Joint projects of the University Alliance Ruhr
The Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR) is funding a cooperative research project within the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr), in which Prof. Michael J. Böhm from TU Dortmund University is involved. The funding amounts to around 100,000 euros. The researchers involved use the MERCUR funding to establish long-term collaborations within the UA Ruhr. A good half of the funding is provided by Stiftung Mercator, while the universities finance the other half on a pro rata basis.
Prof. Michael J. Böhm from the Chair of Empirical Economic Development at the Department of Business and Economics at TU Dortmund University and Prof. Jens Wrona from the University of Duisburg-Essen are involved in the cooperative research project "Regional Structural Change and Labor Markets". They are investigating how the change in spatial economic structures in Germany affects regional labor markets.
The aim of the cooperation is to better understand the impact of structural change, particularly on the labor supply side of (regional) labor markets. The main focus of the research is on labor supply elasticity, which varies across regions and occupational groups. In order to determine how regional differences and trends affect regional labor markets, the researchers are conducting a theoretically sound, empirical analysis. This should not only enable a better understanding of current labor market trends such as declining wage inequality, but also illustrate counterfactual analyses for quantifying and projecting medium and long-term developments on regional labor markets. To this end, the researchers in the MERCUR project are combining findings on the theoretical modeling of regional labor supply with data on the German labor market from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). The funding for their project amounts to around 100,000 euros.
The Ruhr University Alliance
Since 2007, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, the Technical University of Dortmund and the University of Duisburg-Essen have been working closely together strategically under the umbrella of the UA Ruhr. By joining forces, the achievements of the partner universities are systematically expanded. Under the motto "better together", there are now over 100 collaborations in research, teaching and administration. With more than 120,000 students and almost 1,300 professors, the UA Ruhr is one of the largest and most productive academic locations in Germany.
To the Professorship of Empirical Economic Research
To the project "Regional structural change and labor markets"