Stufenmodell oder Leistungspunkte? Die Vergabe besonderer Leistungsbezüge an deutschen Universitäten

One of the main issues of the reform regarding a professor’s remuneration at German universities is the introduction of a performance-dependent salary. This paper applies relative rank order tournaments to special performance benefits at university level. It turns out that the awarding procedure can be categorized as different tournament types: the “Stufen-Modell” (level-model) is characterized as a U-type tournament and the “Leistungspunkte-Modell” (merit points-model) is described as a J-type tournament. Finally, procedures at 60 public-financed German universities are analyzed and compared to the explanations offered by tournament theory.