Prof. Dr. Felix Rusche

Research Focus

My research interests span labor, development, and political economy. I am particularly interested in the socioeconomic effects of modern and traditional media, as well as in social norms and discrimination. Beyond my topical focus, I am interested in the development of new methods in order both to identify economic effects accurately and to draw insights from unconventional or unstructured data.

Academic Career

2025–: Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics, Germany

2019–25: PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) in Economics, University of Mannheim, Germany

2023: Research Stay, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain

2016–19: MSc in Economics, University of Mannheim, Germany

2018: Visiting student, Bocconi University, Italy

2012–16: BA in Applied Economics, Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, Germany

2014: Visiting student, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa

Publications

Evsyukova, Y., Rusche, F., & Mill, W. (2025). LinkedOut? A field experiment on discrimination in job network formation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 140(1), 283-334.

Rusche, F. (2024). Few voices, strong echo: Measuring follower homogeneity of politicians’ Twitter accounts. New Media & Society, 26(6), 3514-3540.

Publications as Contributing Author

Investigating the analytical robustness of the social and behavioural sciences. Nature 652, 135–142.

with the SCORE collaboration (450+ co-authors)

Working Papers:

Rusche, F. (2025). Reporting big news, missing the big picture? Stock market performance in the media. MPI Discussion Paper 2025/4.

Rusche, F. (2025). Broadcasting change: India’s community radio policy and women’s empowerment. MPI Discussion Paper 2025/5.