CESifo Network

The CESifo Working Paper Series offers a wide range of economic research across diverse topics. Here are the papers that recently garnered the most attention, based on download figures.

Nikita Melnikov’s research lies at the intersection of political economy and development, focusing on how information technologies shape political behavior, accountability, polarization and the spread of misinformation. During his visit to CESifo, he intends to advance his research program on mobile broadband, political polarization, and democratic accountability, with an emphasis on developing new projects and data sources that shed light on the effects of digital content on political and social outcomes. 

He also plans to pursue collaborative work with the Big Data group, focusing on integrating large-scale data sources into applied political economy research on digital platforms and political behavior.

Oliver Ruhnau is an energy economist with a special interest in energy market design in the context of the sustainable transition of energy systems. His research covers topics like electricity markets, renewable energy sources, and energy demand. In his dissertation, he explored the role of heat pumps and hydrogen electrolyzers for the wholesale market value of wind and solar energy as well as the current price elasticity of the aggregate electricity demand in wholesale and balancing markets.

Oliver Ruhnau is Assistant Professor of Energy Market Design at the University of Cologne and a Research Scientist at the Institute of Energy Economics (EWI) in Cologne.

Ulrich J. Wagner’s research interests lie at the intersection of environmental economics, industrial organization, and public economics. During his visit, he will explore opportunities for collaborative research integrating empirical evidence on firm behavior and technological transitions into CESifo’s analytical work on the effectiveness of climate and energy policy instruments. 

He has published in leading peer-reviewed academic journals such as the American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies, and Science. He has been a co-editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

During her visit, Lavinia Kinne will work with Raphael Brade (ifo Center for the Economics of Education) on a project examining how group diversity affects creative output. The project studies how the diversity of teams, e.g. regarding gender, cultural background, and professional aspirations, influences the creativity of team output. 

Lavina Kinne is a Postdoctoral Researcher (tenure track) at DIW Berlin. Previously she was a Research Associate at the Berlin School of Economics and Guest Researcher at the University of Potsdam.

Industrial policy has returned to the forefront worldwide. The EU is engaged in an effort to expand the scope and scale of its industrial strategy. The goal: to make the continent more resilient and autonomous in an increasingly assertive global landscape, whether on an industrial, commercial, or geopolitical level. To achieve this, however, the bloc must take coordinated and targeted action to leverage its comparative advantages and diversify its R&D partnerships. Its technological sovereignty is at stake.