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Interview
The Interview with Stefan Bach is published in DIW Economic Bulletin 7/2015. It is available for Download as pdf document.
More issues of DIW Economic Bulletin
11.02.2015
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Press Release
The financial relationship between central government and the federal states is about to undergo major reforms. In addition to reorganizing financial equalization, policy-makers are now discussing providing financial aid for structurally weak regions once the Solidarity Pact expires, bolstering the general financial strength of states and establishing an effective debt ceiling. Against this backdrop, ...
10.12.2014
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Press Release
Income inequality is usually considered in terms of its current development. A long-term perspective allows us to compare the income situation of today’s generation with that of their parents. For the first time ever, we have measured the inequality of wages and salaries earned over an entire working lifetime using a new kind of dataset. The findings show that the inequality of lifetime social ...
03.12.2014
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Economic Bulletin
by Ferdinand Fichtner and Peter Haan in: DIW Economic Bulletin 10/2014
Depending on how it is structured, the introduction of a European unemployment insurance within the euro area could make a significant contribution to stabilizing economic developments. This even applies to a relatively small-scale system (based on the volume of transfers) with a maximum eligibility period of six months and ...
17.11.2014
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Press Release
Statistics on corporate earnings in Germany are still not being recorded satisfactorily, despite them being an important economic indicator. To date, DaFNE remains a seldom-used data basis for describing company profits. It includes statutory financial statements (balance sheet, profit and loss statement) in a longitudinal (panel) data format that enables individual company profits to be tracked and ...
05.11.2014
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Press Release
The first ever gender-specific analysis of income and tax distribution in Germany has been implemented using the most recently available data on personal income tax statistics from 2007. According to its findings, the average income of women is only half that of men. This income gap is less pronounced in capital and rental income than in earned income. The total average personal income tax burden for ...
27.08.2014
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Press Release
Family-related breaks in employment often lead to lower statutory pension entitlements, especially for retired mothers. Against this background, the legislation for marriage- and family-related payments has been designed to compensate for such deficits in old-age provision. These payments are directly related to old-age pensions and can be of relevant importance for the economic stability of families ...
04.06.2014
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Press Release
The planned increase of the insurance periods recognized for bringing up children (Mütterrente) will increase the pension contribution rate by an average of 0.3 percentage points and reduce the gross pension level by an average of 0.4 percentage points by 2018. However, since government subsidies to the pension system are to be gradually increased from 2019, the longer-term impact on contribution ...
14.05.2014
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Press Release
According to current survey results the reconciliation of family and work is still very difficult for a lot of parents. Most parents seek to share gainful employment and family duties more equally. Yet, financial incentives often favor the conventional single- or one and a halfearner model. In a study commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Hans Bockler Foundation DIW Berlin has investigated ...
13.11.2013
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Economic Bulletin
by: S. Bach, G. Baldi, K. Bernoth, J. Blazejczak, B. Bremer, J. Diekmann, D. Edler, B. Farkas, F. Fichtner, M. Fratzscher, M. Gornig, C. Kemfert, U. Kunert, H. Link, K. Neuhoff, W.-P. Schill, C. K. Spieß in: DIW Economic Bulletin 08/2013. 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 ...
09.08.2013
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Economic Bulletin
by: Stefan Bach, Guido Baldi, Kerstin Bernoth, Björn Bremer, Beatrice Farkas, Ferdinand Fichtner, Marcel Fratzscher, Martin Gornig in: DIW Economic Bulletin 08/2013. 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 ...
09.08.2013
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Press Release
From August 2013, every child in Germany who has reached his or her first birthday will have a legal right to a place in a childcare facility or family day care. What effects does this have on the mothers' economic activity and child development? Our findings show that the legal entitlement to this type of formal care is expected to lead to an increase in mothers' gainful employment of up to two percentage ...
07.08.2013
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Report
By Stefan Bach in; DIW Economic Bulletin 07/2013.If the revenue from corporate taxation in Germany is divided by the corporate income figures from national accounts, companies' average tax burden for the period 2001 to 2008 is 21 percent. This rate is considerably lower than the statutory tax rates for this period. The reason for this is that tax-reported corporate income was well below macroeconomic ...
15.07.2013
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Press Release
Young people tend to smoke more, do less sport, and are more frequently overweight, the lower their mother's school-leaving qualifications. This has been shown by a study conducted by DIW Berlin using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). At least some of these health-related differences can be causally attributed to the mother's education. Social differences are already reflected ...
30.01.2013
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Press Release
Wochenbericht 51-52/2012 Interview mit Erika Schulz
The rise in the number of old and very old persons, contingent on demographic factors, and the substantial reduction in the number of people of working age present a major challenge to the care industry. Although many of those needing care today are looked after by family members at home, they are increasingly reliant on the support of out-patient ...
20.12.2012
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Report
The debate on a general statutory minimum wage in Germany prevails. Meanwhile, there have been comprehensive evaluations of minimum wages for specific industries. The present paper discusses the empirical studies on the wage and employment effects of the minimum wage in the German construction industry. These studies were unable to provide substantial evidence of employment effects. Both the limited ...
21.11.2012
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Report
Abstract:Following a Federal Constitutional Court sentence, wealth tax has not been levied in Germany since 1997. A possible revival has since regularly been the subject of political debate. Several German federal states are currently preparing to submit a bill to the Bundesrat. A basic scenario envisages individuals (natural persons), corporations, and other legal entities being taxed at a uniform ...
17.10.2012
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Press Release
2013 will see a significant increase in the surcharge stipulated by the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and paid by power consumers to promote the use of renewable energies. This will equate to a rise in the share of private households’ consumer spending on electricity from around 2.3 percent on average in 2011 or almost 2.4 percent in 2012 to almost 2.5 percent in 2013. The EEG surcharge ...
10.10.2012
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Economic Bulletin
Capital Levies : A Step Towards Improving Public Finances in EuropeBy: Stefan Bach in: DIW Economic Bulletin 8/2012.Ever since the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009, public debt in almost all OECD countries has increased significantly. The European debt crisis has further intensified over the past few weeks. Private households with high levels of wealth and income could be enlisted to help ...
03.08.2012
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Economic Bulletin
"Private Wealth Could Be Used to Stabilize Public Finances" Six Questions to Stefan Bach
03.08.2012