Public Economics Department Research Projects

DFG Research Unit "Labour Market Transformation: Labor Scarcity, Skill Mismatch, and Policy" TP 7 "Increasing the labour supply of older workers"

Labor shortages and skills mismatches pose significant challenges for Germany and other advanced economies, which are further exacerbated by the retirement of the baby boomer generation, the digital transformation and the ecological transformation of the economy. These developments are fundamentally changing labor demand, task structures and skill requirements, leading to a growing mismatch...

Retirement, employment, and labor market adjustments to health and labor market shocks - the role of social insurance

In this project, we are investigating the effects in Germany and France of a series of measures that have directly or indirectly changed the pension entitlements of people whose careers have been interrupted due to health problems or labor market crises. 

SFB/Transregio 190: Rationality and Competition: The Economic Performance of Individuals and Firms Project A02: Biased beliefs in dynamic decisions: Extensions to policy and communication

The Collaborative Research Center Transregio “Rationality and Competition” combines the research programs of behavioral and neoclassical economists to study applied economic questions that are of high policy relevance. The focus CRC TRR 190 is on the economic behavior and performance of individuals and firms: How do systematic biases in expectations, decision processes, and preferences affect the...

GENELLI

Gender inequality remains a pressing issue in our society. Women are underrepresented in many decision-making positions and the gender pay gap remains at 16%. Whether or how language contributes to forming and transporting gender stereotypes has sparked intense scientific and public debate. In German, masculine role nouns are still often used in a generic sense to address people of unknown gender ...

Gender gaps in the labour market

This project investigates the underlying causes of gender gaps in the labor market, emphasizing skill mismatches, task divisions, social norms, and implicit gender biases. By employing quasi- and survey-experimental methods with data from Germany and OECD countries, the research examines policies like parental leave and public child care. It explores the effects of these factors on skill...

A Retirement Adequacy Index for Germany

The goal of the project is to develop an index to measure the adequacy of overall retirement provision for the working-age population. The Retirement Adequacy Index is intended to regularly inform about the state of retirement provision. In the project, we also aim to place a particular emphasis on the gender perspective. Policy has initiated a shift toward a multi-pillar system with a stronger...

Cutting Public Occupational Disability Insurance: The Effects on Overall DI Inflows and Outflows, Labor Market Outcomes, Social Insurance Substitution, and Household Consumption

This project evaluates a major reform of Germany’s public Disability Insurance (DI) system. Since 2001, cohorts born after 1960 are no longer eligible for occupational DI, which previously granted benefits when health shocks prevented work in one’s former occupation. Instead, eligibility now requires general work disability. First, the project will use administrative microdata from the statutory...

Ariadne2 - Ariadne joint project: Evidence-based assessment for shaping the German energy transition - DIW Berlin sub-project: Scenario forum, electricity and energy market design, transport transition

The aim of the overall project is to initiate social learning processes relating to the energy transition. It aims to identify ways of overcoming obstacles and spell out options for coping with multiple crises. To this end, various key challenges will be examined. The following are of particular importance to the DIW subproject: a) the need for an unprecedented acceleration and scaling of the...

Minimum pension concept of the Green party

The aim is to examine how the introduction of a guaranteed pension affects people with low net incomes, broken down by East and West, women and men, and year of birth.

Target Replacement rate

The Pension Commission has the task of examining, by 2026, “a new indicator for an overall level of old-age provision across all three pension pillars.” This debate will also shape pension policy in 2026. With a study, we aim to contribute to this discussion. We examine which replacement rates insured persons aim for and how large the gap is between the target replacement rate and the replacement...

Long term care and migration

Organizing long-term care (LTC) is one of the most pressing challenges for the coming years, both societally and politically. Across OECD countries, the proportion of individuals aged 80 and above will increase from an average of nearly five to almost ten percent of the population by 2050 (OECD, 2020). This rapid aging will have sizable implications for the demand and provision of LTC. The issue...

Employment of women

A regionally differentiated climate dividend in Germany

Experiences with the regionally differentiated climate dividend in Austria in terms of effectiveness, acceptance and feasibility in the administration. Contribution of a regionally differentiated climate dividend to the acceptance of climate policy (social compatibility and efficiency) Transferability of the Austrian concept and experiences with implementation to Germany.

Career penalties of long term-care provision

It is the aim of the project to analyze the labor market consequences of informal care provision. For the identification we follow the literature on childcare penalties (see Kleven et al. 2019) to quantify the short- and long-run career costs of childcare. Rellstab et al. (2020) for the Netherlands and Halla et al. (2021) for Austria have applied this framework to estimate the career effects for...

Financing basic income

Scenarios for financing an unconditional basic income are being developed in the project. Furthermore, the revenue and distribution effects of basic income and financing options are analyzed.

Role model Austria - What lessons can be learned for the design of old-age provision in Germany?

In the project, the differences between the German and Austrian pension systems are to be systematized and analyzed on the basis of administrative microdata and dynamic simulation models. In contrast to the previous use of stylized biographies or empirical averages, the added value of the project lies in the analysis based on microdata as well as in the differentiated consideration of individual...

Junior research group “Time policy – how can social policy help to manage critical phases over the life course?”

The research group is concerned with time policy as one element of social policy. Time policy allows individuals and households to cope with time conflicts during critical phases in their employment biographies. Time policy includes measures and benefits that enable employees to use their time resources according to their preferences, irrespective of their income. We identify critical phases in...

An empirical analysis of non-take up of social assistance for the elderly

The aim of the research project was to non-take-up of social assistance for the elderly. The analysis is based on the Socio-economic Panel (SOEP). Using a microsimulation model (STSM) developed at DIW Berlin, it was determined on the basis of survey data from the previous year (including income and property information, household context, living situation, health situation, household equipment)...

Studies on Wealth Taxation

We analyzed the economic impact and institutional issues of wealth taxation (recurrent wealth tax, inheritance and gift tax, local taxes on land and buildings, one-time capital levy, real estate appraisal).

Microsimulation Studies on Business and Income Taxation

We analyzed the revenue and economic effects of business and income taxation and developed microsimulation models in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry of Finance. The models were used for research projects and evaluation requests on behalf of the ministry. The research cooperation ended in 2011.