16,7 million from DFF to Aarhus BSS researchers
Rune Vejlin and Torben M. Andersen from Economics and Business Economics, Jens Blom-Hansen from Political Science and Geoffrey Paul Hunt from Psychology and Behavioural Sciences have received DKK 16,7 million in grants from the Danish Council for Independent Research - Social Sciences.
Economics and Business Economics
Project title: Structural Policy Analysis in Economics
Recipient: Rune Majlund Vejlin
Amount granted: DKK 5,265,999
Project description: Since the financial crisis in 2008, Denmark has witnessed an avalanche of structural reforms; unemployment insurance, social assistance, and active labour market policies, are among the most prominent areas where reforms have been conducted. The aim of this application is to develop economic models that can be used to guide economic policy and to take the models to data in order to quantify the importance of policy change on the most important outcomes. The academic novelty of the project is to develop dynamic structural economic model and combine these with data both from the rich Danish registers, but also from random controlled experimenents, in order to evaluate social and labour market policies Since the financial crisis in 2008, Denmark has witnessed an avalanche of structural reforms; unemployment insurance, social assistance, and active labour market policies, are among the most prominent areas where reforms have been conducted. The aim of this application is to develop economic models that can be used to guide economic policy and to take the models to data in order to quantify the importance of policy change on the most important outcomes. The academic novelty of the project is to develop dynamic structural economic model and combine these with data both from the rich Danish registers, but also from random controlled experimenents, in order to evaluate social and labour market policies.
Project title: Intergenerational compacts – rationale and policy implications
Recipient: Torben M. Andersen
Amount granted: DKK 1,450,417
Project description: The idea that a contract between the generations lies at the basis of society is quite fundamental to many versions of a just and stable social order. It is also at the heart of any notion of social sustainability. In the Nordic countries it is encapsulated in the welfare model where the young and the old are net beneficiaries while the middle-aged are net contributors to the welfare arrangement. Two fundamental question on the intergenerational contract constitute the core of this project: (i) Can it deliver welfare gains above those achievable in the idealized benchmark case of a world without any imperfections and perfectly competitive markets? (ii) Can the contract be designed such that these gains can be reaped without any generation having to give up welfare to the benefit of future generations (The Pareto-criterion)?"
The idea that a contract between the generations lies at the basis of society is quite fundamental to many versions of a just and stable social order. It is also at the heart of any notion of social sustainability. In the Nordic countries it is encapsulated in the welfare model where the young and the old are net beneficiaries while the middle-aged are net contributors to the welfare arrangement.
Two fundamental question on the intergenerational contract constitute the core of this project:
(i) Can it deliver welfare gains above those achievable in the idealized benchmark case of a world without any imperfections and perfectly competitive markets?
(ii) Can the contract be designed such that these gains can be reaped without any generation having to give up welfare to the benefit of future generations (The Pareto-criterion)?
Political Science
Project title: The Core of the Union: The EU Commission and the Regulation of Europe
Recipient: Jens Blom-Hansen
Amount granted: DKK 4,564,840
Project description: EU regulation spans almost all policy fields today. The full body of EU rules consists of more than 100,000 documents. It affects the daily lives of all EU citizens and private and public companies. It is therefore imperative to understand the making of EU regulation. This project seeks to take our understanding an important step further by focusing on the spider in the web: The Commission. The project asks: How does the Commission prioritize competing concerns when it formulates regulatory proposals? It addresses the research question in a three-pronged approach. First, it takes a case-based approach and studies concrete examples of regulatory proposals from all policy areas. Second, the project looks at both parliamentary and executive EU rules. Finally, the project employs methodological triangulation in three work packages that employ, respectively, large-N analysis, indepth case studies, and experimental analysis.
Psychology
Project title: Perceptions of procedural justice among ethnic minority youth
Recipient: Geoffrey Paul Hunt
Amount granted: DKK 5.431.991
Project description: I de senere år har etniske minoritetsunge været genstand for megen medieopmærksomhed, politiske debatter og politiindsatser, og unge med anden etnisk baggrund end dansk er ofte blevet forbundet med illegalt rusmiddelbrug, handel med stoffer og kriminelle grupperinger. I Danmark og internationalt har forskere dog advaret om, at politiets fokus på bestemte etniske og racemæssige profiler og øgede brug af ”stop-og-visitation” kan have negative konsekvenser for etniske minoritetsunges opfattelse af politiets legitimitet og retshåndhævelse, samt forstærke minoritetsunges modstand mod politiet og andre samfundsinstitutioner. På denne baggrund undersøger dette forskningsprojekt etniske minoritetsunges opfattelser af retfærdighed og retssikkerhed i ufrivillige interaktioner med politiet. Projektet undersøger, hvordan fire centrale principper i retfærdig oplevet retshåndhævelse – tillid, respekt, deltagelse og retfærdighed – udfoldes i dagligdagsinteraktioner mellem etniske minoritetsunge og politiet i et boligområde med en høj koncentration af etniske minoriteter, høj arbejdsløshed og et højt niveau af kriminalitet. Studiets fund vil blive anvendt til at informere det politiske lovgivningsarbejde, samt til at skabe et vidensbaseret grundlag for udarbejdelsen af retningslinjer for, hvordan politiet mest konstruktivt kan møde unge i udsatte boligområder med en høj koncentration af etniske minoriteter.
