Brain City Ambassador Prof Dr. Aysel Yollu-Tok

Cem Czerwionke

04.02.2021
Prof Dr Aysel Yollu-Tok, Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin

Brain City Berlin

Brain City Ambassador Professor Dr Aysel Yollu-Tok is director of the Harriet Taylor Mill Institute for Economics and Gender Studies (HTMI) and a professor of economics in the cooperative studies programme at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin (Berlin School of Economics and Law, HWR). Her research interests are broad: she examines gender gaps in the world of finance as well as the effects of digitalization on recruitment practices.

“Application-oriented research drives me. I like to combine my research activities with economic policy recommendations. My focus is on the labour market and social policy as well as issues of gender inequities. These topics are especially hot here in the capital Berlin”, Professor Dr Aysel Yollu-Tok says. The economist has been firmly anchored in the Brain City since 2017: As a professor of economics with a focus on economic and social policy, she researches and teaches in the cooperative studies programme at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin (Berlin School of Economics and Law, HWR). Since the beginning of 2020 she has also been Director of the Harriet Taylor Mill Institute for Economics and Gender Studies at the university. Her enthusiasm for economic topics in a social context was aroused during her studies of economics, sociology and political science at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and further reinforced through research in Landau, Darmstadt, Hamburg and Munich.

“I am mainly concerned with current issues and challenges in German social policy. I query the effects of megatrends such as demographic change and digitalization on such things as unemployment insurance and old-age pensions. Another focus of my research is the question of gender (inequity) and economics.” Together with her colleague Dr Marlene Haupt, professor for social economics and policy at the University of Applied Sciences Ravensburg-Weingarten, Yollu-Tok is investigating the gender gap in the world of finance. More specifically: why women generally have less financial knowledge and skills than men. “It became clear that in addition to the education and income of women, their participation in the labour market also plays a decisive role”, she explained.

The question of what remedies might be necessary in order to realize opportunities regardless of gender also occupies the researcher in her role as Chair of the Expert Commission for the Third Gender Equality Report of the German Federal Government. This was delivered to the German Federal Minister for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth, Franziska Giffey, on 26 January 2021.

For me, Berlin is the most exciting city in Germany; the cultural diversity is unbeatable.

“HR 4.0 and Diversity” is the name of another project being pursued by Tollu-Tok and Dr Helena Mihaljević, Professor of Data Science and Analytics at HTW Berlin. “We are concerned here with the effects of intelligent technologies on companies’ selection of apprentices. The professional orientation of young adults as well as their selection by companies for in-house training positions are increasingly being guided by digital technologies. It starts with the first contact through the company’s website, followed by IT-based (pre-)screening of incoming applications and then digital communication during the selection process”, she explains. In her research, the question remains unanswered to what extent digital technologies are optimising the selection process of companies. It is also unclear whether they help to include or rather exclude certain population groups. “That’s what we want to investigate in this project.”

Relevant findings from “HR 4.0 and Diversity” will later be formulated into recommendations for action for regional companies. The project is funded by the Institut für Angewandte Forschung Berlin (Institute for Applied Research Berlin (IFAF), an organisation that bundles the research competencies of the four state-run universities of applied sciences in Berlin: the ASH Berlin, the Berliner Hochschule für Technik (Berlin University of Applied Sciences Berlin, BHT), the HTW Berlin - University of Applied Sciences, and the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin (Berlin School of Economics and Law, HWR). Objective of this association: Applied research will be made visible and accessible beyond the participating universities.

The interdisciplinary approach as well as the range of topics being pursued in IFAF projects are characteristic of research in the Brain City. Aysel Yollu-Tok is enthusiastic and not just about the many layers of scientific work being done in the capital: “For me, Berlin is the most exciting city in Germany; the cultural diversity is unbeatable", she says, adding: “I even have my own seat at the Maxim Gorki Theatre. The Gorki speaks to the entire city and everyone who has come in the last few decades!” (vdo)