Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences Heidelberg University

Fakultät für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften (Heidelberg University)

Heidelberg University

The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences unites the three disciplines Economics, Sociology, and Political Science in a common research and teaching effort. Based on their disciplinary strength, the three disciplines cooperate in the analysis of economic, political and social institutions as the framework shaping behaviour in the economic, political, and social domain. The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences consists of: Alfred-Weber-Institute for Economics (AWI), Max-Weber-Institute of Sociology (MWI) with the Centre for Social Investment (CSI), Institute of Political Science (IPW), the sections of Economics and Political Science at the South, Asia Institute.

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The main disciplines of the faculty - political science, sociology and economics - each have their own technical core, but work together in diverse ways in research and teaching. The research interest that unites them is the analysis of institutions and their effect on social, political and economic action, whereby in economics the institutional economics, but in the other two disciplines the historical and comparative institutional analysis take center stage. In addition, each discipline has its own focus in research and teaching, with which they connect to the traditions of Heidelberg's social and economic sciences to varying degrees and continue them.

At the Institute for Political Science - in continuation of the tradition of its founding fathers Carl Joachim Friedrich and Dolf Sternberger - the focus is on comparative analysis of political systems, comparative research on state activity, comparative democracy research and the study of inter- and intranational conflicts including international terrorism. In regional terms, the research extends to the democracies of the West, the Central and Eastern European countries and Southeast Asia.

At the Max Weber Institute for Sociology, a comparative institutional analysis inspired by cultural studies is cultivated, which is primarily based on Max Weber. The focus is on establishing, legitimizing and disintegrating institutions with regard to sectoral, national and transnational constellations (in particular Europeanization). Particular attention is paid to the welfare state from a comparative perspective. Another focus is the theoretical discussion. Connected to the institute is a research center where, under the patronage of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, parts of the Max Weber complete edition are edited.

At the Alfred Weber Institute for Economics, the core areas of economics are researched and taught, in particular economic theory, economic policy (including empirical economic research) and finance. Large parts of the research focus on the problem areas of state and market, labor and human capital, money and financing, as well as on development and environmental economics. Development economics benefit from the close integration with the South Asia Institute, and a research center has been set up specifically for environmental economics. The Heidelberg economists combine economic-theoretical analyzes on the micro and macro level with empirical economic research and use this connection to develop well-founded recommendations for economic policy.