Press releases of Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF)

Economist Marcel Smolka Receives Royal Economic Society Prize

Renowned professional society recognizes research contribution on the effects of robots application in companies

Prof. Dr. Marcel Smolka (Europa-Universität Flensburg, EUF), together with co-authors Prof. Dr. Michael Koch and Ilya Manuylov from the Danish University of Aarhus, has been awarded this year's Royal Economic Society Prize for the paper "Robots and Firms" in the British journal "The Economic Journal." The Royal Economic Society thus recognizes the researchers' work as the best paper of 2021 and its outstanding contribution to economics. "I'm thrilled to receive this award," says the 40-year-old EUF economics professor. "The Economic Journal is one of the oldest and most prestigious journals in economics anywhere. This award is really something special for us."

The starting point: public debate about automation in the world of work

The starting point of the research was the question of whether new, digital technologies destroy jobs. In the course of the increasing digitalization and automation of production processes, this question has been widely discussed in the public debate in recent years and has also been associated with fears. "Against the background of this debate, we took a closer look at the effects of robots on employment and productivity," explains Smolka.