Publikationen der Abteilung Unternehmen und Märkte

Improved Energy Efficiency: Vital for Energy Transition and Stimulus for Economic Growth

As part of the energy transition process, the German government has set far-reaching energy efficiency targets, including doubling the annual rate of building renovation to upgrade energy performance from one to two percent. DIW Berlin has estimated the additional energy-savings-related investment required to meet these targets and analyzed the impact this could have on the economy. In the long term, ...

More Growth through Higher Investment

While many countries in the euro area are deep in recession due to a debt and structural crisis, the German economy appears to have excelled compared to many other euro area countries. Unemployment has fallen to the lowest level since German reunification, economic output has grown by over eight percent since 2009, and public budgets have been consolidated, generating a surplus in 2012. But this is ...

Germany Must Invest More in Its Future

Shortly before the parliamentary election in 2013, Germany is riding on a wave of euphoria: hardly any other euro country has weathered the financial and debt crisis so well. Since 2009, GDP has grown by over eight percent and 1.2 million new jobs have been created. Public finances were consolidated and, in 2012, there was a fiscal surplus of 0.2 percent of GDP. An impressive financial position indeed ...

Innovation Policy for SMEs Proves Successful

The innovation policy of the German government and Länder provides small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a wide range of programs to promote their research and development (R&D) and focuses, in particular, on the transfer of knowledge. In recent years, the programs have been streamlined and funding substantially increased as part of the second economic stimulus package. SMEs have profited ...

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises are Catching up: Seven Questions to Alexander Eickelpasch

Research-Based Companies Perform Better

The past ten years have seen an expansion in industrial research. There has been a significant increase in the number of research-based companies, as well as in employment in research and development, and in expenditure in this area. Growth has been observed predominantly in companies in less research-intensive sectors and in small and medium-sized enterprises. Consequently, over the last decade, industrial ...

Internationalization of Business Research: New Locations Gaining Ground

In recent years, German and foreign companies have consistently increased their investment in Research and Development in Germany. In 2009, investment was over 45 billion euros which was a third higher than in 2001. While foreign companies have significantly expanded their Research and Development activities in Germany, German investment abroad has stagnated. Overall, Germany had a positive balance ...

German Manufacturing Withstands the Rise of Emerging Economies

Between 2000 and 2009, China became the second largest industrialized nation, while manufacturing industries in other emerging and many Eastern European countries also experienced very strong growth. However, Germany was largely able to maintain its share of global industrial output. In 2009, as in 2000, Germany's value added share represented around 6.5 percent. This shows that Germany as an industrial ...

Self-Employment in Germany: The Trend Has Been Increasing for Some Time

Entrepreneurial self-employment in Germany has undergone a strong upturn in the last 20 years. The number of self-employed people rose by 40 percent between 1991 and 2009. The reasons for this development are the catch-up processes in eastern Germany, structural change towards the service sector, and a strong willingness among the highly skilled, the unmarried and among foreigners to enter self-employment. ...

Germany's Construction Industry: Strong Growth Followed by Stagnation

2011 was one of the construction industry's strongest years of growth since German reunification. For the year as a whole, a nominal increase in construction volume of almost eight percent is expected. The price increase is forecast at over 2.5 percent. Real construction volume in 2011 will be over five percent higher than in 2010. However, according to current information, we can expect the construction ...