ZEW Economist Receives the 2025 Schmölders-Stiftung Award
Awards
27.11.2025
Mannheim Researchers Honoured for Outstanding Study
Researcher Dr. Yulia Evsyukova from ZEW’s “Market Design” Research Unit, together with Professor Wladislaw Mill and Dr. Felix Rusche from University of Mannheim, has been awarded this year’s Schmölders Prize. The award honours the three researchers for a joint study investigating discrimination in career networks. The jury consisted of members of the Verein für Socialpolitik (VfS) and the president of the board of trustees of the Schmölders foundation (Schmölders-Stiftung für Verhaltensforschung im Wirtschaftsleben) in an advisory function.
“I am delighted that our study has been honoured by the Schmölders foundation. Our work highlights the barriers faced by people with dark skin when building their professional networks on platforms such as LinkedIn. The award underscores the relevance of our findings,” explains Dr. Yulia Evsyukova.
Large-scale field experiment
In a large-scale field experiment, the award-winning study causally examined how discrimination based on skin colour affects the size and composition of professional networks as well as their informational value. The researchers created 400 fictitious, yet realistic, “twin” profiles on LinkedIn, each with identical CVs and AI-generated profile pictures that only differed in skin colour.
Contact requests made from profiles with pictures showing Black individuals were accepted 13 per cent less often on average. Discrimination is widespread across various user groups. The hurdle lies primarily in the initial contact phase, as responses to requests sent to existing networks do not show further systematic discrimination effects. Further information on the study can be found in a press release from ZEW Mannheim.
Jury: “High power and societal relevance”
Jury chairman Professor Henrik Orzen praised the study: “The work has several strengths, including its clever and innovative experimental design, the very clear identification strategy with extensive checks to ensure internal validity, the large sample which gives the study its high power, and the high societal relevance.”
ZEW Mannheim warmly congratulates the award recipients!
