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SOCIETY OF FRIENDS AND SPONSORS

About us 

The Society of Friends and Sponsors (hereafter Fördergesellschaft) supports RWI financially and enables activities that go beyond basic public funding. Among other things, it sponsors conferences with international participation and cooperation with other institutions. Every year, the Fördergesellschaft invites members to the "RWI Wirtschaftsgespräch" (RWI Economic Discussion), where they can discuss current topics with top experts as well as the RWI Executive Board. In this context, the Fördergesellschaft also awards prizes for outstanding scientific achievements. RWI's economic experts regularly present the "Joint Economic Forecast" of the leading German economic research institutes to members of the Fördergesellschaft in an exclusive setting. 

The Fördergesellschaft pursues exclusively and directly charitable purposes. Contributions to the society are tax deductible. The Fördergesellschaft, which is recognized as a non-profit organization, was founded in 1948 by companies and individuals whose particular concern was to support the Institute in the fulfillment of its tasks and to raise the corresponding funds.  

Individuals, commercial enterprises of all kinds, trade associations and corporations under public law as well as social and other economic organizations can become members. The minimum annual membership fee is currently 50 euros for individuals and 250 euros for companies and institutions.  

The president of the Fördergesellschaft is Manfred Breuer, members of the board are Thomas Koch and Sönke Schnoor.

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Statutes

Announcement of awards for outstanding scientific archivements

Application Template: RWI Prize for Economic Policy Advice and Science Communication

 Prizes for outstanding scientific achievements at RWI

As part of the "RWI-Wirtschaftsgespräch" (RWI Economic Discussion), the Sponsoring Association annually awards prizes for outstanding scientific achievements at RWI. RWI scientists who have made a significant contribution in one of the three areas of research, promotion of young researchers, and economic policy consulting and science communication, and who have thus contributed to the reputation of the Institute, are honored. 

  • Dissertation Award: Fabian T. Dehos for his work about „Evidence-Based Policy Evaluation: Micro-econometric Perspectives on Public Governance“. 
  • Junior price for the best publication by a doctoral student: Anna Webeck for her paper „Cream Skimming by Health Care Providers and Inequality in Health Care Access: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment“, punlished in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
  • Publication Awards
    • 1st place: Mark A. Andor, Andreas Gerster and Jörg Peters for their work „Information Campaigns for Energy Conservation”, published in European Economic Review. 
    • 2nd place: Ronald Bachmann, Gökay Demir und Hanna Frings for their paper „Labor Market Polarization, Job tasks and Monopsony Power“, published in Journal of Human Resources. 
    • 3rd place: Matthias Giesecke und Philipp Jäger for their paper „Pension Incentives and Labor Supply: Evidence from the Introduction of Universal Old-Age Assistance in the UK" published in Journal of Public Economics. 
  • Price for Economic Policy Advice: Sandra Schaffner for her economic policy advice on "regional economics"
  • Dissertation Award: Fernanda Martínez Flores for her work about „The Role of Migration and Education in Economic Development: Microeconometric Analyses for Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa“. 
  • Junior prize for the best publication by a doctoral student: Lukas Tomberg for his paper „'The mother of all political problems?' On asylum seekers and elections“, published in European Journal of Political Economy
  • Publication Award
    • 1st place: Mark Andor, Andreas Gerster, Kenneth Gillingham und Marco Horvath for their paper „Running a car costs much more than people think — stalling the uptake of green travel”, published in Natures. 
    • 2nd place: Fabian Dehos for his paper „The refugee wave to Germany and its impact on crime“, published in Regional Science and Urban Economics. 
    • 3rd place: Gunther Bensch and Jörg Peters for their paper „One? Off Subsidies and Long? Run Adoption — Experimental Evidence on Improved Cooking Stoves in Senegal" published in American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 
  • Prize for Economic Policy Advice: Boris Augurzky  for his economic policy advice on "Health Economics""

Due to the Corona pandemic, the award ceremony took place virtually on November 18, 2020 

