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Axel Ockenfels & Co-Authors in Science: A Global Climate Coalition for Heavy Industry

Director Axel Ockenfels and an international team of experts coordinated by Catherine Wolfram (MIT) propose a framework to decarbonize the world's most emission-intensive industries. Model simulations suggest that coordinating carbon pricing and trade policy could reduce emissions with limited aggregate production effects

Joachim Herz Award for Sebastian Tonke

Sebastian Tonke – former senior research fellow at our MPI in Bonn – has received the 2026 Joachim Herz Award, endowed with €500,000. The award recognizes his WETTER research project, which explores which interventions encourage households to reduce their drinking water consumption. We offer him our warmest congratulations.

Several teenagers are standing in a line, all using their smartphones at the same time.

Social media: being cool means staying online

A study by Christopher Roth and an international research team shows that just six months after Australia introduced its social media ban for children under 16, compliance among 14- and 15-year-olds has dropped to just six percent. The findings highlight that legal measures alone are not enough—social norms, role models, and the influence of peer networks play a decisive role.

Opening of the Adenauer School of Government

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has officially inaugurated the new Adenauer School of Government at the University of Cologne. Our Director, Axel Ockenfels, will serve as the School’s Founding Director. The new academic institution combines research, teaching, and public engagement in the field of public governance, with the aim of strengthening democratic governance.