cologne university, is the only  Cluster of Excellence in economics in Germany. Under the aegis of the Reinhard Selten Institute, ECONtribute is being jointly promoted by the University of Bonn and the University of Cologne since 2019.

Here, the CER chairs are part of a global network of internationally renowned academics who conduct interdisciplinary research on markets at the intersection of business, politics and society at an international level

Additionally, the research of four CER professors is also supported by the European Research Council (ERC) for excellent (early-career) researchers: OPPORTUNITY - Inequalities in decision-making at critical junctions in life: The role of ability signals for sorting and selection (Prof. Dr. Pia Pinger), Viral Narratives: The Role of Narratives for Economic Belief Formation (Prof. Dr. Christopher Roth), HIPPO - Housing, Inequality and Public Policies (Prof. Dr. Sebastian Siegloch), and  ENTRENCHED: Elite Capture and Social Mobility (Prof. Dr. Erik Hornung)