The party manifestos of the big political parties have become longer and longer. Some parties need several hundred pages to explain their goals and positions. But how can citizens find out if a party has specific goals or if they use empty phrases? The political scientist Roni Lehrer analyzes this question in a project funded by the prestigious elite program of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung. He focuses on parties, their manifestos and the effects on the voters’ decisions.
Lehrer is a fellow and project leader at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), the largest university-based research institute for social sciences in Germany. The Baden-Württemberg Stiftung funds the project with 135,000 euros over 18 months.
In his research, Cornelius Schneider, academic staff member at the chair of junior professor Wladislaw Mill at the department of Economics, deals with questions such as optimal taxation and public finances, in particular, while using methods of experimental and behavioral economics. Schneider receives the DAAD funding for his current research project, in which he analyzes the potential positive outcomes of tax evasion.
Currently, Schneider is visiting the Norwegian Centre for Taxation (NoCeT) at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), an ENGAGE.EU partner university of the University of Mannheim, for the research stay abroad that is mandatory in the PRIME program. The funding period consists of a research stay abroad that lasts for twelve months and a six-month return phase at a higher education institution in Germany. The positions for the post-doctoral researchers are funded by the program.