Research projects
Economics of Science and Technology
How does competition among universities affect the labor market for new PhDs? This question is addressed in our contribution to the DFG Research Group Multiple Competition in Higher Education. We study changes in labor market outcomes of newly graduated PhDs against the background of intensified competition among German universities. Specifically, we investigate empirically how the performance of German universities in the Excellence Initiative (Exzellenzinitiative) affected their doctorate recipients’ academic and non-academic labor market outcomes, as well as transmission mechanisms for this effect. By investigating interdependencies between organizational and individual competitive performance, the project contributes to our understanding of multiple competition in the university system.
Effects of Ranking Individual Researchers
Forschungsrankings, Outputmessung, Nachwuchsrekrutierung, Themenwahl und Anreize zur Sorgfalt
Project description: Quantitative indicators of publication output and research rankings of individuals and institutions have diffused widely in the past decades. In FRONTAL we develop and apply empirical designs enabling us to identify the effects of introducing an individual-level research ranking. In particular, we analyze whether and how criteria for hiring and promotion decisions and thus the career chances of junior researchers are affected. A second focus is on the reaction of junior researchers regarding their choices of research topics and publication outlets. Finally, we study whether researchers exposed to increasing publication pressure are more prone to engage in questionable research practices.
Project duration: April 2018 to March 2021
Funded by: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) within the funding line "Quantitative Wissenschaftsforschung" [01PU17007A].
Partners: Technical University Dresden (Dr. Matthias Geissler) and University of Göttingen (Dr. Stephan Bruns).
Changes in Academic Career Dynamics in Germany
Project description: The WISKIDZ project contributes to a better understanding of long-term developments in the recruiting behavior in public research and individual career paths after obtaining a doctoral degree. In its second funding phase, WISKIDZ focused on career trajectories outside the university system. Our analyses were based on linking dissertation data with information about subsequent employment.
Funded by: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) within the funding line "FoWiN" [16FWN016]: Forschung zum Wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs.
Partners: Hertie Chair on Knowledge and Data Engineering (University of Kassel; Professor Dr. Gerd Stumme); Institute for Employment Research (IAB; Dr. Anne Otto).
Changes in Academic Career Dynamics in Germany
Wissenschaftliche Karrieredynamiken in Deutschland im Zeitablauf
Project description: The WISKIDZ project contributes to a better understanding of long-term developments in the recruiting behavior in public research and individual career paths after obtaining a doctoral degree. The analyses are based on dissertation data, which are supplemented by information on publications, patents and macro-economic data among others. The project essentially analyses two key issues. First, we aim to understand changes in recruiting behavior over time with a special focus put on disciplinary idiosyncrasies. We create and analyze genealogies of doctoral students and their advisors in selected fields (physics, electronics, management and medieval history) from 1945 to the present. Second, the project probes into the interdependencies of academic and non-academic employment opportunities of young researchers. The key points of interest are direct and indirect effects of exogenous changes in the labor market.
Funded by: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) within the funding line "FoWiN" [16FWN001]: Forschung zum Wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs.
Industrial Dynamics & Entrepreneurship
Showing Life Opportunities: Increasing opportunity-driven entrepreneurship and STEM careers through online courses in schools
Team
Dr. Igor Asanov (University of Kassel); Prof. Dr. Thomas Åstebro (HEC Paris); Prof. Dr. Guido Buenstorf (INCHER-Kassel; University of Kassel); Prof. Dr. Bruno Crepon (ENSAE and École Polytechnique); Dr. Diego d'Andria (JRC European Commission); Francisco Flores, M.Sc. (INCHER-Kassel, University of Kassel); Dr. David McKenzie (World Bank); Dr. Mona Mensmann (Warwick Business School); Prof. Dr. Mathis Schulte (HEC Paris)
Funded by
World Bank Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund;
Innovation Growth Lab, Innovations for Poverty Action;
Labex ECODEC ENSAE;
University of Kassel
Signing of a cooperation agreement: Professor Guido Bünstorf (University of Kassel) and Angel Eduardo Espinoza Alarcon, Coordinator Zona 2, Ministry of Education, Ecuador (MINEDUC)
INCHER members Francisco Flores and Igor Asanov in Ecuador
Entrepreneurship and science-led innovation are crucial for economic growth and productivity. However, in many countries only few students consider entrepreneurship and STEM careers as options for their future. Higher education can both help to increase the number of potential founders and the success of their startups. Therefore, university teaching contributing to innovation and entrepreneurship is increasingly regarded as part of the university's "third mission”. However, the measures developed for this purpose are usually expensive and hardly scalable. In addition, the desired effects of entrepreneurship training are often not empirically substantiated, and it is not even clear whether "late" measures during tertiary education are better than earlier interventions. Therefore, there is a considerable need for cost-effective measures that can be used effectively and comprehensively, as well as the investigation of their effectiveness in the respective application context.
Often identified as reasons for students not to choose entrepreneurship and STEM career paths are lack of knowledge, appropriate skills, and/or missing role models. But will showing youth alternative career options, teaching skills that are relevant for entrepreneurship and science, and providing role models, increase numbers of opportunity-driven entrepreneurs as well as of students pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers? This is tested at high schools in Ecuador by, for the first time, providing online education courses for students. From September 2019 on, about 30,000 15-17 year olds in 110 public schools in Ecuador are provided access to an online education platform teaching entrepreneurial soft skills, scientific methods, and offering interviews with role models, and information about job options. A control group is shown placebo courses.
Ecuador is a particularly suitable empirical context for the project, since, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, it has high start-up rates, but to a greater extent than in comparable countries, these are driven by need-based start-ups with little chance of success and growth.
We expect the study to bring valuable information not only for developing countries but for developed countries wishing to increase the number of successful entrepreneurs and STEM students. Since the program is online based, it can be easily transferred across the world (particularly, in Spanish speaking countries).
INCHER-Kassel runs this project in cooperation with the Ministry of Education of Ecuador, World Bank, Labex ECODEC ENSAE, HEC Paris, and Warwick Business School.