Every year at its annual conference, the Verein für Socialpolitik awards the Reinhard Selten Prize (Young Author Best Paper Award), worth €3,000, for papers that stand out in particular for their originality, significance of the research question and clean methodology.

The award is named after Reinhard Selten, the only German-speaking Nobel laureate to-date in economics, who was honored for his work in the field of game theory - in particular his development of the concepts of subgame perfection and the “trembling”-hand perfect equilibrium.

The prize is awarded to authors who have presented papers in a session of the open meeting at the annual conference, it can also be awarded to several authors. The time of promotion of all authors may not be more than two years before the end of the year (31 December) of the award ceremony. In the case of female academics, additional child-raising periods of 18 months per child are taken into account, and in the case of male academics, child-raising periods are taken into account if appropriate proof of parental leave is provided.

The selection of winners is decided by the Open Meeting Commission of the annual conference under the auspices of its chairperson.