Vici Grant for Professor Ingolf Dittmann

Ingolf Dittmann, Professor in Finance in the Erasmus School of Economics received a Vici grant of one and a half million Euros from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) for his research proposal entitled “Inferring Preferences from Managerial Compensation Data”.  

His proposal received three times the highest score A+ from the panel of international reviewers. The VICI grant is one of the largest personal scientific awards in the Netherlands. VICI grants are meant for very experienced, groundbreaking researchers who have shown that they can successfully develop a new research line and act as an inspiring coach for younger researchers. The VICI grant allows Dittmann to develop his own research group.

“It is wonderful that Professor Ingolf Dittmann is awarded with one of the most prestigious research grants in The Netherlands so he can continue his innovative research. It is also a real momentum for the Finance section within the Department of Business Economics at ESE." said Department director Professor Willem Verschoor.

Dean Professor Philip Hans Franses also responded very pleased: "Really great news! A Vici grant is pretty much the most respectable grant you can acquire and Professor Ingolf Dittmann succeeded. I am very proud of him and very happy for our School."

More information concerning the research project
The recent credit crisis had a dramatic effect, not just on global financial markets, but also on the real economy worldwide. It caused bankruptcies, many millions of unemployed and a severe drop in consumer spending and contributed to an increased climate of disappointment and pessimism, thus undermining a culture of innovation and growth. A better understanding of the causes of such crises and possible ways to overcome and prevent them is therefore highly valuable to society. Professor Dittmann’s research addresses the fact that managers and traders in financial institutions took an enormous level of risk and often put “their” entire firm in jeopardy. The structure of the compensation for these professionals (executive compensation) is designed with the purpose of discouraging them to take such irresponsible levels of risk and always bear in mind the long-term interest of the firm, but clearly the assumptions behind these compensation schemes concerning how managers assess risks are not in line with how they actually decide. Prof. Dittmann’s research proposal uses a theoretically innovative approach (based on recent micro economic insights) to better understand how managers assess risks and how their compensation could be adjusted accordingly, to create more effective stimulus for them to take decisions that better serve the long-term interest of their firms. Prof. Dittmann’s research can deliver important academic results, but it can also be used in practice and provide new insights about effective executive compensation to share holders, managers and other stakeholders.

About Ingolf Dittmann
Professor Ingolf Dittmann (1970) has worked in the Erasmus School of Economics since 2005. He has been a full professor since 2008, nowadays in Finance. He obtained a master degree in mathematical economics (cum laude, 1996) and a Ph.D. in economics (summa cum laude, 1999) at the University of Dortmund. Before he came to the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Dittmann worked at the Humboldt University in Berlin and he subsequently was a visiting fellow at the University of Leicester (UK) and the University of California, San Diego (USA).

Professor Dittmann’s work lies at the cross section of financial management and econometrics and focuses on the design of effective executive compensation. His projects often have an international structure and use compensation data from different countries. For his previous work Prof. Dittmann already received various important grants such as awards from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and a Vidi grant from NWO in 2006. 

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For more information, you can contact Ronald de Groot, Communications Officer at the Erasmus School of Economics: rdegroot@ese.eur.nl, telephone: 010-4081762 and mobile phone: 06-53641846.