I am Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Economics of the University of Mannheim, where I am cooperating with the Chair of Economic History (Prof. Dr. Jochen Streb).
My research focuses on the economic history of Germany in the 19th and early 20th century. In particular, I analyze the historical determinants of regional disparities in innovation, the evolution of German patent laws in the 19th century, and the economic consequences of the German division.
I received my PhD (2013) in Economics from the University of Mannheim. During my doctoral studies I was visiting researcher at NTNU Trondheim. I completed my Master degree (Diplom-Volkswirt) in Economics at the University of Mannheim in 2008. During my studies, I worked at the Centre of European Economic Research (ZEW) and for a private bank (fund management).
Research interest: Economic history, institutions, innovation, patents.
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Contact:
University of Mannheim
Department of Economics
L7, 3-5 68131 Mannheim
Germany
E-Mail: donges@uni-mannheim.de
Phone: +49 621 181 3428
July 2025:
New working paper available on SSRN: Female Inventorship in Authoritarian Regimes: The Cases of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic (with Finni Jo Erdmann, Sophia Rishyna, and Jochen Streb).
September 2024:
Forthcoming article in German Economic Review: Causes of German Inventivness, 1815-1990. What We Can Learn from Patent Statistics. (with Jochen Streb).
February 2024:
Forthcoming article in The International History Review: Import Dependence and Strategic War Planning – The German Iron and Steel Industry, 1933-1945.
Dezember 2023:
Our new book on patenting and innovation in 19th-century Germany is published by Springer Gabler: Patente und Innovationen in der Industrialisierung (with Felix Selgert).
November 2023:
New working paper available on SSRN: Patent Litigation in the German Empire (with Felix Selgert and Jochen Streb).