Last week, TMC Turnaround Management Consult recognized the best final theses at the Department of Business and Economics at TU Dortmund University in the academic year of 2023/2024. Benjamin Y. Koch, who now works as a doctoral researcher at the Chair of International Economics at Ruhr University Bochum, is among the award winners. The award is endowed with prize money amounting to €1,000, which is sponsored by TMC.

In his master’s thesis, Mr. Koch provides empirical evidence from sub-Saharan Africa on the geo-economic impact of Russia’s Wagner Group. His results show that Wagner amplifies the growth-inhibiting dynamics of conflict. The group increases the likelihood of sexualized violence against women and large-scale civil conflict. Its counterterrorism strategies prove to be ineffective.

Mr. Koch thanks Dr. Maren Kaliske for her thesis supervision and TU Dortmund University and TMC for recognizing his work. He looks forward to continuing his research on conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa at Ruhr Graduate School in Economics and Ruhr University Bochum during his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Matthias Busse.

Photo Copyright: Annika Buscha

In the photo: award winners Constantin Mennes (far left), Benjamin Y. Koch (center left), Gina Dietterich, and Anna Fenja Tautz (1st and 2nd from right), their supervisors Lorenz Graf-Vlachy, Christiane Pott (2nd and 3rd from left), and Andreas Hoffjan (2nd from right in the back), and the award sponsor Steffen Leininger (center right). Supervisor Maren Kaliske is not pictured.