Development and Security

Research profile

The vision of the Department of Development and Security entails conducting applied micro-economic research on key global challenges and to derive policy advice from this research. These global challenges include poverty, employment, adaptation to climate change, violence, uncertainty, terrorism, and war.

We regularly collect our own data and contribute to the design of data by partner institutions. Our main methodological toolkit is hence micro-econometrics.

Our department collaborates closely with international and local researchers. In Berlin, we cooperate closely with the Humboldt-University of Berlin, among others.

We also actively manage two large international networks of researchers working in the field of conflict and security economics, respectively. This provides ample opportunities for new research collaborations, joint projects, and personnel development. Given the nature of our research and research networks, we have a high share of international staff and research partners.

We concentrate on obtaining long-term and large scale research projects from, for example, the DFG, the EU's Framework Programmes and the Volkswagen Foundation. We reach a high level of refereed publications per FTE. Moreover, we regularly write policy reports for the weekly report (Wochenbericht) of the German Institute for Economic Research, consult national and international institutions and give interviews to the press.

Research Areas