Publikationen des Vorstandsbereichs

Executive Boards of Large Companies Remain Male-Dominated Monocultures: Seven Questions to Elke Holst

Executive Board and Supervisory Board Members in Germany’s Large Corporations Remain Predominantly Male

The executive boards of large corporations in Germany continue to be in men’s hands: at the close of 2014, a good five percent of executive board members at the top 200 companies in Germany were women. This is equivalent to an increase of one percentage point over 2013, which is evidence of the rather sluggish development in this area. DAX 30 companies recorded the largest proportion of female board ...

Eastern Germany Ahead in Employment of Women

Almost a quarter of a century after the fall of the Wall, there are still more women in employment in eastern Germany than in the west. Although the disparity is marginal now, the two regions started from dramatically different levels. In 1991, immediately after reunification, the employment rate for women in western Germany was 54.6 percent, but since then it has increased year on year, reaching 67.5 ...

Eastern Germany Must Focus on Education and Innovation: Six Questions to Karl Brenke

Eastern Germany Still Playing Economic Catch-Up

The economic gap between eastern and western Germany is still sizeable, even 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In terms of GDP per inhabitant and productivity, eastern Germany has attained nearly three-quarters of western German levels, respectively. Since some years, the catch-up process is advancing very slowly indeed. The main reason for low productivity is the lack of highly skilled jobs. ...

Reunification: An Economic Success Story

People’s expectations after the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago and of reunification in 1990 were huge. The government promised to create “flourishing landscapes” within a few years. The euphoria of reunification came not only through the desire to finally become one country and one nation again but also had tangible economic reasons: the people from East Germany wanted better economic prospects, ...

Economic Reinvention: Greece's Path Forward: Six Questions to Alexander Kritikos

Greece Needs a Strategy for Its Transition to an Innovation Economy

Although Greece is showing initial signs of recovering from its 2008 crash, its economy continues to suffer. It has become clear that the economy will not become prosperous only by the given recommendations of the so called Troika, namely by cutting costs and public expenditures, and by making institutional reforms, as much as these steps are needed. If nothing else changes, the country will have a ...

GDP-Linked Loans for Greece

Greece is standing at a crossroads. The need for a third rescue package has now become a critical issue. The Greek government is calling for another de facto-public debt restructuring. An alternative option presented here would be to convert existing GLF loans into GDP-linked loans. Interest payments would then be linked to the development of Greece’s GDP. First, this would reduce the likelihood of ...

Making the Euro Area Fit for the Future

The crisis in the European currency area is not yet over. Although the situation in the financial markets is currently relatively calm, the economic crisis appears to be bottoming out in most countries. Nevertheless, there are still fundamental design flaws in the Monetary Union. If these are not fully addressed, it will only be a matter of time before a new crisis hits, and a partial or complete breakup ...