The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) has awarded funding to a new Center for Advanced Studies (Kolleg-Forschergruppe) on the “Foundations of Law and Finance”, headed by the SAFE Professors Tobias Tröger and Rainer Haselmann. The Law Professor Tröger and the Economist Haselmann will investigate, together with other researchers from Goethe University as well as several external fellows, the impact of the institutional and regulatory framework on financial market decisions and financial market outcomes. They will focus on the interlock of law, economics and politics in this area, which will enable them to measure and evaluate the effects of legislative proposals and legislative changes on the real economy. “Our aim is that both scholarly disciplines law and economics not only work on a joint topic but also develop joint scientific methods,” Tröger states.
The two researchers have already selected scholars from Germany and abroad who share the motivation and ability to contribute to this intense interdisciplinary collaboration. “SAFE and the House of Finance are a perfect place for this project as they provide the infrastructure needed for such interdisciplinary research,” Tröger says.
In concrete terms, the goal is to assess the impact of legislation which was adopted in the aftermath of the financial crisis 2007/2008 on banks and markets – or also to investigate how certain corporate governance arrangements influence the value of companies. Also, research on politico-economic determinants of the development of different regulatory policies will be a topic of the research project. “Our results will disprove the circulating ‚simple stories‘,” Tröger is convinced. Apart from the speakers, another six professors of Goethe-University will participate in the project, which is initially projected for four years; as well as two Postdocs, eight Junior Fellows and 20 Fellows.
