Symposium Exploring Ignorance: Acquisition, Selection and Processing of Information - May 18 - 20, 2016
While acquiring, selecting and processing information is central to virtually all decisions studied in Economics, Political Science, Sociology and Psychology, the systematic study of information in decision-making today remains largely isolated within these disciplines. The aim of the symposium is to bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers to foster an exchange on the common insights and challenges regarding the role of information in decision-making processes. In particular, the symposium will highlight the individual and contextual determinants of different information processing strategies and research designs that allow identifying these in empirical applications.
Workshop on “Investment, Portfolio Choice, and Asset Pricing” for PhD Students (Königsfeld) – May 19 – 20, 2016
Every two years a workshop on Finance takes place with the University of Strasbourg. It supports the exchange of both universities in the field of finance. Prof. Jackwerth, Konstanz and Prof. Weill, Strasbourg organised the workshop in 2016. The presentations were devoted to various topics in the fields of investments, portfolio decisions, and asset valuations. In addition to the research exchange, it intensified contacts between the PhDs. The workshop is also a market place where new research ideas can be discussed.
Workshop ”Labor market dynamics : The role of product and financial market imperfections” July 04 – 05, 2016
A total of 30 researchers and eight doctoral students participated in this workshop, which took place in the city hall of Konstanz. 12 research projects were presented and discussed by the participants. Gianluca Violante (New York University) delivered the keynote speech on procyclical hiring by firms. Multiple contributions dealt with the main theme of the workshop, the interdependence of product, financial, and labour markets. They included research on the impact of globalised product markets on local and sectoral labour markets, the role of credit markets for labour market dynamics, and the significance of household debt for the labour market. Other presentations dealt with occupational changes and the transition from unemployment to employment, and multiple innovative projects discussed the causes of wage inequality.
Workshop ”Challenges and Opportunities for Diverse Work Teams” July 19 – 20, 2016
In this workshop, we connected our research on team performance (Dr. J. Lukas Thürmer, GSDS) and organisational diversity (Prof. Florian Kunze, GSDS) with small group research on deviance (Prof. John Levine, University of Pittsburgh) and social psychological research on intergroup relations (Prof. Johannes Ullrich, University of Zurich) to identify how organisations can master the challenges and reap the benefits of diverse work teams. Key note addresses by these established researchers laid out the framework for doctoral researchers Max Reinwald (University of Konstanz, GSDS), Neela Mühlemann (University of Zurich), Theresa Goecke (University of Konstanz), and Lucia Görke (University of Konstanz, GSDS) to present and discuss their ongoing projects. Several additional doctoral and postdoctoral researchers participated. Besides the intense discourse on team diversity, social events provided opportunities for networking. This workshop helped initiate a follow up-visit of Lucia Görke to the University of Pittsburgh (March 2017).
Doctoral Workshop ”Quantitative Dynamic Economics” September 16-17, 2016
This highly international workshop brought together researchers and doctoral students from Germany, France, and Spain. It gave the opportunity to 11 doctoral students to present their research on the business cycle and financial markets, monetary policy, as well as labour market dynamics and income inequality. Common to all research projects was the use of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models, which allowed us to establish connections between different research projects. In general, the workshop deepened the cooperation between the participating universities of Aix-Marseille, Carlos III Madrid, Strasbourg, and Konstanz that had begun after a similar workshop in Konstanz in 2015, and supported networking of the doctoral students in Europe.