News and Press Releases

Clara Baumann is taking up a postdoctoral position at the University of Münster in March of this year. Joining the economic geography and globalization research group of Prof. Sarah Sippel, she will both pursue her own habilitation project and teach. more

Dustin Voss is to take up a post at Cologne’s chamber of skilled crafts (HWK), in February 2026. His new role as policy advisor for the HWK will involve preparing statements and position papers on regional economic policy and issues relating to the craft trades as well as representing the sector’s interests on committees at communal, state, and federal level. more

Philipp Golka, a senior researcher at the MPIfG, is spending February to April 2026 as Visiting Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He was invited to take up the position by the sociologist Rebecca Elliott, who researches at the LSE on climate change, climate damage, and insurance. more

Eva Maria Gajek was one of two recipients of the 2025 JLU Prize awarded by Justus Liebig University Gießen at an academic ceremony on November 28. The 5,000-euro award honors her outstanding habilitation study on the knowledge and perception of wealth in Germany’s long twentieth century (“Auf der Suche nach den Reichen: Eine Wahrnehmungs- und Wissensgeschichte von Reichtum im langen 20. Jahrhundert in Deutschland”), as well as her academic work as a whole. more

In November 2025, sixteen European researchers met at the MPIfG to discuss “From Austerity to Expansion? Rethinking Fiscal Policy in an Age of Crisis.” In the workshop, they examined whether recent crisis-driven public spending marks a shift toward expansionary fiscal policy or if institutional path dependencies will prevail. more

A new science festival organized by the Kölner Wissenschaftsrunde was held in Cologne for the first time on November 15, 2025. The “Wissenschaftsfestival Köln” brought the city’s science and research institutions, among them the MPIfG, together to present their work to the general public. more

Ayodeji Stephen Akinnimi successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) last October. In “Keeping a Job: Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Temporary and Non-Regular Employment” he explores how refugees access the German labor market since the easing of restrictions in 2015. more