-
Press Release
The crisis in the European currency area is not over yet. Although the situation in the financial markets is currently relatively calm, the economic crisis appears to be bottoming out in most countries. Nevertheless, fundamental design flaws in the Monetary Union continue to exist. If these are not fully addressed, it will only be a matter of time before a new crisis hits, and a partial or complete ...
12.06.2014
-
Press Release
At the FIFA World Cup 2006, the method of using the market value of the teams ("transfer value") was first proposed as a simple and transparent basis for forecasting the outcome of a major football tournament. Indeed, the countries with players of the highest market value were world champions in 2006 and 2010 (Italy and Spain, respectively), just as the most expensive team won the European ...
11.06.2014
-
Economic Bulletin
by Elke Holst and Anja Kirsch in: DIW Economic Bulletin 3/2014.The trend toward more women on the corporate boards of German companies continued in 2013, albeit on a small scale. The share of women on the supervisory boards of the 200 largest companies increased by more than two percentage points, and thus at a somewhat higher rate than in recent years, to just over 15 percent. The corresponding share ...
14.03.2014
-
Economic Bulletin
in: DIW Economic Bulletin 3/2014"Public Companies Could Play a Pioneering Role". Six Questions to Elke Holst
14.03.2014
-
Economic Bulletin
by Elke Holst and Anja Kirsch in: DIW Economic Bulletin 3/2014.Last year, more women were appointed to the executive boards of major financial institutions. The share of women on the executive boards of banks and savings banks at the end of 2013 was a good six percent, which represents an increase of almost two percentage points over the previous year. This increase is primarily attributable to changes ...
14.03.2014
-
Press Release
In 2012, almost five million people, or roughly 10 percent of the labor force in Germany, worked from home most or some of the time. Of these home workers, 2.7 million were employees, i.e., eight percent of the labor force. It is primarily highly qualified employees such as managers, academics, lawyers, publicists, engineers, or teachers who work from home; the majority has a university degree. However, ...
19.02.2014
-
Press Release
In the fall of 2013, DIW Berlin presented a study on minimum wages which was based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel Study for 2011. The data for 2012 have since become available. As expected, in terms of structures for employees with gross hourly earnings of less than 8.50 euros, i.e., those expected to receive the planned minimum wage, little has changed. These include, to an above-average degree, ...
29.01.2014
-
Press Release
Today, Germany's citizens are happier on average than at any other point in time since reunification. Even though more than 20 years have passed, the average level of happiness in eastern Germany is still significantly lower than that in western Germany. This is demonstrated by the most recent long-term Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) data gathered by TNS Infratest Sozialforschung in collaboration ...
21.11.2013
-
Press Release
Since the beginning of the crisis, large Target 2 positions developed on the balance sheets of the national central banks in the euro area. At the height of this development in the middle of 2012, the German Bundesbank disclosed Target-claims vis-à-vis the ECB amounting to around 750 billion euro. Since then, the balances decreased and currently amount to 570 billion Euro, which is still considerably ...
30.10.2013
-
Economic Bulletin
in: DIW Economic Bulletin 07/2013"Lack of Training for Young People Continues to be a Cause for Concern". Seven Questions to Karl Brenke
15.07.2013
-
Report
Europe's Reluctant Hegemon, 14 June 2013, DIW BerlinA podcast (mp3) of the presentation by Zanny Minton Beddoes can be downloaded here. On June 15, 2013, the international affairs magazine The Economist published a Germany Special Report, analyzing Germany's economy, politics, and external image. In a remarkably short space of time, the country written off as the "sick man of Europe" only ...
18.06.2013
-
Report
Guest Comment by Marcel Fratzscher in: Financial Times (10th of June 2013) On Tuesday, the conflict between the European Central Bank and the Bundesbank will turn into a showdown before the German constitutional court on the legality of eurozone policy decisions. No matter how the court eventually rules, the case is straining a difficult relationship. It is time to defuse this eurozone time bomb. ...
12.06.2013
-
Economic Bulletin
By: Marco Giesselmann, Richard Hilmer, Nico A. Siegel, Gert G. Wagner in: DIW Economic Bulletin 05/2013.Plenty of people in Germany, including politicians and researchers, believe that gross domestic product (GDP) is an outdated indicator of a society’s prosperity. Therefore, at the end of 2010, the German Bundestag, the federal parliament, established a study commission (Enquete Kommission) ...
13.05.2013
-
Press Release
Youth unemployment in Germany has fallen to its lowest level since German reunification. Between 2005 and 2012, unemployment among under 25 year olds has more than halved. By international standards, Germany is in an exceptionally good position. Nowhere in Europe is youth unemployment lower. However, this is not so much due to structural improvements or positive labor market growth than to demographic ...
08.05.2013
-
Comment
The German Bundestag’s Study Commission on Growth, Wellbeing, and Quality of Life completed its work (Final Report Part1 & Part 2). Contrary to public expectations and media commentary, the Commission achieved its main goal: to relativize the importance of economic indicators, most prominently gross domestic project (GDP), in the public and political discussion. The Study Commission ...
22.04.2013
-
Report
EU governments need to convince their citizens that reforms are necessary, says Marcel Fratzscher in: Financial Times (10th of April 2013) The most terrifying words in the English language, according to Ronald Reagan, are: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Today, for some Europeans, they are: “I’m from the EU and I’m here to bail you out.” ...
15.04.2013
-
Press Release
Since last year, Germany has not even been runner-up in visible exports. It has been overtaken by China, and now the US, on the list of the most prolific global exporting nations. But does this mean losing more than just an attention-grabbing title? Are exports becoming less important to Germany? A closer look at structures and trade patterns shows that in fact the opposite is true. Exports have never ...
06.03.2013
-
Press Release
Numerous people in Germany, including politicians and researchers, believe that the gross domestic product (GDP) is an outdated indicator of a society's prosperity. Therefore, at the end of 2010, the German Bundestag, the federal parliament, established a study commission (Enquete-Kommission) tasked with developing an alternative to the GDP for measuring growth, prosperity, and quality of life. This ...
01.03.2013
-
Report
The wrong signal is being sent at the wrong time, writes Marcel Fratzscher in: Financial Times (21st of February 2013) There is a lot of hype about the prospects of an EU-US free trade agreement, especially in the wake of Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last week. Supporters point to the benefits such an agreement could bring to both economies. Yet the costs are likely to outweigh the ...
22.02.2013
-
Press Release
Over the past two decades, the number of self-employed in Germany has risen dramatically. This is almost exclusively due to an increasing number of self-employed persons without employees (solo entrepreneurs). There has been a particularly marked escalation in the number of self-employed women. Although some solo entrepreneurs command high incomes, the average earnings of this section of the workforce ...
13.02.2013