The idea behind the YES!

The YES! – Young Economic Summit opens doors and sets a stage for new and creative ideas of the next generation. High school students deal with global problems in the realm of economy, policy, society and environment. They take on responsibility for the most pressing challenges of today and tomorrow and make their voices heard. Students aim to find innovative solutions in order to create the world the youth of today wants to live in tomorrow.

After working intensely on the chosen topics, students present their solutions at a two-day conference to the interested public. In a lively discourse with other students and influential international decision-makers from business, academia, politics and civil society, they sharpen their views on complex global interdependencies, and experience that they are not merely affected by economic reality, but rather play an active role in economic life.

We, the YES!-Team, are convinced that competencies like information literacy, economic literacy, and acceptance of responsibility are pivotal prerequisites for actively participating in society. We are eager to accompany and support the participating schools during the whole time of the project and coach them in various fields, helping the students to acquire and master those skills.

The best solution proposals are determined through a democratic vote of the participating teams.

The YES! – Young Economic Summit is a joint project of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the Joachim Herz Stiftung under the patronage of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

The YES! is supported by the academic partners

  • Berlin Social Science Center (WZB)
  • Bucerius Law School Hamburg
  • Catholic University Ingolstadt-Eichstätt (KU)
  • CWS Centre für Wirtschaftspolitische Studien at the Leibniz University Hannover
  • DICE Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics
  • DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research)
  • ECONtribute excellence cluster of the Universities Bonn and Cologne
  • ESMT European School of Management and Technology Berlin
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO
  • Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
  • GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg
  • ifo Institute for Economic Research
  • Institute for Economic Policy (iwp) at the University of Cologne
  • Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
  • Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods
  • Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE
  • Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space IRS
  • RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Essen
  • Walter Eucken Institute
  • Zentrum für ökonomische Bildung in Siegen (ZöBiS)
  • ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim

DIW Berlin, GIGA, ifo, IfW, IRS, WZB, RWI,  SAFE, ZBW and ZEW are members of the Leibniz Association.

One year at the YES! from the perspective of a school team

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What our experts think about the YES!

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The YES! process

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The Team

The Steering Committee

The Steering Committee regularly deals with the strategic orientation and the operational framework for the YES! and consists of project members of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the Joachim Herz Stiftung.

Prof. Dr. Marianne Saam

Head of Knowledge Transfer Economics

ZBW – Leibniz Information
Centre for Economics

Dr. Wolf Prieß
Dr Wolf Prieß

Director Program Area Economics
Joachim Herz Stiftung

Andrea Schmidt
Andrea Schmidt

Project Manager
ZBW – Leibniz Information
Centre for Economics

The Organising Team

In addition to cross-sectional tasks such as mentoring the school groups, the organising team has various focal points:

Jochen Bast
Jochen Bast

Project Manager

  • Learning Management System
  • Website
  • Information Management

t: +49 (0) 40 42834 248

e: j.bast@zbw.eu

Svea Kreutz
Svea Kreutz

Project Manager

  • Project Coordination Germany
  • Marketing and Public Relations
  • Research Institutes

t: +49 (0) 431 8814 565

e: s.kreutz@zbw.eu

Andrea Schmidt
Andrea Schmidt

Project Manager

  • Project Coordination YES! MINT
  • Fundraising
  • Research Institutes

t: +49 (0) 431 8814 643
e: a.schmidt@zbw.eu

Bente Rathjen
Bente Rathjen

Community Manager 

t: +49 (0) 40 42 834 405

e: b.rathjen@zbw.eu

Stefanie Krambeck
Stefanie Krambeck

Project Assistant 

  • School Support
  • Event Management
  • Office Management

t: +49 (0) 431 8814 292

e: s.krambeck@zbw.eu

Sophie Baban

Project Assistant 

e: s.baban@zbw.eu

The Organisers

ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

The ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics is the world’s largest research infrastructure for economic literature, online as well as offline.
Its disciplinary repository EconStor provides a large collection of more than 127,000 articles and working papers in Open Access.
EconBiz, the portal for international economic information, allows students and researchers to search among nine million datasets.
The ZBW edits two journals in economic policy, Wirtschaftsdienst and Intereconomics, and in cooperation with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy produces the peer-reviewed journal Economics based on the principle of Open Access.
The ZBW is a member of the Leibniz Association and has been a foundation under public law since 2007. It is affiliated with the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel. Several times the ZBW received the international LIBER award for its innovative work in librarianship. The institution currently employs a staff of approximately 280.

What does the ZBW do?

The ZBW supports economists and students in their learning, researching and publishing processes.
We provide the infrastructure so that researchers can concentrate on their publishing activities. Whether it is the technical support for an e-journal or the implementation of databases for primary research data – the ZBW conducts projects for the science community.
We continually increase our own research activities in order to provide students and researchers in economics and business administration with excellent research support.

What kind of services does the ZBW offer?

Among the online services of the ZBW are the portal EconBiz for international literature and information with more than 10 million datasets, the Open Access repository EconStor, which improves the visibility of digital publications on the internet, and the multimedial reference desk of  Research Guide EconDesk, where you can request information about economic topics by e-mail, phone or chat. These services are available without charge and worldwide at the URL www.zbw.eu.
In addition, the ZBW edits the economic journals
Wirtschaftsdienst and Intereconomics, offering scholars a platform for debate in economic policy.

How does the ZBW work?

The ZBW is connected to a network of international  cooperations and research networks. Increasing our collaboration with the scientific community allows us to develop services that tie in closely with the requirements of our customers.
The most important issue for our users is to have information available everywhere and at any time. Therefore the ZBW actively promotes Open Access. Free access to scholarly information facilitates the working processes of researchers and increases the visibility of their publications.

What kind of research is done at the ZBW?

The vision guiding research at the ZBW: the development of internet-based working environments to support excellence in economic research.
At present, the ZBW pursues the following themes: Science 2.0Web Science and Knowledge Discovery.
The concept of Science 2.0 describes the gradual shift of science towards entirely different and primarily digital means of participation, communication, collaboration and discourse in the research and publishing processes.

ZBW Logo

Photo: ZBW / Gunnar Dethlefsen

Photo: ZBW / Gunnar Dethlefsen

Photo: Lukas Roth

Photo: Stefan Vorbeck

Joachim Herz Stiftung

The Joachim Herz Stiftung promotes education, science, and economic and scientific research, as well as the personal development of young people and young adults.

Back in the early 1980s, Joachim Herz and Petra, the woman who would later become his wife, began talking about the possibility of setting up a foundation, discussing mission statements and areas of activity. In 2003, Joachim Herz wrote down these considerations as detailed instructions to be carried out in the event of his death. The Foundation’s mission statement, statutes, and inaugural Board of Trustees were all listed in his will. Just two months after his passing, the Joachim Herz Stiftung was established in accordance with his wishes and using his and his wife’s assets.

On July 24, 2008, Petra Herz was joined at Hamburg City Hall by then mayor Ole von Beust as she announced the formation of the Joachim Herz Stiftung, the 1,100th charitable foundation to be set up in Hamburg. Petra Herz has led the Foundation ever since in her capacity as Chairwoman of the Executive Board.

Joachim Herz Stiftung
Programmbereich Wirtschaft
Langenhorner Chaussee 384
22419 Hamburg

Die Joachim Herz Stiftung im Internet:

Homepage: www.joachim-herz-stiftung.de

JHS logo

Photo: Andreas Klingberg

Photo: Nicole Keller

Photo: Andreas Klingberg

Photo: Nicole Keller