RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research

The RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research is an independent and non-profit center for excellent economic research and evidence-based policy advice in Germany. The research work of the RWI is based on the latest theoretical concepts and state-of-the-art empirical methods and ranges from the individual to the level of the global economy. The institute spans five areas of competence: “Labor Markets, Education, Population”, “Health Economics”, “Climate Change and Development”, “Environment and Resources ‘ and “Macroeconomics and Public Finance”. The research groups “Micro Structure of Taxes and Transfers” and “Prosocial Behavior” complete the research profile. The “Research Data Center Ruhr at RWI” (FDZ Ruhr) provides data services and engages in research on regional disparities.arch on regional disparities.

Important work and services:

  • RWI analyses the determinants of educational decisions and returns to education. In this research area, the particular focus of research is on higher education, training (vocational ecuation, lifelong learning) and the impact of education on labor market outcomes. 
  • RWI assesses the causal impact of reforms and policy measures in the educational sector in Germany and low-income countries. 
  • The institute conducts policy studies on the economics of education for public sector clients, such as ministries, the German Federal Employment Agency and the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit). 
  • RWI designs individual and company surveys and is involved in data collection. For example, RWI, together with the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning (DIE) and infas – Institute for Applied Social Sciences, established a longitudinal linked-employer-employee dataset on lifelong learning. Data are available for secondary use. More information.

Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi)

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in Bamberg studies educational processes from birth to late adulthood. To promote longitudinal educational research in Germany, LIfBi provides fundamental, nationally and internationally significant, research-based infrastructures for empirical educational research.

At the heart of the institute is Germany’s largest long-term educational study, the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), which is based at LIfBi and brings together the expertise of a nationwide interdisciplinary excellence network. Other large-scale projects for which LIfBi collects or provides longitudinal data include, in addition to the refugee studies ReGES and BildungswegeFlucht, the inclusion study INSIDE as well as the monitoring study Data Literacy. This work is grounded in the institute’s own research and development activities, in particular the advanced development of instruments and methods for longitudinal educational studies, which also benefit other research projects.

Important work and services:

  • Through the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), longitudinal data on competence development, educational processes, decisions, and returns in formal, non-formal, and informal contexts are collected representatively for Germany across the entire life span. In seven starting cohorts, more than 70,000 participants are being followed – from early childhood to late adulthood. In addition, about 50,000 individuals from their environments, such as parents and educational professionals, are surveyed.
  • The Research Data Center at LIfBi (FDZ-LIfBi) processes the survey data of LIfBi’s large-scale projects in a user-friendly way and provides them free of charge as Scientific Use Files for scientific analyses. The offering includes the extensive NEPS data, supplemented by special NEPS data products, as well as longitudinal data from the refugee study ReGES, the TAEPS study on teachers in adult and continuing education, the GUS study on students’ health behavior, and other unique datasets, such as the regional study BiLO. The full range of LIfBi research data and associated services is available via the FDZ-LIfBi Data and Service Portal.
  • The DFG Priority Program on Research Infrastructure “New Data Spaces for the Social Sciences” (SPP 2431) aims to develop technical and methodological solutions to ensure the future viability of panel surveys, to enrich them with data from other sources, and thereby further pave the way for social science research on key societal challenges. “New Data Spaces” is coordinated and managed by the overarching project CONNECT, which is based at LIfBi. In addition, SPP 2431 includes a “Research Infrastructure and Innovation Lab” (ENTAILab), which consists of four measures in total. Measure 4, “Results for Future Data Spaces and Open Science,” as well as two projects within the Priority Program, are also located at LIfBi.

German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW)

DZHW provides applied empirical research in the field of higher education and science studies. As research institution of the Federal State and the Länder (Bund-Länder-Einrichtung) it works nationally and internationally as a partner of the scientific community and both higher education and science policies. Committed to politically independent and excellent research DZHW develops and elaborates innovative, socially and politically relevant issues regarding tertiary education and science. The research and service tasks of DZHW are organized in four research units:

Educational Careers and Graduate Employment
Longitudinal studies regarding educational and occupational trajectories, returns to education, in particular regarding decision to study, progress of studying, occupational and scientific careers.

Research System and Science Dynamics
Examinations of the development of the system of research and science in the international context and of the interactions of different structures of governance, funding, and promotion.

Governance in Higher Education and Science
Studies with respect to indicator systems of universities and scientific organizations, regarding the structures of governance of scientific continuing education at universities and examinations of structures and processes of governance with an organization-sociological perspective.

Research Infrastructure and Methods
Provision of research infrastructure, data sets, databases, buildup of the research data centre. The Research Data Centre for Higher Education and Science Studies (RDC-DZHW) archives quantitative and qualitative data from the field of higher education research and science studies and makes them available to researchers and teaching staff for secondary use.

Important work and services:

  • Longitudinal studies on persons with university entrance qualifications, students (e.g., social surveys of students since 1951, eurostudent), graduates, PhD students and PHD graduates;
  • NEPS 1: From Higher Education to the Labor Market (NEPS Starting Cohort 5 „First-Year Students“)
    The DZHW is in the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) responsible for the Starting Cohort 5 (First-Year Students) which following up a cohort of first-year students throughout their studies and into their careers. Particular attention will be paid to investigating educational decisions, the development of competencies, the returns to higher education, and the transition to the labor market;
  • NEPS 2: Panel of Teacher Education Students
    The DZHW examines the study progress and success and the career start of teacher education students (additional sample of NEPS Starting Cohort 5) as well as potential differences in interests, occupational orientation and previous educational biographies compared to other students;
  • NEPS 3: Returns to Education Across the Life Course;
    The DZHW examines as member of pillar 5 “Returns to Education Across the Life Course” of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) the non-monetary returns to education like health, deviance and social and political participation;
  • Educational monitoring and reporting (contributions to „National Report on Education” or ”National Report on Junior Scholars”;
  • Competence Centre for Bibliometrics for the evaluation of research performance;
  • RCD-DZHW with data sets of higher education research and science studies;
  • Services for Federal State and State (Länder) administrations, universities, commissions and boards, science organisations and researchers. More information can be found here (in German).