Main areas of research
- History of financial capitalism
- Social History of the Early Modern Period
- Population History/Historical Demography
- Urban Finance in the Early Modern Period
- Transport policy in early industrialisation
- Economic and social history of the 19th and 20th centuries
- Technological change and innovation systems
- History of state formation
- Corporate history and the history of corporate governance
- History of income, productivity and living standards in Germany and Great Britain since the 19th century
Current research projects
Patents and Innovations in the German States, 1843-1877
(Dr. Felix Selgert together with Alexander Donges, Mannheim).
The aim of the project is to empirically investigate regional innovation activity and technological specialization in the German states for the first time for the period before the harmonization of German patent law (1877) on the basis of patent data. The main question is to what extent regional differences in patent activity can be attributed to differences in patent law and patent granting practices. Another aim of the project is to draw conclusions about market integration in the Zollverein on the basis of foreign patents granted by the respective states to German and non-German foreigners. Furthermore, we want to distinguish the importance of individual inventors from the role of firms as drivers of technological progress in the early phase of industrialization in the German states.
The basis for the aforementioned research objectives is provided by data on the granting of patents by the individual German states for the period between 1843 and 1877, which will be collected as part of this project.
DFG-Project: Corporate History and Political Economy of Occupational Retirement Provision in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1948 to 1982
(Project leaders: Dorothee Mävers and Jonas Pieper)
This project will use eight corporate case studies and six legislative processes to examine the economic and corporate history dimensions of occupational pension provision for the years 1948 to 1982. For the first time, we use a comparative case study approach for this research topic, and for the first time we examine medium-sized firms in addition to large firms. With respect to the political economy of legislative processes, we examine social and - for the first time - tax policy laws with respect to their relevance for occupational pensions. Furthermore, we use an extended veto player approach for the analysis of both legislative processes and intra-firm negotiations on occupational pensions, so that the project transfers established methods of political science to economic and business history.