Kiel Institute honors special achievements by employees

In the Science category, Christoph Trebesch received the Publication Award 2022 for his outstanding publications on sovereign debt in a historical context. Much of his academic work aims to identify historical data, on the basis of which he and co-authors analyze relevant but yet unresearched topics in the field of classic international finance. "To lift these data treasures requires large efforts by Christoph and his co-authors but as a result they obtain a wealth of new data, which they use to gain new evidence and to inform theory and policy debates. In the past year, Christoph has been particularly prolific, and no less than a handful of papers he co-authored have been published in top-tier journals, including Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Literature, IMF Economic Review, and Journal of International Economics," said Holger Görg, president of the Kiel Institute, at the award ceremony.  

In the category of Third-party Funded Projects, Christine Merk and Wilfried Rickels received the Project Award 2022 for advancing and successfully acquiring projects on the topic of negative emission technologies (NETs). The removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, its capture and storage are important components of all decarbonization scenarios. Wilfried Rickels became involved in climate economics research in this area at a very early stage. "Under his leadership and with strong support from Christine, the research center "Global Commons and Climate Policy" has become one of the most important centers of economic research on NETs. In total, the center has been able to attract nine research projects on NETs alone," Görg said. These include the EU-funded project OceanNETs, which focuses on the use of the oceans for negative emissions, the Norwegian Research Council-funded project PERCCSEPTIONS, which examines public perception and acceptance of NETs technologies, and the German Research Foundation-funded project CDRecon, which investigates the socio-economic effects of NETs.  

For Public Outreach, the Media Award 2022 goes to Nils Jannsen, Katrin Kamin and Hendrik Mahlkow. Nils Jannsen has self-initiated to advance his visibility in the economic business cycle coverage of German and international media with continuous, timely media statements. In 2021, he was among the top 10 most cited researchers of the Institute in German leading media. Most recently, he has expanded the engagement even further. "Nils thus provides excellent support for our goal of putting the Institute's public impact on a broader basis," Görg said.  

Katrin Kamin has taken a public stance on the new geo-economic situation in numerous media articles and interviews since the start of the Ukraine conflict. These include prominent op-eds in national and international media. "This makes her one of the top 5 voices from the Institute in leading German media in Q1 2022. Her op-eds in prominent media contribute in a special way to raising our profile as a "globalization institute," Görg said.   

Already in the first days and weeks of the Ukraine war, Hendrik Mahlkow calculated and published with colleagues a quick assessment of the long-term consequences of the Russia sanctions and another on the effects on grain trade. As a result, he became a sought-after interview partner for media and was quoted in numerous national and international media outlets. He initiated the data analyses primarily with an eye toward public discussion. "In this way, he used his research expertise to provide data at a manageable effort that was also of great interest to the public," says Görg.  

The prizes are provided by the Society for the Advancement of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and awarded annually. They are intended to make outstanding achievements at the Kiel Institute visible both internally and externally and to reward the particularly successful commitment of the award winners. Scientists and employees from the Institute's service units who have contributed in a special way to the success of initiatives can be awarded the prizes.