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DIW focus
Large-scale fiscal consolidations and the implementation of structural reforms should help southern European countries resolve the crisis. But recent studies indicate that in conjunction with the low interest rate in the euro area, the austerity measures that has been imposed could have the opposite effect, leading to an increase in sovereign debt and economic slowdown. For this reason, a more...
22.01.2018| Mathias Klein
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Press Release
The following study from DIW Berlin examines the effects of different exit scenarios from the European Central bank’s bond purchase program on the European economy – exiting early would especially depress the inflation rate
What if the ECB were to reduce its bond purchase program by more than what it reported at the end of October? What if it reduced its bond holdings quicker or earlier? ...
06.12.2017
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Report
Fostering cross-country risk-sharing via capital markets is a central macroeconomic objective of the Capital Markets Union. Risk-sharing means that individuals, firms or public-sector authorities, located in a region or country suffering from a temporary and idiosyncratic economic shock, would be able to compensate the regional output gap (i. e., lack of aggregate demand, increasing unemployment and ...
10.11.2017| Dorothea Schäfer
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Report
On September 30, 2015, the European Commission adopted an action plan to create a European Capital Markets Union (CMU). The chief purpose was to ease the access of small and medium-sized companies as well as start-ups to funds, in particular through raising funds in public capital markets. CMU should also create an environment conducive to long-term, sustainable investment, including in infrastructure. ...
26.10.2017| Dorothea Schäfer
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Economic Bulletin
This year and next, global GDP will grow more strongly than expected. The growth rate should be just under four percent. In developed economies, the continuing improvement in the job market situation will drive consumption. Corporate investment activity will also gain momentum. Over the forecast horizon, a slowly rising inflation rate and somewhat tighter monetary policy will gradually slow private ...
08.09.2017
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Economic Bulletin
Although banks are required to document their equity capital for loans, corporate bonds, and other receivables, they are currently exempted from the procedure when investing in government bonds: they enjoy an “equity capital privilege.” As part of the Basel III regulatory framework redraft, the privilege may be eliminated in order to disentangle the default risks between sovereigns and ...
12.07.2017| Dorothea Schäfer
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Interview
Mrs. Schäfer, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has been negotiating the Basel III reform package since 2013. Banks have long been able to finance EU government bonds with 100% third-party debt capital. Is there agreement with regard to increasing the capital requirement for them?
The committee members agree that capital requirements for EU government bonds must be implemented in the ...
12.07.2017| Dorothea Schäfer
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Personnel news
Benjamin Beckers, who works at the Macroeconomics department, has successfully defended his dissertation at the Freie Universität Berlin.The dissertation with the title "Booms and Busts in Asset Prices: Risk Modeling, Bubble Detection, and the Role of Monetary Policy" was supervised by Prof. Dr. Helmut Lütkepohl (DIW Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Bernoth ...
30.06.2017
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Economic Bulletin
Although the housing prices in the 127 largest German cities have surged strongly in recent years, there is still no sign of a Germanywide housing bubble. In comparison with 2009, the price of condominiums has risen by around 55 percent. Single-family houses cost between 38 and 45 percent more in 2016 than seven years prior, and building lot prices have risen by around 63 percent. The study at hand ...
26.06.2017| Konstantin A. Kholodilin, Claus Michelsen
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Press Release
Technology transfer primary motive behind Chinese OFDI in Western Europe; access to EU internal market motivates OFDI in Central and Eastern Europe; factors influencing investment decisions differ based on type of investment
China’s investment strategy in the EU differs depending on the target country. With investment in Western Europe, the main motivation is gaining access to advanced technologies. ...
05.04.2017
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Interview
Mr. Dreger, how high is China’s OFDI, and how has it been developing over the past few years?
Chinese global FDI amounts to 150 billion US dollars—and it is on the rise. The flows have grown substantially since the financial crisis. China is now the second largest investor in the global economy. More than 40 percent of China’s FDI in developed countries flows into Europe, and the ...
05.04.2017| Christian Dreger
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Economic Bulletin
The cumulative growth rate of the German economy since reunification would have been around two percentage points higher if income inequality had remained constant. This is what simulations using the DIW Macroeconomic Model have shown. They were made under the assumption that the income distribution dynamics would not be influenced by any feedback effects of economic growth. In 2015, Germany’s ...
15.03.2017| Marius Clemens, Stefan Gebauer, Simon Junker
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Press Release
DIW study showed: To some extent, drastic savings measures neutralized the effects of structural reform. The countries affected relapsed into recession without having improved their financial picture – a balanced policy mixture would have been better.
The austerity measures and tax increases implemented from 2010 onwards did not reduce sovereign debt in Spain, Portugal and Italy as anticipated. ...
22.02.2017
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Interview
Mr. Engler, Mr. Klein: In 2010, several European countries started implementing austerity measures to reduce their sovereign debt. Of these countries, you studied the southern European countries of Spain, Portugal, and Italy as examples. To what extent was the austerity policy successful there?
Philipp Engler: The austerity measures were not successful. The absolute level of sovereign debt has risen ...
22.02.2017| Philipp Engler, Mathias Klein
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Economic Bulletin
According to the German federal government’s climate protection targets, there will be a continuous reduction of lignite-based electricity well before 2030. Simulations show that the currently authorized lignite mines in eastern Germany would not be fully depleted if the climate protection targets for 2030 were complied with. This makes planning for new mines or the expansion of existing ones ...
13.02.2017| Claudia Kemfert, Pao-Yu Oei, Dorothea Schäfer
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Report
Euroframe Conference on Economic Policy Issues in the European UnionGrowth and inequality: Challenges for EU economies Friday, 9 June 2017, Berlin
The EUROFRAME group of research institutes (CASE, CPB, DIW, ESRI, ETLA, IfW, NIESR, OFCE, PROMETEIA, WIFO) will hold its fourteenth annual Conference on Economic Policy Issues in the European Union in Berlin on Friday 9 June 2017. ...
03.02.2017
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Report
International Conference, Paris, September 1 and 2, 2017
Call for Papers
This conference seeks to contribute to the ongoing research into financial regulation, combining approaches by economists, legal experts, political scientists, geographers and historians. It aims to adopt an empirical approach from a comparative and historical perspective to characterize public authority and its relationship ...
09.01.2017
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Report
Editors: Hans-Helmut Kotz and Dorothea Schäfer
On September 30, 2015, the European Commission (EU COM) adopted an action plan to create a European Capital Markets Union. To reduce the alleged gap to the U.S.A. as the frontier financial system in financing Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) as well as infrastructures, the EU COM aims at creating a more market-based and unified financing ...
05.12.2016
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Interview
Dr. Rieth, the European Central Bank (ECB) has initiated various bond purchase programs. What exactly is it hoping to achieve?
First of all, the ECB wants to stabilize inflation and inflation expectations by purchasing bonds and assets, thus lowering interest rates— especially in the long run. Long-term interest rates are important for lending to households and businesses alike. The hope is ...
23.09.2016
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Report
Facing deflationary threats, the ECB has engaged in several forms of asset purchase programs to fulfill its mandate of maintaining price stability. A main objective of these programs is raising inflation expectations, as these are a main determinant of actual inflation. This study empirically evaluates the effectiveness of these ECB policies in raisinginflation expectations. The results suggest that ...
23.09.2016