Seminar General Economics (Bachelor of Science), winter term 2025/2026
Bureaucracy and Digitalization
Dr. Walter Schmitting and Prof. Dr. Martin T. Bohl
Topics
- Digitization Projects in Public Administration - Causes of Success and Failure (Schmitting)
- Risks of Digitalized Administrative Operations (Schmitting)
- Costs of Digitalization vs. Costs of Bureaucracy and Benefits (Schmitting)
- Economic Approaches to Explaining Increasing Bureaucratization (Bohl)
- Effects of a High Degree of Bureaucratization (Bohl)
- The Importance of Artificial Intelligence in the Context of Bureaucratization (Bohl)
Literature
Please note that a comprehensive survey of the academic literature on the assigned topic is an integral part of the grading of the seminar paper. Please pay particular attention to high-quality articles from relevant academic journals.
Supervision
To clarify questions regarding the content of topics 1, 2 and 3, please send an e-mail to Dr. Schmitting, to schedule an appointment. The same applies to topics 4, 5 and 6; please send an e-mail to Professor Bohl.
Organizational Information
- There are twelve seminar slots available, which will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Each topic can be assigned to a maximum of two students. Interested students can apply with two prioritized topic requests using the linked form. deadline for applications is October 1, 2025 at 11:59 PM. Topics will be assigned via email on October 4, 2025.
- An introductory meeting will take place on Tuesday, October 14, 2025 from 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM in STA1 (Am Stadtgraben 9, ground floor). This meeting will be used to discuss the further procedure of the seminar as well as any open questions.
- The deadline for submitting the seminar paper is Tuesday, January 6, 2026 by 12:00 PM (noon). Please upload your seminar paper as a PDF file via the linked submission form by this deadline. The uploaded version will form the basis for grading.
- The seminar is held as a block event on Tuesday, January 20, 2026 from 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM including a break, in STA 1 (Am Stadtgraben 9, ground floor). On this date, the students will present and discuss their papers.
- Each topic is allocated a maximum of 20 minutes for the presentation, with the two representatives of each topic giving a joint presentation. This will be followed by a discussion of approximately 10 minutes.
- Grading is based on the written seminar paper (70%) and the presentation (30%).
- Please register for the seminar with the examinations office (FlexNow) during the early examination period of the winter term 2025/2026 (vorgezogener Termin) and on Learnweb (class SAVBUD-2025_2, please find the enrolment key here).
- 6 ECTS (Bachelor, PO 2022) can be earned through this course.