DIW Weekly Report

Markedly More Women on Executive Boards Of Large Companies; Inclusion Requirement Seemingly Already Having an Effect

There was a significant increase in the number of women on executive boards of large companies in Germany from 2020 to 2021 after years of slow progress: In fall 2021, there were 139 women on the executive boards of the 200 largest companies, 38 more than in 2020. This is an increase of a good three percentage points to almost 15 percent, the largest seen since the beginning of the DIW Berlin Women ...

Executive Boards Remain Dominated By Men, but Change Is Finally Coming: Editorial

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Construction Industry: High Price Momentum Continues, Industry Performing Well Despite COVID-19

Sales in the construction industry will continue to increase strongly in 2022 and 2023. Overall, DIW Berlin estimates a nominal increase in construction volume of almost 13 percent in 2022 and six percent in 2023 to 585 billion euros. In 2021, construction volume increased by ten percent to 488 billion euros, which is around 15 percent of GDP. This shows that construction demand remains at a high level ...

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Universal Capital Endowment and Wealth Taxes Could Reduce Wealth Inequality

Wealth is very unequally distributed in Germany. To effect a long-term reduction, the new Federal Government could focus on more effectively promoting home ownership, supplementary retirement provision, and other precautionary savings. However, a universal capital endowment could decrease wealth inequality much more rapidly and successfully. In this report, a universal capital endowment of up to 20,000 ...

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Artificial Intelligence in Germany: Employees Often Unaware They Are Working with AI-Based Systems

Using a new SOEP-IS data module on digitalization including information on the prevalence of AI use in the workplace, this report shows that the term “artificial intelligence” often remains inscrutable in the day-to-day work of many employees. When asked directly about the use of digital systems with the term “artificial intelligence,” around 20 percent of the working respondents in the sample indicate ...

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Nuclear Turn: Closing Down Nuclear Power Plants Opens up Prospects for the Final Repository Site Search

With the closure of the final six nuclear power plants, the commercial use of nuclear energy for electricity generation in Germany will come to an end in 2022. Due to the German power system's sufficient capacities—in 2020, the sector exported 20 terawatt hours (TWh), or about four percent of its electricity production—and its integration into the European electricity system, there is no reason to ...

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Income Inequality in Germany Temporarily Sinks During Crises

This study is the first to investigate the interdependence of income inequality and business cycles in Germany over the past 40 years. These fluctuations in income inequality are important because they are decisive for designing effective and targeted structural redistributive and stabilization measures. The results of this study show that income inequality in Germany fluctuates with the business cycle ...

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Need for Long-Term Care Depends on Social Standing

The poor have a significantly shorter life expectancy than the wealthy. Using data from the Socio-Economic Panel, this Weekly Report shows that poorer people become in need of care earlier in life and more often. In addition, blue-collar workers have a higher risk of requiring care than civil servants, as do people with high job strain compared to those with low job strain. The risk of dependence on ...

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An Effective Federal Climate Change Act Needs Leading Indicators

To reach the climate targets, the course towards a climate-neutral society must be set now. However, the current monitoring instruments in the Climate Change Act do not provide sufficient information to policymakers and society on the effectiveness of policy instruments and programs, as they focus exclusively on greenhouse gas reduction targets, which are subject to uncertainty. Moreover, they only ...

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Inflation in the Euro Area: Factors Mostly Have Only a Temporary Effect, but Risk of Prolonged Elevated Inflation Remains

Headline inflation in the euro area jumped to more than three percent in the summer after years of relatively low inflation rates well below the target of close to but below two percent set by the ECB until July 2021. One of the main reasons for the rise in inflation is the increase in energy prices since the beginning of 2021. However, there are further indications that inflation in the euro area ...

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20 Years of the Riester Pension - Personal Retirement Provision Requires Reform

Introduced 20 years ago as a part of the 2001 pension reform, the Riester pension is meant to function as an essential component of the German pension system with the aim of compensating for decreasing public pensions. However, data collected by the SOEP show that this objective has not yet been achieved. For ten years, use of the Riester pension plan has been stagnating at around 25 percent of the ...