Society for Network, Competition and Transport Economics

In 1952 Alfons Schmitt was appointed professor at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, leaving the prestigious Institute of Transport Sciences at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. He founded, in 1954, the Society for transport economics (Gesellschaft für Verkehrswissenschaft) at the University of Freiburg with the goal to promote the newly founded Institute of Transport Sciences. After the early death of Alfons Schmitt in 1960, J. Heinz Müller became responsible for the Institute and enlarged its scope with a new focus on regional policy. From 1966 until his appointment as Emeritus Professor in 1986, he was director of the Institute for Regional Policy and Transport Sciences. He was also the founder of the Seminars for Transport Economics (Verkehrsseminare) which he organized every autumn. Ulrich Witt became, as successor to J. Heinz Müller, responsible for the Institute until 1992.

In autumn 1992, Günter Knieps was appointed professor for economic policy, became director of the Institute for Transport Science and Regional Policy and chaired the Society of the same name. He enlarged the scope of the Institute with the areas of network economics and competition economics and founded, in 1996, the book series “Freiburger Studien zur Netzökonomie”. He also continued the tradition of the yearly seminars, now extended to Transport and Network Economics. A focus in research and teaching was regulation and competition in network industries. The similarities and differences of network industries have been analyzed from the perspective of allocation and competition economies as well as of the theory of regulations. Due to a reorganization of the Faculty and the foundation of the Institute of Economics in 2017 the Institute has been renamed into Chair of Network Economics, Competition Economics and Transport Science.

Günter Knieps (August 30, 2020)

From the charter:

• Die Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung und Lehre im Schwerpunkt Ordnung und Organisation der Wirtschaft, insbesondere auf den Gebieten der Netzökonomie, Wettbewerbsökonomie und Verkehrswissenschaft.
• Die Nutzbarmachung wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse für die Lösung praktischer Fragen der Netzökonomie, Wettbewerbsökonomie und Verkehrswissenschaft.
• Die Pflege der Beziehungen zwischen Wissenschaft und Praxis auf den einschlägigen Gebieten.

You can view the latest version of the Society’s charter (from July 2022) here .

Each year, the Society for Network, Competition and Transport Economics awards thesis prizes to the best B.Sc. and M.Sc. theses about its topics of interest that were written at the Freiburg Institute for Economics (the prizes are only awarded if prize-worthy theses were written). These prizes are endowed with €300,- (M.Sc.) and €200,- (B.Sc.) respectively and are awarded to the theses of the previous year.

Detailed guidelines of the award procedure can be found here. The Society reserves the right to change its self-imposed rules for giving out these prizes at any time with immediate effect.

Edited and published by Prof. Dr. Günter Knieps via Nomos Publishing House.

The Gesellschaft für Netzökonomie, Wettbewerbsökonomie und Verkehrswissenschaft has been hosting the “Verkehrsseminar” since 1968. Their goal is to enable an intense exchange of experiences and thoughts between practitioners and scientists of all traffic sectors. Different approaches are scrutinised for their practical applicability in extensive discussion. Expert practitioners and theoretical scientists both present their works.