The overarching goal of the RTG “Regional Disparities and Economic Policy” is to provide an outstanding education for doctoral students while at the same time contributing to frontier research in the exciting and dynamic field of regional economics. Combining the expertise of scholars from distinct economic backgrounds (e.g. labor, public, macro) and thus different methodological skills, institutional knowledge, and data access, we establish a graduate program that promises internationally visible scientific output and an excellent academic training environment for PhD candidates. 

Regional disparities – for example with respect to income, housing costs, labor market, education and health outcomes – are pronounced, persistent, and at times divergent, but the debate about their origins, consequences, and appropriate policy responses is still largely unresolved. The RTG “Regional Disparities and Economic Policy” aims to improve our knowledge of underlying economic mechanisms and hence lay the groundwork for well-founded policy recommendations by applying and further developing recent methodological advances in regional economics as well as utilizing unique data sets. To this end, the Research Data Center at RWI – Leibniz-Institute for Economic Research, specialized on regional data, constitutes an important partner of the RTG.

Further Involved

Prof. Dr. Marie Paul (UDE)

Prof. Dr. Martin Karlsson (UDE)

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jens Wrona (UDE)

Prof. Dr. Thomas K. Bauer (RUB)

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Sanne Kruse-Becher (RUB)

Prof. Dr. Christiane Hellmanzik (TUD)

Prof. Dr. Philip Jung (TUD)

Prof. Galina Zudenkova, PhD (TUD)

Prof. Dr. Nadine Riedel (Münster)