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Interview
Dr. König, the Agreement on Net Financial Assets (ANFA) was drawn up to prevent conflict between the NCBs and the European Central Bank (ECB) over monetary policy. What exactly is the background to this agreement?
ANFA limits the national central banks’ purchases of financial assets and securities in order to ensure effective implementation of the single monetary policy in the euro area. [...]
The ...
29.03.2016
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Press Release
DIW Berlin’s forecast: GDP to rise by 1.6 percent in 2016 – robust labor market, wage increases, and refugee expenditure fueling consumption – investment and global economy inhibiting growth
According to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), the German economy is expected to grow by 1.6 percent this year, despite a gloomy global economy. This prognosis is similar ...
16.03.2016
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Interview
Mr. Junker, what kind of growth should we expect for the German economy?
The German economy is expected to grow by 1.6 percent this year, which is a bit weaker than we had forecasted this past winter. This slight downward revision is primarily due to the fact that industry experienced a weak phase over the past six months, especially in the final quarter of 2015. The major reason for this was ...
16.03.2016
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Report
The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is the cornerstone of the European Union’s climate policy and covers just under half of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. More than ten years since the EU ETS was first introduced, there continues to be substantial research interest regarding its functioning and the behavior of participating companies. DIW Berlin conducted three econometric studies ...
10.03.2016
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Interview
Dr. Zaklan, you have studied company behavior in the EU Emissions Trading System. What differences can be seen in how companies handle emissions allowances?
Large companies participate more actively in emissions trading than smaller enterprises. We established this on the basis of older data. In a second study, we were able to show that for small installations, the way in which allowances are allocated ...
10.03.2016
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Press Release
SOEP special analysis for International Women's Day (March 8) reveals that the gender-based division of household labor persists – DIW Research Director Elke Holst calls for stronger, fairer division of unpaid work in the household among couples – a family working-time benefits model (Familienarbeitszeit) and daycare expansion would also support this development
On average, women in dual-income ...
07.03.2016
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Personnel news
Felix Arnold has sucessfully defended his dissertation on January 22th at the Free University of Berlin.
Prof. Dr. Gerd G. Wagner and Prof. Dr. Helmut Lütkepohl congratulate him on his success!
02.03.2016
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Press Release
One out of every three workers would prefer to work from home, but only one out of every eight actually does – Germany’s proportion of home workers lags behind that of other European countries – home workers are more satisfied with their jobs – reconciling career and family is not the primary motive
In Germany, only twelve percent of all employees work primarily or even partially ...
29.02.2016
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Report
The majority of OECD member states promote companies’ research and development (R&D) activities by providing project funding. Recently, in many countries, tax incentives have also begun to play an increasingly important role. The present study examines the level of R&D support in 18 OECD countries and explores how efficient the system of funding actually is. The main findings show that ...
29.02.2016
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Interview
Mr. Brenke, you’ve been conducting research on working from home in Germany. DIW Berlin produced a similar study two years ago. What distinguishes the recent study from the previous one?
The main difference is that we now have data on how many people would actually be able to work from home, given their employment conditions. We didn’t have this information last time. Of course, someone ...
29.02.2016
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Press Release
European Central Bank (ECB) supports prices, economic activity, and inflation expectations through unconventional measures both in the euro area as a whole and in Germany - but the measures are likely to raise wealth inequality in the short termThe ECB’s ultra-loose monetary policy aimed at easing the financial and debt crisis is making an impact. Prices and GDP have been shored up and inflation ...
17.02.2016
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Interview
Prof. Bernoth, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to implement a large-scale bond purchasing program in January 2015 to avert the risk of deflation in the euro area. To what extent might these bond purchases also affect wealth distribution?
Considerable wealth distribution effects may occur through the impact channels of monetary policy because interest rate changes introduced by the central ...
17.02.2016
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Press Release
Proportion of tutored students nearly twice as high as 15 years ago – household income becoming a less influential factor – parental migration background no longer determines participation – nevertheless, educational inequalities persist
More and more schoolchildren in Germany are using private tutoring: 47 percent of the 17-year-olds who were interviewed between 2009 and 2013 reported ...
10.02.2016
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Interview
How much are German schoolchildren being tutored?
The usage of tutoring in Germany is noteworthy. Among secondary school students, 18 percent reported having been tutored in the past 6 months. Among primary school students, it’s clearly much lower, at 6 percent. However, it’s remarkable that even first-graders report that they have received tutoring. [...]
The full interview with C. ...
10.02.2016
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Report
We happily announce that the doctoral students across all cohorts have elected their new 2016 Student’s Representatives. It was a tight race, with Marie LeMouel and Marica Valente coming out on top!
This is Marcia’s first term and Marie’s second – and we wish them all the best as they bring their keen sense of the issues important to the GC students, as well as continued good ...
10.02.2016
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Press Release
DIW Berlin experts estimate annual value of inheritances and gifts to be between 200 and 300 billion euros – high levels of inequality due to heavy concentration of wealth and largely tax-free transfers of big businesses – experts recommend reducing tax privileges and imposing limited tax rates for business transfers
In 2009, tax privileges for transfers of businesses were expanded; the ...
01.02.2016
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Report
by Stefan Bach and Andreas Thiemann
Compared to the rest of Europe, Germany exhibits an especially high concentration of wealth. According to estimates based on a microsimulation model, a German wealth tax could generate an estimated ten to 20 billion euros per year in revenue—even with high tax allowances—and slightly reduce the inequality of income distribution, as well. Collection ...
28.01.2016
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Interview
Dr. Bach, what is the real net worth of German households and how is this wealth distributed?
German households have a real net worth of 8.6 trillion euros. This massive wealth is very highly concentrated and is equivalent to around two and a half times the country’s GDP. We estimate that the richest one percent of the population own 32 percent of total assets and the wealthiest 0.1 percent ...
28.01.2016
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Report
by Elke Holst and Anja Kirsch
In 2015, the share of women in the top decision-making bodies of the financial sector increased once again but men remain in the overwhelming majority and thus continue to call the shots. At the end of 2015, women made up just under eight percent of executive board members of the 100 largest banks in Germany. The corresponding figure for the 59 largest insurance companies ...
21.01.2016
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Press Release
Researchers analyzed more than 500 companies – some are setting a good example, while others are lagging behind – vast majority of companies have yet to meet the 30-percent quota for women on supervisory boards
A balanced representation of women and men in Germany’s corporate leadership roles is still a long way off: At the end of 2015, the proportion of women on the executive boards ...
20.01.2016