Research Groups

Martin Höpner
Heterogeneity within the European Union has increased with each round of enlargement. The EU is made up of countries with widely differing welfare levels, welfare states, industrial relations arrangements, and corporate governance regimes. The extent to which the European economies rely on internal demand and exports varies, too. The research group analyzes how the heterogeneity of European varieties of capitalism shapes European integration. [more]

Leon Wansleben
We are currently experiencing a simultaneous increase in global awareness of climate change as an existential threat and in contestations around climate mitigation that concern burden-sharing and cost distribution as well as who determines transition pathways and on what terms. As the stakes for different groups become clearer and more articulate, conflicts come to the fore, as do new opportunities for political and economic actors. [more]

Isabell Stamm
The research group "Business, Ownership, and Family Wealth" investigates the changing constitution of family capitalism in Germany with a decided focus on social inequality. It is assumed that private property is a constitutive feature of capitalism per se and that family capitalism is characterized by a dominating influence of families on the capitalist mode of production and economy. [more]