The Institute grants research scholarships for both doctoral students and advanced researchers from Germany and other countries. Scholarship holders are offered a workplace at the Institute.

There are two programs provided by the Institute:

The department of Business and Tax Law promotes research projects on German, European and international taxation, with a special focus on business taxation. Other areas of research are corporate law, accounting law and capital market regulation, as well as assorted commercial or civil law issues. Methodologically, projects may focus on legal doctrine as well as choose a comparative law or a Law and Economics approach. Scholarships may be granted to PhD students supervised by the Institute’s director as well as to students preparing their thesis under external supervision. The department also grants scholarships to visitors.

The department of Public Economics has an economic focus. It evaluates the limits and scope of government, in particular with regard to taxation. Mainly, to assess the behavioral responses of economic agents to taxation, the department examines both tax incidence and potential inefficiencies arising from taxation. Since taxation itself is an outcome of a political process, research at the Institute also aims at understanding and identifying the driving mechanism of such processes.