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DIW Weekly Report 7/8 / 2018
This study examines in which setting the German political party Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) performed well in the 2017 parliamentary elections. The AfD’s popularity was relatively high in electoral districts with an above-average amount of craft businesses, a disproportionately high amount of older residents and workers in the manufacturing sector, and—applicable mainly ...
2018| Christian Franz, Marcel Fratzscher, Alexander S. Kritikos
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DIW Weekly Report 3 / 2018
Over the past year, the proportion of women serving on the executive and supervisory boards of the top 100 largest banks in Germany rose slightly to almost nine and 23 percent, respectively. However, growth has come to a halt in the 60 largest insurance companies: on both executive and supervisory boards, the proportion of women has sunk to almost nine and 22 percent, respectively. For over ten years, ...
2018| Elke Holst, Katharina Wrohlich
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DIW Weekly Report 3 / 2018
The gender quota for supervisory boards in Germany is effective: by the end of 2017, the proportion of women on the supervisory boards of a good 100 companies that are subject to the quota had risen to 30 percent—three percentage points more than in the previous year. Almost two-thirds of the companies now have supervisory boards with at least 30 percent female members. A European comparison also shows ...
2018| Elke Holst, Katharina Wrohlich
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Weekly Report 35 / 2010
Marking the 20th anniversary of the Human Development Index (HDI), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published a revised measure that also accounts for inequality (IHDI). Countries subject to severe social disparities, particularly Central and South American countries, perform worse than under the classic HDI. Even if the revised measure does not yield fundamental changes in ranking, ...
2010| Guo Xu, Veronika Hümmer
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Weekly Report 17 / 2010
China has taken first steps hinting at an internationalization of the Renminbi: The country has begun cautious action for opening up its capital account and allowed currency fluctuations within a certain limit between 2005 and 2008. Promoting Hong Kong as a test center for the Renminbi's internationalization is pointing in the right direction because it at least makes an offshore Renminbi market possible. ...
2010| Olaf Stier, Kerstin Bernoth, Alexander Fisher
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Weekly Report 15 / 2010
Partnerships between immigrants and native-born citizens are commonly viewed as the product of successful social integration, as well as a possible driving force of economic success. Thus, immigrants living in inter-ethnic partnerships have on average a higher level of education, better occupational status, and higher income than those living in intra-ethnic relationships. Data from the German Socio-Economic ...
2010| Olga Nottmeyer
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Weekly Report 12 / 2010
Great expectations were connected with the so-called Hartz IV reform which came into effect five years ago. In fact the number of unemployed recipients of Hartz IV benefits drastically went down during the last economic rebound. In earlier economic cycles the number of unemployed recipients of social benefits had stagnated in phases of recovery. But this alone is only a weak sign for success: Firstly, ...
2010| Karl Brenke
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Weekly Report 30 / 2009
The free movement of workers within the European Union does not place a burden on labor markets or social services. This is the conclusion of a recent study on the development and effects of east-to-west migration in the wake of EU enlargement in 2004 and 2007. In this light, Germany's restrictive immigration policy received poor marks. Recent measures-such as Germany's labor migration regulation law, ...
2009| Ulf Rinne, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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Weekly Report 28 / 2009
Net real wages in Germany have hardly risen since the beginning of the 1990s. Between 2004 and 2008 they even declined. This is a unique development in Germany-never before has a period of rather strong economic growth been accompanied by a decline in net real wages over a period of several years. The key reason for this decline is not higher taxes and social-insurance contributions, as many would ...
2009| Karl Brenke
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Weekly Report 25 / 2009
To date, the Great Recession has only had a mild impact on the German labor market. In view of the uncertainties surrounding future economic growth, the low utilization of the workforce in firms, and the prevalence of working hour reductions, many observers are anticipating a dramatic rise in unemployment in the fall, with the total number of unemployed rapidly surpassing the four-million mark. Yet ...
2009| Nikos Askitas, Klaus F. Zimmermann