Media Reports

3rd RGS Doctoral Conference in Economics: Research frontiers in Economics

2.3.2010

The 3rd Doctoral Conference of the RGS took place at the Ruhr-University of Bochum, February 11-12, 2010. In the years before this conference was already hosted by the Technical University of Dortmund (2007) and the University of Duisburg-Essen (2008). In sum, more than 140 applied and theoretical papers were submitted – a record high – with one third being accepted for presentation. With more than 50 presentations by doctoral students from 11 countries the conference offered an international platform to exchange scientific ideas and to create networks. The topics covered in the sessions included many modern fields of Economics, including Health Economics, International Trade, Game Theory and Macroeconomics. All session where chaired by a professor of the RGS and together with participant’s active involvement this guaranteed a lively and targeted discussion throughout the entire two days.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis: Public speech by Hans-Olaf Henkel

A conference highlight was the public speech by Prof. Dr. Hans-Olaf Henkel, former president of the Leibniz Association and the Federation of German Industry (BDI) on “Upwards, but how – can society and politics find a sustainable way out of the crisis?”. In an unveiling speech Mr. Henkel fascinated a large audience by analyzing the underlying causes of today’s financial and economic crisis as well as discussing viable solutions for the German political and economic system.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Hans-Olaf Henkel

Best Paper Award

For the first time the RGS offered a prize for the best paper submitted and presented during the conference venue. The award with a prize value of 500 EUR was conferred to Søren Hove Ravn, doctoral student at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, for his paper “Has the Fed Reacted Asymmetrically to Stock Prices?”. The paper analyzes the hypothesis that the Federal Reserve responded with interest rate cuts to falling stock prices, but did not raise interest rates when stock prices were rising during the period 1998 – 2008. The question posed by the paper is politically relevant as an asymmetric monetary policy is likely to lead to moral hazard by reducing the downside risk faced by stock market investors. His analysis yields that a 5% drop in the S&P index increases the probability of a 25 basis point interest rate cut by 1/3, while a rise in stock prices does not trigger a monetary policy reaction. The work by Mr. Ravn was judged by the RGS scientific committee to constitute an outstanding contribution to the conference and Economic literature.

from left to right: Prof. Dr. Christoph M. Schmidt, Søren Hove Ravn and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Leininger

For further information, please contact:
Dr. Stefan Rumpf (RGS Econ) Phone: +49 201 8149-279