  • Dissertation Award: Lisa Sofie Höckel for her work on "Chances and Challenges: Four Empirical Essays on Migration and Its Impact on Society". 
  • Junior prize for the best publication by a doctoral student:  Luciane Lenz for her article "Demand for Off-Grid Solar Electricity: Experimental Evidence from Rwanda," published in the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. 
  • Publication Awards
    • 1st place: Christian Bünnings and Valentin Schiele for their paper "Spring Forward, Don't Fall Back - The Effect of Daylight Saving Time on Road Safety", published in the Review of Economics and Statistics. 
    • 2nd place: Alexander Haering, Timo Heinrich and Thomas Mayrhofer for their paper "Exploring the consistency of higher order risk preferences", published in the journal International Economic Review.
    • 3rd place: Ansgar Wübker and Martin Salm for their paper "Sources of regional variation in healthcare utilization in Germany" published in the Journal of Health Economics. 
  • Prize for Economic Policy Advice: Nils aus dem Moore for his economic policy advice on the "Precautionary Post-Growth Position".
  • Dissertation prize: Stephan Sommer for his work on "Empirical Studies on Climate Change Perception and Mitigation Policies"
  • Junior Award for the best publication by a doctoral student: Marco Horvath for his article "The U.S. Fracking Boom: Impact on Oil Prices," published in Energy Journal. 
  • Publication Awards
    • 1st place: Nils aus dem Moore, Philipp Großkurth and Michael Themann for their paper "Multinational Corporations and the EU Emissions Trading System: The Specter of Asset Erosion and Creeping Deindustrialization." published in the Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. 
    • 2nd place:Mark A. Andor, Christopher Parmeter, and Stephan Sommer for their article "Combining Uncertainty with Uncertainty to Get Certainty? Efficiency Analysis for Regulation Purposes," published in the European Journal of Operational Research.
    • 3rd place: Thomas K. Bauer, Matthias Giesecke and Laura M. Janisch for their paper "The Impact of Forced Migration on Mortality: Evidence from German Pension Insurance Records" published in the journal Demography. 
  • Prize for Economic Policy Advice: Manuel Frondel for his economic policy advice on environmental economic issues.
  • Dissertation prize: Andreas Gerster for his work on "Empirical Evaluations of Climate Policies".
  • Junior price for the best publication by a RWI doctoral student: Gerhard Kussel for his article "Adaptation to Climate Variability: Evidence from German Households", published in the journal Ecological Economics.
  • Publication Awards
    • 1st place: Thomas Bauer, Sebastian Braun and Michael Kvasnicka for their paper "Nuclear Power Plant Closures and Local Housing Values: Evidence from Fukushima and the German Housing Market", published in the Journal of Urban Economics
    • 2nd place: Ingo Kolodziej, Arndt Reichert and Hendrik Schmitz for their article "New Evidence on Employment Effects of Informal Care Provision in Europe", published in the journal Health Services Resarch
    • 3rd place: Adam Pilny, Ansgar Wübker and Nicolas Ziebarth for their paper "Introducing Risk Adjustment and Free Health Plan Choice in Employer-Based Health Insurance: Evidence from Germany" published in the Journal of Health Economics.
  • Prize for Economic Policy Advice: Jörg Peters for his international economic policy advice on the energy infrastructure in Africa.
  • Dissertation prize: Corinna Hentschker für ihre Arbeit über „Hospital quality and its determinants – An empirical examination with administrative data from Germany“.
  • Junior price für die beste Publikation einer Doktorandin oder eines Doktoranden: Andreas Gerster: Negative price spikes at power markets: the role of energy policy. Journal of Regulatory Economics 
  • Publication Awards
    • 1st place: Simon Decker and Hendrik Schmitz for the paper: "Health shocks and risk aversion", published in the Journal of Health Economics 
    • 2nd/3rd place: Dörte Heger for "Mental health of children providing care to their elderly parents", published in Health Economics
    • 2nd/3rd place: Adam Pilny for "Explaining differentials in subsidy levels among hospital ownership types in Germany", published in Health Economics.  
  • Prize for economic policy advice: Roland Döhrn for his contribution to the Joint Economic Forecast.
  • Dissertation prize: Maximiliane Sievert for her work on "Rural Electrification and Poverty Reduction - Empirical Insights from Sub-Saharan Africa".
  • Junior prize for the best publication by a RWI doctoral student: Matthias Westphal and Hendrik Schmitz: for "Short- and medium-term effects of informal care provision on female caregivers' health", published in Journal of Health Economics
  • Publication Awards
    • 1st place: Gunter Bensch and Jörg Peters for the paper: "The intensive margin of technology adoption - Experimental evidence on improved cooking stoves in rural Senegal", published in Journal of Health Economics
    • 2nd place: Johannes Geyer and Thorben Korfhage: "Long-term care insurance and carers' labor supply - a structural model", published in Health Economics
    • 3rd place: Christian Bünnings, Jan Kleibrink and Jens Weßling for "Fear of unemployment and its effect on the mental health of spouses", published in Health Economics. 
  • Prize for Economic Policy Advice: Katja Fels and Nils aus dem Moore for their project "National Visibility in an Emerging Research Area: Nudging and the Content of the 19th RWI Economic Discussion".
  • Dissertation Award: Hanna Frings, "Minimum Wages: Boon or Bane? Microeconometric Evidence from Germany." 
  • Junior prize for the best publication by a doctoral student: Sebastian Garmann, "Elected or appointed? How the nomination scheme of the city manager influences the effects of government fragmentation," published in: Journal of Urban Economics 
  • Publication Awards
    • 1st/2nd place: Christian Bünnings and Harald Tauchmann, "Who opts out of the statutory health insurance? A discrete time hazard model for Germany," published in: Health Economics 
    • 1st/2nd place: Corinna Hentschker and Roman Mennicken, "The Volume-Outcome Relationship and Minimum Volume Standards - Empirical Evidence for Germany", published in: Health Economics 
    • 3rd place: Ronald Bachmann, Peggy Bechara and Sandra Schaffner, "Wage inequality and wage mobility in Europe" (published in: Review of Income and Health). 
  • Prize for Economic Policy Advice:Manuel Frondel for his critical monitoring of the energy transition from a scientific perspective. 

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