Joint project of the University Alliance Ruhr
The Mercator Research Centre Ruhr (MERCUR) is funding a cooperative research project within the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr), in which Prof. Michael J. Böhm from TU Dortmund University is involved. The funding amounts to around 100,000 euros. The researchers involved are using the MERCUR funding to establish long-term collaborations within the UA Ruhr. A good half of the funding is provided by Stiftung Mercator, with the universities financing the other half on a pro rata basis.
Prof. Michael J. Böhm from the Chair of Empirical Economic Development at the Department of Business and Economics at TU Dortmund University and Prof. Jens Wrona from the University of Duisburg-Essen are involved in the cooperative research project "Regional Structural Change and Labour Markets". They are investigating how the change in spatial economic structures in Germany affects regional labour markets.
The aim of the cooperation is to better understand the impact of structural change, particularly on the labour supply side of (regional) labour markets. The main focus of the research is on labour supply elasticity, which varies across regions and occupational groups. In order to determine how regional differences and trends affect regional labour markets, the researchers are conducting a theoretically founded, empirical analysis. This should not only enable a better understanding of current labour market trends such as declining wage inequality, but also illustrate counterfactual analyses for quantifying and projecting medium and long-term developments on regional labour markets. To this aim, the researchers in the MERCUR project are combining findings on the theoretical modelling of regional labour supply with data on the German labour market from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). The funding for their project totals around 100,000 euros.
The University Alliance Ruhr
Since 2007, the Ruhr University Bochum, the TU Dortmund University and the University of Duisburg-Essen have been working closely together strategically under the aegis of the UA Ruhr. By joining forces, the achievements of the partner universities are systematically expanded. Under the motto "better together", there are now over 100 co-operations in research, teaching and administration. With more than 120,000 students and almost 1,300 professors, the UA Ruhr is one of the largest and most productive academic centres in Germany.
About the project Regional structural change and labour markets