DIW Economic Bulletin

The Parental Leave Benefit Has Increased Average Household Income for Young Families in the First Year: Six Questions for Katharina Wrohlich

The Parental Leave Benefit: A Key Family Policy Measure, One Decade Later

On January 1, 2017, the parental leave benefit will be celebrating its tenth anniversary. Although its implementation was fervidly debated, it has become a widely accepted family policy measure. Its impact on parental labor supply, the division oflabor between parents, fertility, and indicators that reflect the well-being of parents and children have been examined from a variety of perspectives. A ...

Ganzes Heft

IT and Communication Technologies Dominate Adolescent Downtime

Today’s teenagers spend their free time very differently than they did 15 years ago: engagement with IT and communications technologies is now their most significant leisure activity. Representative statistics based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) longitudinal study indicate that Internet and computer-based recreation plays a major role for more than 95 percent of all 17-year-olds in Germany, ...

Refugees Have a Strong Educational Orientation: Eight Questions for Jürgen Schupp

Forced Migration, Arrival in Germany, and First Steps toward Integration

A new representative survey of a total of 4,500 recently arrived refugees to Germany conducted by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the Research Centre of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF-FZ), and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) has generated an entirely new database for analyzing forced migration and the ...

Ganzes Heft

On Average, Women Know Less about Financial Matters than Men Do in Most Countries: Seven Questions for Antonia Grohmann

The Gender Gap in Financial Literacy: Income, Education, and Experience Offer Only Partial Explanations

In most countries, women have a lower level of financial literacy than men on average. This report demonstrates that differences in income and education and less experience in financial matters only provide a partial explanation for the gender gap. Data from various countries show that cultural differences may also play a role. In order to close the gender gap in financial literacy, schools should ...

Ganzes Heft

Policy Needs to Strengthen Transregional Networking of Private and Public Research: Five Questions for Alexander Eickelpasch

Private R&D Not Necessarily Drawn to Areas with High Public R&D

The bulk of Germany’s research and development (R&D) activity is concentrated in densely populated areas, urban regions that account for 62 percent of the country’s R&D workforce. The regions surrounding Stuttgart, Munich, and Braunschweig have by far the highest R&D intensity—that is, the share of R&D personnel in the total number of employees. Between 2003 and 2013, Munich lost some of its lead over ...

Ganzes Heft

Nuclear Power Is More Expensive Than Other Technologies When Considering All Costs: Eight Questions for Pao-Yu Oei

Nuclear Power Is Not Competitive: Climate Protection in UK and France Also Viable without It

The nuclear power industry is faced with profound challenges— not only in Germany, but throughout Europe as well. New nuclear power plants are very expensive to build and even at high carbon prices, nuclear power is not competitive. Nevertheless, the EU reference scenario assumes that within the next three decades, new nuclear power plants will be built with a total capacity of at least 50 gigawatts ...

Ganzes Heft

Implementing Experience-Rated Liability Premiums for Individual Physicians Is Not a Good Idea: Seven Questions for Sofia Amaral-Garcia

Hospital-Level Policy Can Affect Physician Behavior and Reduce C-Section Rates

The past few decades have seen a considerable increase in caesarean section rates, which have now reached unprecedented levels. Concerns have been raised about the possibility of medically unnecessary procedures having negative consequences for mothers and infants (WHO, 2015). The aim of this report is to show that a properly implemented hospital-level policy may be a powerful tool for reducing the ...

Ganzes Heft

Asking More Than One Question Is Key: Nine Questions to Lukas Menkhoff