Publikationen der Abteilung Staat

Facilitating the Transport and Heating Transition: Strengthen Carbon Pricing, Introduce a Climate Dividend, and Reduce Adaptation Costs

Despite the easing of prices on the energy markets, private households continue to be burdened by elevated prices. The planned increase the planned increase in the carbon price for transport and heating will raise the burden on private households even further. These additional costs are unequally distributed and have a regressive effect, as poor households must spend much more relative to their net ...

Reform of Reduced Earning Capacity Pension Cuts Risk of Poverty, but Comes Late

Ein Unfall, eine chronische Erkrankung oder auch eine angeborene Behinderung sind häufige Ursachen für den Verlust der Erwerbsfähigkeit. Der Wegfall des Erwerbseinkommens wird zwar durch die Erwerbsminderungsrente in der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung versichert. Diese Rente ist aber so niedrig, dass Erwerbsgeminderte einem sehr hohen Armutsrisiko ausgesetzt sind und überdurchschnittlich häufig Leistungen ...

Heating and Electricity Expenses: Saving Incentives Not Impacting Basic Income Recipients

Basic income benefits cover recipients’ actual heating expenses as long as they are not unusually high. In contrast, their electricity expenses are only covered via a lump sum at the standard rate. Thus, basic income recipients have weaker incentives for reducing their heating expenses than for reducing their electricity expenses. Using Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data, it can be seen that basic income ...

Gender Care Gap and Gender Pay Gap Increase Substantially until Middle Age

While the gender pay gap between men and women in Germany remains at 18 percent, this figure is not the same for all employees. There are, for example, major differences by age. Beginning at age 30, the gender pay gap increases sharply and remains constantly high at 20 percent until retirement. Closely related to this is the gender care gap, the difference in unpaid care work between women and men. ...

Midijob Reform: Increased Redistribution in Pension Insurance – Noticeable Costs, Relief Not Well Targeted

The German Federal Government has expanded subsidies for employees with low gross wages (midijob employees) as of January 1, 2023, and raised the upper earnings limit to 2,000 euros. As a result, around 6.2 million midijob employees will benefit from paying reduced social security contributions while still receiving their full pension entitlements, made possible by a redistribution within the social ...

Corporate Reporting Provides Insight into Companies’ Commitment to Gender Equality

Many companies in Germany must provide information beyond financial figures in their annual reports. For some years now, legislators have increasingly required information on non-financial aspects, such as the shares of women in leadership positions. Using a quantitative text analysis of annual reports, this second report in the 2023 DIW Berlin Women Executives Barometer shows that the major publicly ...

Number of Women on Boards of Large Companies Keeps Growing: Momentum from Inclusion Requirement, However, Is Waning

The upward trend in women’s representation on executive and supervisory boards of major companies in Germany continued in 2022, although the overall momentum has slowed yet again. Growth on executive boards in particular has slowed, as the most recent DIW Berlin Women Executives Barometer shows: Following a significant increase at the 200 largest companies from 2020 to 2021, there was only a one-percentage-point ...

Gender Parity on Top Boards Is Still a Far-off Goal, and It Is Time for Companies to Take Action: Editorial

A Higher Retirement Age Has Negative Health Effects

In the policy debate, there are regular demands to further increase the retirement age to address the financial challenges for the pension system. However, a prolonged working life impacts a person’s health. Detailed data from the statutory health insurance companies shows that abolishing the “Rente für Frauen” (women’s pension) in 1999, which allowed women to retire at 60, resulted in negative health ...

While Gender Quotas for Top Positions in the Private Sector Differ across EU Countries, They Are Effective Overall

This second report in the DIW Berlin Women Executives Barometer 2022 explores the designs and effects of gender quotas across Europe, coming to the conclusion that they are an effective instrument for increasing the share of women in top positions at large companies. Furthermore, the quotas differ greatly between the countries, for example in regard to the number of companies subject to the quota, ...