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Economic Bulletin
in: DIW Economic Bulletin 5/2014The ECB’s Policy of Low Interest Rates Is Indispensable for Now: Five Questions to Dorothea Schäfer
13.06.2014
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Economic Bulletin
by Marius Kokert, Dorothea Schäfer, Andreas Stephan in: DIW Economic Bulletin 5/2014Member states of the euro area have been struggling with the legacies of the severe financial and economic crisis for four years now. But debt ratios are still rising. Negative primary balances, low growth, and low inflation do not allow for a recovery similar to the one in the US after the Second World War. Between ...
13.06.2014
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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
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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
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Report
Achieving Sustainable Financial Stability: Conference organised by the Deutsche Bundesbank, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) and the Center for Financial Studies, 1-2 October 2014, Berlin, GermanyWhile still struggling with the financial and sovereign debt crisis, the financial markets, the real economy and governments ...
10.06.2014
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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
Unemployment affects the mental health of partners almost as much as that of the unemployed person. The impact on mental health does not depend on which partner is unemployed: both women and men suffer from their partner being unemployed. These are the findings of a study conducted by DIW Berlin on the basis of data from the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) which looked at couples affected by unemployment ...
27.05.2014
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Press Release
Natural gas makes a major contribution to European energy supply. Consequently, the political crisis between Russia and Ukraine increases fears of the consequences of Russia suspending natural gas supplies to Ukraine and the European Union. The last time this occurred was in the winter of 2009, as Russia and Ukraine disputed the price of natural gas and transit costs. However, the European Union has ...
27.05.2014
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Press Release
When mothers with young children contemplate employment, a decisive factor is whether day care is available. Extensive research has been carried out on the subject. However, to date, it has failed to address the extent to which the quality of day care affects maternal employment decisions. We examine this research question using data from the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and the extension sample ...
21.05.2014
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Report
Sarah Dahmann has been granted a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (SddV) from April 2014 on. The Dean of the GC, Prof. Lütkepohl, congratulates her on her success!
14.05.2014
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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
Germany's draft bill to improve the benefits provided under the statutory pension insurance scheme (Gesetz über Leistungsverbesserungen in der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherungen) will entitle, in particular, those who have contributed for many years (at least 45) to retire early on a full pension (without any reductions to their pension payments) at the age of 63. The proposed reform is in stark ...
07.05.2014
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Personnel news
Philipp Eisnecker joined the SOEP as a doctoral student in early April. He is working in the area of survey research on the SAW Project “SOEP-REC-LINK” with data from the IAB/SOEP migration sample. Philipp studied sociology at the University of Mannheim and the Free University Berlin, where he completed his master’s degree in the “Sociology—European Societies” program ...
03.05.2014
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Press Release
Previous studies on the impact of day care center attendance on child development have focused on quantitative aspects (e. g., capacity of the center). Yet the quality of a day care center is also relevant and is increasingly being discussed in the context of day care expansion. The discussion is often limited, however, to improving children?s skills and rarely addresses their health, although this ...
30.04.2014
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Report
The program of the 11th International German Socio-Economic Panel User Conference is available online now.60 presentations based on SOEP data will be given in 14 parallel sessions. The topics include health, income distribution, intergenerational studies and many more. Patricia McManus and Jaques Silber are the keynote speakers and two poster sessions provide more research results. The online program ...
29.04.2014
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Report
Using the German Socio-Economic Panel with Understanding Society in cross-national comparative researchThis course is an initiative to promote cross-national comparative research on the basis of Understanding Society and one of its European sister studies, the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). It is directed at new users of Understanding Society who will learn about similarities and differences in ...
29.04.2014
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Report
The workshop concludes the project “Neighbourhood effects: Analysis of individual rational behaviour in a social context”. The project consortium consists of RWI, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the University of Melbourne.The aim of the project is to geo-reference existing micro-level data sets, e.g. the SOEP ...
17.04.2014
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Report
In spring 2014, the German economy is experiencing an upturn. Gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to increase by 1.9 percent this year, the 68-percent forecast interval ranges from 1.2 percent to 2.6 percent. The driving force is domestic demand. The rise in consumer prices this year is moderate, at 1.3 percent. Employment growth is expected to remain strong in 2014. In 2015, GDP is expected to ...
16.04.2014
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Report
The SOEPmonitors with numerical series for chosen indicators have been just published. Differentiated for individuals (SOEPmonitor Person) and households (SOEPmonitor Household) they offer an important reference point to evaluate the results of your own research.More information
14.04.2014
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Economic Bulletin
by Isabel Teichmann in: DIW Economic Bulletin 4/2014In recent years, there has been much discussion about biochar - a carbonaceous product made of biomass - as a promising technique for mitigating climate change. In particular, this method has the potential to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for the long term by incorporating biochar into the soil while enhancing soil fertility at the same ...
11.04.2014