ZEW News Article: School Team Develops Market Design Idea for Allocating Daycare Places with ZEW Economists - ZEW Team Successful in the YES! School Competition 2020

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy congratulates the school team of the Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium Stuttgart and ZEW Mannheim for winning second place in the YES! school competition 2020. The team, supervised by Professor Nicolas Fugger and Tobias Riehm from ZEW’s Research Department “Market Design”, convinced the jury with their idea “Kitafix – Matching daycare places and children more effectively through an innovative ranking system”. Over the course of the competition, the school students developed an innovative approach to finding a more effective way of allocating childcare places.

The award-winning students of the Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium Stuttgart and the organisers at the virtual award ceremony of the YES! 2020.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the award ceremony took place digitally, so this time the YES! euphoria found its way into the living rooms and workplaces at home. The winning team from Dresden accepted the first prize for a concept on coal phase-out and citizen participation for the Lausitz region.

ZEW is participating in the school competition for the fourth year as a scientific partner. After mentoring the winning teams for three years in a row, the ZEW team came in second in 2020. This year, the ZEW is once again supporting a number of school teams with varied topics.

The YES! – Young Economic Summit, a joint project by the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the Joachim Herz Stiftung, is one of the biggest German school competitions aimed at getting young people to engage with global economic and social issues. Over the course of a six-month mentoring programme, student teams tackle pressing issues facing future generations. The students come up with their own solutions to global economic, ecological and social problems and present them as part of a conference for other students, also known as the YES! – Young Economic Summit. Researchers from various (Leibniz) research institutions support the students by providing their scientific expertise. The regional qualification round for teams from Southwest Germany will take place as a digital event on 6 July 2021 at ZEW Mannheim. The best teams from five different regions will then face off against each other at the YES! national final in September 2021.

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15.04.2021

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Student competition | Pupils | Market design