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Press Release
Thanks to a stable job market and solid consumption, the German economy is experiencing a moderate upswing. The GDP is expected to increase by 1.9 percent this year, 1.4 percent in 2017, and 1.6 percent in 2018, according to the Gemeinschaftsdiagnose (GD, joint economic forecast) that was prepared by five of Europe’s leading economic research institutes on behalf of the Federal Government. The ...
29.09.2016
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Press Release
Availability for full-time work still a prerequisite for climbing the career ladder in all sectors
Overall, women in Germany have considerably lower odds of holding a senior management position than men, particularly in the financial sector. These are the findings of a study conducted by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study ...
23.09.2016
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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
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Interview
For years now, the share of women in management positions in Germany has been considerably lower than that of men. Has the likelihood of women occupying a management position improved at all?
During the observation period —from 2001 to 2014— women’s chances did not improve compared to the base year, at least not statistically significantly. With the exception of the last two years, ...
21.09.2016
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Press Release
DIW Berlin short-term economic forecast: German GDP will increase by 1.9 percent in 2016, 1.0 percent in 2017, and 1.6 percent in 2018 – Brexit decision temporarily hindering growth – unemployment continues to fall, but wage increases are also slowing down – public budgets will end all three years with surpluses
According to the latest economic forecast from the German Institute ...
13.09.2016
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Interview
Dr. Fichtner, Germany’s economic development has become less stable overall. How long will it remain this way?
Our prognosis for 2017 has changed quite a bit since June: we now predict that the Brexit decision will have a significant negative impact on growth, and have thus lowered the projected growth rate from 1.4 percent to 1 percent. Growth will turn out to be slightly higher ...
13.09.2016
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Report
2015 saw a number of important events which influenced the work of DIW Berlin and provoked exciting new research questions for our institute. The integration of refugees, the level of local investment in Germany, the adequacy of German schooling systems - these were just a few of the topics we worked on in the last year. Furthermore, 2015 marked the 90th anniversary of our institute, an opportunity ...
12.09.2016
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Press Release
Social scientists and economists at DIW Berlin and Humboldt University Berlin researched the integration of refugees who arrived in Germany between 1990 and 2010 – survey data indicate difficult starting conditions with employment and language skills compared to other migrants, but refugees were able to catch up over time
How can we help refugees to successfully integrate into Germany society ...
07.09.2016
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Report
Prof. Kroh, DIW Berlin analyzed 2013 survey data on refugees who, for the most part, came to Germany between 1990 and 2010. How many of those refugees were employed in Germany at the time of the survey?
In the group we analyzed, approximately two thirds of all male refugees reported finding a job within the first five years of their arrival in Germany. This share was considerably smaller among female ...
07.09.2016
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Report
Academic and vocational qualifications play a crucial role when it comes to successfully integrating refugees and other migrants into society. What qualifications did migrants already acquire in their country of origin and which did they obtain in Germany? And to what extent are qualifications gained abroad recognized in Germany? The IAB-SOEP Migration Sample shows that the majority of the migrant ...
07.09.2016
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Report
Whether they’re looking to participate in social life, enter the German labor market, or obtain relevant training certificates, learning German is a critical part of integration for the majority of refugees—and yet only a handful of studies have examined their language acquisition patterns and skill levels. The IAB-SOEP Migration Sample, which was collected by the Institute for Employment ...
07.09.2016
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Report
Non-compulsory educational programs including extracurricular school activities, child day care centers, and non-formal educational programs, such as sports or music activities outside of school, make an important contribution to social integration. But to what extent do children and their families actually make use of these voluntary programs? On the basis of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the ...
01.09.2016
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Report
It has taken longer for refugees who have been living in Germany for some time, particularly those who arrived between 1990 and 2010, to take up gainful employment than other migrants. These findings are based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample. In addition, these refugees show a higher rate of unemployment and earn lower incomes by comparison even years ...
01.09.2016
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Report
In Germany, the majority of people tend to find work through friends, acquaintances, and relatives when they first enter the labor market or switch jobs. The same applies to immigrants and their offspring. Integrating refugees into the labor market is considered crucial to their overall integration into society, yet little is known about how they land their first jobs. The present paper attempts to ...
01.09.2016
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Press Release
DIW Berlin study shows that Brexit vote-related uncertainty will do considerable damage to the European and German economies in a way that will be noticeable even two years from now – since the German economy is primarily affected by sinking business investment, policy should be more oriented toward promoting investment
Uncertainty plays a major role in the economy overall – but what are ...
10.08.2016
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Interview
Dr. Rieth, you’ve investigated the possible consequences of the recent spike in uncertainty related to the Brexit vote. How exactly did you measure the change in economic uncertainty here?
We isolated one specific aspect that was undoubtedly related to the “Leave” vote: the change in economic uncertainty that took place overnight between June 23 and June 24, 2016. We tried ...
10.08.2016
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Personnel news
Max von Ungern-Sternberg will support the SOEP team in the documentation of data generation processes. This includes SOEPcore and SOEPlong.He has finshed his Master of Science in Economics at the Freie Universität in April (Master thesis: The effect of tuition fees on study duration) and will be part of the team until the end of the year 2016.
09.08.2016
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Personnel news
Marvin Petrenz passed his final exam as Specialist in Market and Social Research (FAMS) on July 11, 2016.
Congratulations to Marvin, who will continue working on the SOEP team in the area of data management.
09.08.2016
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Personnel news
Adrian Hille, who joined the DIW Graduate Center in October 2011 and worked at the SOEP until February 2016, defended his dissertation “Developing skills through non-formal learning activities: four essays in the economics of education” on July 19, 2016, at Freie Universität Berlin (Advisors: C. Katharina Spieß, FU Berlin, and Silke Anger, University of Bamberg).
His recent ...
09.08.2016