2023-11-13 20:15:11
The surprising withdrawal of the head of the Institute for the Future of Work (IZA) after less than two years is causing a stir in the economist scene. The departure of Simon Jäger after such a short time is “difficult to understand” and a “big loss for the German political consulting scene,” wrote the economist Monika Schnitzer on Friday evening on the platform X, formerly Twitter. The process casts “an extremely bad image on the Post Foundation”. The Düsseldorf economist Jens Südekum wrote on
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The Baden-Württemberg Finance Minister Danyal Bayaz (Greens) also expressed regret and spoke of a “great loss”; he hoped that Simon Jäger “will remain with us as an economist and political advisor.” The economist Ulrike Malmendier and the chairwoman of the Association for Social Policy, Regina Riphahn, also expressed regret.
The institute, which was founded in 1998 by the Deutsche Post Stiftung and specializes in labor market research, announced on Friday that the award-winning economist Simon Jäger would be leaving the institute at the end of the year. Jäger only took over the management of the institute in spring 2022 at the age of 36 and was considered a great bearer of hope. Before his appointment, he had conducted research at the elite universities of Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among others, and was lured to Bonn through an extensive search process.
The IZA celebrated its 25th anniversary in July, and Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), among others, was a guest. The latest development is “a disaster for everyone involved,” according to a person familiar with the IZA. Jäger’s reputation is tarnished, and the IZA board of trustees and all other people involved in the appointment are also counted. Simon Jäger did not want to comment on the matter when asked on Monday.
The reason for the departure is apparently funding cuts. The Deutsche Post Foundation, sole shareholder of the IZA, wants to reorganize its research institutes because it has permanently fewer resources at its disposal. The IZA is now to be merged with the Briq Institute (“Institute on Behavior & Inequality”), which is also based in Bonn. This institute was split off from the IZA just a few years ago. Now it is being reintegrated again.
Johannes Pennekamp Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 27 A comment from Johannes Pennekamp Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 19
To date, the foundation has played a key role in financing both institutes. The current head of the Briq Institute, Armin Falk, is expected to take over the management of the IZA from January 2024. The Bonn-based behavioral economist worked at the IZA for several years before the spin-off. His research results caused a stir; employers once wanted to make him head of the employment agency’s research institute. However, Falk is quite controversial in the economist scene. Since its recognition in 1997, the Deutsche Post Foundation has received annual donations from the post office, which were based on the logistics group’s sales and personnel costs. According to the foundation, around 20 million euros were raised in 2022.
However, this donation agreement expired in 2022, i.e. 25 years after the foundation was founded. This has been known for years; the foundation itself has been writing about it on its website since at least the end of 2016, as the website archives show. Under the heading “Financing”, the foundation website states that the task is “to build up foundation capital from the inflows and to generate sufficient income” so that “long-term and sustainable foundation work” is possible even without the support of the DHL Group. Part of the assets are invested in a fund; at the beginning of the year, the return on investment was 5.3 percent, according to the foundation.
The foundation could not be reached for an inquiry on Monday. Its president is the former Post boss Klaus Zumwinkel, who is almost 80 years old. As long as his successor Frank Appel was at the helm of the post office, the financing of the foundation and thus the IZA was considered secure. This spring, however, Appel handed over the chairmanship of the board to Tobias Meyer after 15 years. Now the cards are being reshuffled.
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