Laura SeelkopfLaura Seelkopf
1.106 applications for 47 fellowships.

The European University Institute is one of the most coveted Social Science research facilities in the world; and that not only for questions of European integration or European Union politics. Rather, over the last four decades the institute developed into one of the leading centers for comparative research on societies and political systems. Not surprisingly its positions are much sought after, whether it is a job offer for a professorship or a place in a fellowship program. One of the most coveted is a fellowship in the Max Weber Programme for Postdoctoral Studies. For the eleventh cohort for the year 2016/2017 more than 1.100 applications for somewhat less than 50 scholarships arrived in Florence. And now it is official: Laura Seelkopf is one of the 47 successful postdocs who are invited for a year of exciting research in Florence starting September 2016.

The Max Weber Programme of the European University Institute is widely considered to be a renowned interim stage for excellent postdocs on their way to a professorship. Florence not only offers outstanding research facilities but also an interdisciplinary research community which allows the fellows to extend their views beyond their immediate focus of studies and to expand their academic network globally. The research project, which Laura Seelkopf will pursue in Florence, deals with the comparative political economy of national tax policies and their effects on economic inequality.

  • How can we explain the different national decisions concerning direct taxation?
  • And what effects do these different systems of direct taxation have on economic inequality?


The aim of the research is to find out under which conditions direct taxation is used to reduce economic inequalities.


Contact:
Prof. Dr. Laura Seelkopf
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
Oettingenstraße 67
80538 München
Phone: +49 89 2180-9086
E-Mail: laura.seelkopf@gsi.lmu.de