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Interview
Professor Schupp, in Germany, public debate on the refugee issue has sometimes been quite heated. Is the population really as concerned as it often appears?
If we are talking about granting refugees the right to remain in Germany in accordance with the 1951 Refugee Convention, it’s clear that the vast majority of the population are in favor of granting temporary asylum. This particularly applies ...
25.05.2016
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Report
Following the financial crisis of 2008/09, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision introduced a new framework for banking regulation, commonly known as Basel III. For the first time since the inception of global banking regulation in 1988, Basel III contains explicit mandatory rules for liquidity regulation. The cornerstones of the new liquidity regulation are two balance sheet ratios that seek ...
25.05.2016
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Press Release
DIW Berlin conducted two studies on developments in energy supply – private utilities no more efficient than public utilities – consolidation in drinking water sector offers little benefit
More and more cities and municipalities in Germany are once again taking the electricity, gas, and heating utilities into their own hands: between 2003 and 2012, the number of public utilities increased ...
20.05.2016
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Interview
Ms. Cullmann, in recent years many communities have been reacquiring previously privatized shares in energy companies. Does this point to a trend toward remunicipalization?
We have created a new microdata set of German energy companies in order to analyze this question for the first time in Germany. Our empirical analysis shows that both the number as well as the turnover of public companies in the ...
20.05.2016
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Report
Since the 1980s, in West Germany has been a substantial decline in the number of people of working age who are not in paid employment. Accordingly, the share of 18- to 67-year-olds without a job has also fallen. This increase in employment figures primarily benefited those in marginal employment or solo entrepreneurs and had less of an impact on those in typical employment. In fact, the present analysis ...
12.05.2016
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Interview
Professor Wagner, in the 1980s, sociologist Ulrich Beck posited in his book Risikogesellschaft (published in English as “Risk Society” in 1992) that working conditions would become increasingly complex. Employment subject to mandatory social security contributions would decline and precarious employment would increase. Has this happened?
No, it hasn’t. Although precarious jobs have ...
11.05.2016
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Report
Dear SOEP-users,
In order to respond to many requests from our community for SOEP-training options, we have co-organized several Workshops in the upcoming months.
Unfortunately, the international workshop on longitudinal data management and analysis, based on SOEP data, to be held on June 22-24 in Ann Arbour at the Summer Institute in Survey Research Techniques has been cancelled.
Furthermore, we ...
10.05.2016
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Press Release
Please note: this is a corrected version of the original press release.
DIW Berlin study compares proportion of middle-class individuals over time in Germany and US - share declining in both countries - average income has dropped since 2000
The middle class in both the US and Germany is on the decline: according to a study conducted by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), the ...
06.05.2016
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Press Release
Correction to the press release from May 6, 2016
Please note: The original version of Wochenbericht 18, which compares the decline of the middle class in Germany and with that of the United States, contained a calculation error that came about while adjusting standard German reference values to the basis used by the reference study for the US. We apologize for the oversight.
We have ...
06.05.2016
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Interview
Dr. Grabka, you conducted a study of the share of middle-income group in the US and Germany. Why did you choose these two countries for your comparison?
In December 2015, the Pew Research Center in the US published findings on the development of the middle-income tier which triggered a broad public debate beyond the borders of the US. This prompted us to conduct similar analyses using comparative ...
06.05.2016
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Press Release
DIW study: in several European countries prior to 2010, between 27 and 40 percent of households received inheritances or gifts – German tax policy regarding inheritances and gifts riddled with exceptions
High-income individuals are more likely to inherit wealth than are low-income individuals; they also receive significantly larger amounts. Those from privileged social backgrounds are also able ...
03.05.2016
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Interview
Mr. Westermeier, in which European countries do we see assets being inherited more frequently and in which countries is this a less frequent occurrence?
Overall, the frequency of inheritances and gifts is quite similar across all European countries. Between 30 and 40 percent of households benefited from an inheritance. However, the figures depend on the age structure and/ or when exactly intergenerational ...
27.04.2016
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Report
The data from the 2014 survey of the SOEP Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS) have now been released and can be ordered by SOEP users. Up to now, they have been provided through a secure website. The current data distribution contains the data from the 2011, 2012, and 2013 innovative modules.
The SOEP-IS contained the following innovative modules in 2011:
Implicit Association Test (IAT) and corresponding ...
25.04.2016
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Interview
Katharina Mahne is a Sociologist and Director of the German Aging Survey (DEAS) at the German Centre of Gerontology (DZA) in Berlin. She began her research career as a student assistant in the SOEP 10 years ago. Since then, she has been doing research on social relationships within families. Her current focus is on the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren. She is one of the few researchers ...
25.04.2016
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Personnel news
Alexander Zerrahn, department of Energy, Transportation, Environment, has successfully defended his dissertation at Technische Universität Berlin.
The dissertation with the title “Essays in Electricity Economics - Empirical, Numerical and Theoretical Perspectives on Renewable Energy and Cross-Border Integration" was supervised by Christian von Hirschhausen (DIW, Technische Universität ...
25.04.2016
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Press Release
Current corporate investment levels hardly surpass pre-crisis levels – Experts Commission’s recommendations for strengthening investment still relevant – additional tax incentives should be considered
Businesses in Germany are still investing too little in their manufacturing facilities. As a new study conducted by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) reveals, ...
22.04.2016
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Report
To begin the process of appointing the next generation of leadership for the SOEP, a job advertisement for the position of Director of the SOEP has been published. The new SOEP Director should, if possible, begin on October 1, 2017.
21.04.2016
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Report
To describe the SOEP-LEE data, which are available in the DSZ-BO Bielefeld, we provide the following documents:
Erhebungsinstrumente und Datenkodierung der Betriebsbefragung des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels, SOEP Survey Papers 304
Methodenbericht der Betriebsbefragung des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels, SOEP Survey Papers 305
Datenhandbuch der Betriebsbefragung des Sozio-oekonomischen ...
21.04.2016
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Report
Data from the first wave of the study PIAAC-L have been released on March 31st 2016. PIAAC-L is a joint project of the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS), the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at DIW Berlin, and the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi).
In 2014, around 4,000 people in Germany between the ages of 18 and 67 who had previously taken part in PIAAC 2012 (Programme ...
21.04.2016
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Video
In the latest Spotlight, DIW President Marcel Fratzscher explains why helicopter money offers the possibility to “circumvent” the banking system and make loans and funding directly available to households and private companies, which would help the ECB to fulfill their price stability mandate again.
Video
21.04.2016