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Economic Bulletin
The past few decades have seen a considerable increase in caesarean section rates, which have now reached unprecedented levels. Concerns have been raised about the possibility of medically unnecessary procedures having negative consequences for mothers and infants (WHO, 2015). The aim of this report is to show that a properly implemented hospital-level policy may be a powerful tool for reducing the ...
26.10.2016| Sofia Amaral-Garcia, Jana Friedrichsen
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Interview
The past few decades have seen a significant increase in the C-section rates of many developed countries. How much have the rates increased in Italy and Germany, the subjects of your report?
We focus primarily on Italy, but we also discuss Germany to some extent—and according to OECD statistics for the year 1990, C-section rates amounted to 15 percent in Germany and approximately 20 percent ...
26.10.2016
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Report
We are happy to present our recent SOEPnewsletter 113, October 2016.
We like to inform about
the upcoming SOEP version 32 (data 1984-2015), to be released not later than December 15, 2016,
news on the SOEP information system paneldata.org (and the documentation of SOEP v31 at data.soep.de)
the changes at the LIS - Cross-national Data Center in Luxembourg
the change of name of our research institute ...
25.10.2016
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Report
New leadership structure at LIS
In a post on September 1, 2016, Janet Gornick, Director of the LIS since 2006, offers some key information about the new structure and recognizes several people who have made LIS what it is, over many years. Please read here the central paragraphs :
"Since its inception in 1983, LIS has had a single Director, responsible for the overall operation of LIS. Tim ...
21.10.2016
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Report
One new dataset from Germany, DE13, (Wave IX), has been added to the Luxembourg Income Study Database (LIS).
The dataset is from wave 31 of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
In addition to releasing the Wave IX dataset, the 7 earlier German datasets based on the same survey (DE10/07/04/00/94/89/84) have been revised for consistency.
See Revision notes for details.
The LIS Database includes:
Household- ...
21.10.2016
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Report
Researchers interested in submitting questions to the SOEP-IS 2017 survey should contact SOEP Survey Management by November 30, 2016, to present their proposal. If the project is determined to be viable from a survey methodology perspective, an official application procedure will follow. The official application must be received by December 31, 2016. Send us your proposal!
Applications should be submitted ...
21.10.2016
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Interview
Jennifer Hunt is a Professor of Economics at Rutgers University. Born in Australia and raised in Switzerland, she has held teaching and research posts in Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, and the USA. She served in the Obama Administration as Chief Economist in the US Department of Labor from 2013-14 and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Microeconomic Analysis in the US Department of the Treasury from ...
21.10.2016
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Report
On Tuesday, October 25, the 2nd DIW Europe Lecture will be held on “Stability, Equity and Monetary Policy”. The President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, will look at Europe’s economic and financial future: which challenges will Europe and the European Central Bank have to face in the months and years ahead? The event will be streamed live.
The DIW Europe Lecture ...
20.10.2016
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Report
In Germany and many other countries, financial advisors are required by law to assess their clients’ risk preferences in order to help them make informed and appropriate investment decisions. Most institutions that provide financial advice - banks, for instance - carry out this assessment using just one type of risk measure. Financial advisors might ask clients to answer a question about their ...
19.10.2016
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Interview
Mr. Menkhoff, in many countries the law requires financial institutions to give financial advice to people who are going to invest money. How do financial institutions normally assess the risk attitude of their customers?
The most common way involves asking clients to self- assess their attitudes toward risk or their hypothetical response to a risky situation. Typically, clients will choose from a ...
19.10.2016
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Personnel news
Philipp Kaminsky began training as a Specialist in Market and Social Research (FAMS) at the SOEP in early October. The SOEP is in its sixth year of offering training for FAMS, and five SOEP trainees have already graduated from the program.
17.10.2016
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Personnel news
Successor of Simone Bartsch in PIAAC-L will be Luise Burkhardt. Luise studied sociology at the Technische Universität Dresden and at the University of Potsdam. Her master’s thesis examined the role of volunteer work in retirement based on an empirical investigation of retirees’ volunteer activities in the health field. Prior to accepting this position, Luise worked as a student assistant ...
17.10.2016
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Report
We are currently fundamentally revising our documentation system paneldata.org. By the end of the year, we will have increased the user-friendliness of the system and made it possible to offer data from other studies. The software on which the system is based, DDI on Rails, is also being completely redeveloped (DDI on Rails 2). The first phase of our work focused on the technical implementation of ...
17.10.2016
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Personnel news
Stefan Seifert, who joined the DIW Graduate Center in October 2011 and worked at the Firms and Markets department, has successfully defended his dissertation at Technische Universität Berlin.His dissertation entitled “Productivity and Efficiency in Electricity Generation and Distribution", was supervised by Prof. Dr. Christian von Hirschhausen (DIW, TU Berlin) and Dr. Astrid Cullmann ...
14.10.2016
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Personnel news
Martin Johannes Bruns has been granted a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (SddV) from November 2016 on. The Dean of the GC, Prof. Lütkepohl, congratulates him on his success!
14.10.2016
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Report
On October 4, the DIW Graduate Center welcomed its new cohort through various events. In the morning, a detailed introduction to the doctoral program structure was organized to get newcomers familiar with the challenges and prospects in the coming years. Then the library, IT Department, Communications Department and Englisch editor presented their service fields in the afternoon. At the welcome reception ...
07.10.2016
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Press Release
A study by DIW Berlin shows that almost half the adult population of Germany believes helping EU countries in crisis is the right course of action—around 30 percent oppose it—cuts in welfare spending in the crisis countries are also criticized
Contrary to the image often presented, many people living in Germany support German aid for EU countries in financial crisis. In the second half ...
04.10.2016
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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