Publikationen Prognose und Konjunkturpolitik

The Situation in the Euro Area Continues to Present Risks: Eight Questions to Ferdinand Fichtner

DIW Economic Outlook

The German economy is on track, and will likely grow by 1.8 percent this year; in the coming year, with a slight increase in dynamics, it will grow by 1.9 percent. With these figures DIW Berlin confirms its forecast from this summer. Employment growth continues; the unemployment rate will decrease this year to 6.4 percent, where it will remain in 2016. Due to the sharp drop in oil prices this year, ...

Gasoline and Diesel Will Continue to Dominate in the Future of Road Transport

The transport sector - road transport, in particular - accounts for more than half of world oil consumption. In the future, the transport sector’s share of oil consumption will grow even more, primarily due to the increasing use of motor vehicles in developing and emerging countries. Road freight transport will also take on greater significance. And overall, gasoline - and, increasingly, diesel - will ...

Growth through Research and Development

DIW Berlin has examined the effects of investment in research and development on economic growth in Germany and other OECD countries. Their results show that an increase of one percentage point in research and development spending in the economy as a whole leads to a short-term average increase in GDP growth of approximately 0.05 to 0.15 percentage points. The coefficient for Germany is at the upper ...

Only One in Eight Workers Is Dissatisfied with His or Her Job: Seven Questions to Karl Brenke

The Vast Majority of Employees in Germany Are Satisfied with Their Jobs

The vast majority of workers rate their professional occupations positively; only one in eight is unhappy with his or her job. This has been the case for the past 20 years. There is little difference in the degree of satisfaction between genders, workers in West Germany and East Germany, or among different age groups. Even the level of compensation and the nature of the work itself do not exert any ...

A Stronger Union through Crisis? 25 Years of Monetary Integration in Europe

On July 1, 1990, when capital controls in the European Economic Community were removed, the path was paved for the introduction of the euro. This path was marked by a compromise between two schools of thought—those who assumed that the creation of the European Central Bank would be followed by greater economic convergence and political integration, and those who saw the single currency as the coronation ...

A Critical Retrospective: German Monetary Union

Twenty-five years ago, East Germany adopted the deutschmark as its currency. In terms of East German economic development, monetary union proved to be a disaster. With virtually no warning, East Germany’s few productive factories and businesses were exposed to free market competition; industrial production collapsed in a way unparalleled in history. Nevertheless, for political reasons, introducing ...

Robust Growth in a Difficult Environment: Eight Questions to Ferdinand Fichtner

Upswing of German Economy Prevails