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DIW Weekly Report 26/27 / 2023
Over the past 20 years, China has granted a conspicuous amount of loans to African countries. New loan data show that compared to Western multilateral loans, Chinese loans have relatively high interest rates and shorter maturities, tend to be highly collateralized, and are volatile over time. Thus, Western loans are generally more likely to be in the economic interest of the borrowing country. Furthermore, ...
2023| Lorenz Meister, Lukas Menkhoff, Annika Westen
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DIW Weekly Report 12/13 / 2023
In 2020, there were simultaneous increases in the number of private persons participating on the stock market as well as in the number of employees working from home. Indeed, working from home is a robust determinant of stock ownership and partially explains the increase in 2020, with households without children benefiting the most in this manner. Furthermore, the effect of working from home on stock ...
2023| Lorenz Meister, Lukas Menkhoff
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DIW Weekly Report 49/50 / 2022
Over 90 percent of Germany’s raw materials supply is imported and many of these imports come from only a small handful of producer countries. Often, these producer countries tend to be less democratic. In this respect, supply risks are extremely high in some cases, including for mineral raw materials such as rare-earth elements, lithium, and magnesium. To increase raw material import security of supply, ...
2022| Lukas Menkhoff, Marius Zeevaert
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DIW Weekly Report 37 / 2022
The consumer debt of households in Germany totals in the triple-digit billions and is characterized by a wide range of interest rates. Despite the high volume of debt, many people do not know the terms of their consumer credit contracts. This report analyzes new survey data on general knowledge about typical forms of consumer credit, such as the overdraft facility and consumer loans. Women tend to ...
2022| Antonia Gipp, Jana Hamdan, Lukas Menkhoff
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DIW Weekly Report 38 / 2021
The OECD recommends its member countries implement national strategies for financial education. Many other countries, such as China and India, also have such strategies, whereas Germany does not. The strongest reason for rejecting such a strategy is the supposition that financial education interventions are ineffective. Using all available randomized experimental studies, this study investigates and ...
2021| Tim Kaiser, Lukas Menkhoff
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DIW Weekly Report 31 / 2021
With its America First strategy, the former US administration turned away from an internationally oriented trade policy. It attempted to assert its interests, especially vis-à-vis China, with bilateral and mostly restrictive measures such as import tariffs. This Weekly Report shows that the costs of such a strategy are immense, at least in the medium-term analysis conducted: Almost all US industries ...
2021| Lukas Boer, Lukas Menkhoff, Malte Rieth
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DIW Weekly Report 21/22 / 2020
Mobile money is an innovation that allows financial transactions to be performed via a cell phone. Even in poor regions of Africa, almost everyone has a cell phone; therefore, mobile money could both contribute to the continent’s economic growth and ensure that no Africans are excluded from access to financial services. However, DIW Berlin data from Uganda show that mobile money is actually used less ...
2020| Katharina Lehmann-Uschner, Lukas Menkhoff
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DIW Weekly Report 16/17/18 / 2019
2019| Claudia Kemfert, Lukas Menkhoff, Karsten Neuhoff, Jörn Richstein, Tobias Stöhr, Vera Zipperer
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DIW Weekly Report 42 / 2018
In recent years, the global community has promoted several initiatives aimed at breaking bank secrecy in tax havens. Such treaties for the exchange of information among tax offices can be effective. A treaty between country A and tax haven B reduces deposits from A in banks of B by approximately 30 percent. However, the analysis shows that tax evaders react to such treaties not by becoming honest taxpayers ...
2018| Lukas Menkhoff, Jakob Miethe
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DIW Economic Bulletin 44 / 2017
Central banks frequently intervene in foreign exchange markets. Using recognized criteria this report analyzes the probability of success in a data set of 4,500 intervention episodes in 33 countries. It is important to differentiate among exchange rate regimes because each focuses on a different goal. While flexible exchange rate regimes intervene less frequently and seek to influence trends, other ...
2017| Lukas Menkhoff, Tobias Stöhr