Research Projects

The economic and social impact of COVID-19 mitigation policies: A cross-country analysis of macro events

The project will explore the economic and social effects the mitigation policies and information environment that COVID-19 spawned. We will link those policies to data from ongoing household-based panel studies from 10 countries and rich administrative data from an eleventh. We will exploit the substantial intra and inter-country temporal and geographic variation in non-pharmacological...

The effect of the low nominal interest rate environment on household investment behavior

The objective of the project is to analyze the effects of long enduring low interest rates on household investment behavior, setting a special focus on the stock market participation of German and US households. In particular, we address four questions within the project. Did the low interest rate environment induced more households to enter the stock market? How does a low interest rate...

The impact of housing and land-use regulations on the formation of speculative house price bubbles: international evidence

This project raises the question of how rental housing market and land-use regulations affect the build-up of the speculative house price bubbles that often lead to financial system instability and deep recessions. The study focuses on the OECD countries. Specifically, the project examines the impact of the rent control, protection of tenants from eviction, housing rationing, and land-use...

The Linked Employer-Employee Study of the Socio-Economic Panel, Vers. 2 (SOEP-LEE 2)

The Linked Employer-Employee Study of the Socio-Economic Panel was first conducted in 2012 and is now entering its second round. The focus of SOEP-LEE2 is on longer-term changes in labor relations in the context of ongoing digitalization. In this context, the project examines how the corona pandemic has affected human resources management and leadership. A key feature of the study is the linkage...

The Provision of External Expertise in the Field of Monetary and Financial Affairs (Monetary Expert Panel)

The role of energy taxation and prices for the clean energy transition, Lot 1

This project analyses different fiscal and non-fiscal charges on energy carriers and aims to provide better knowledge to the degree to which combined/final price signals (including taxes, levies, and subsidies) could impact levels of energy consumption and energy-related investments (and notably whether there is a risk of “path dependency” in the energy transition).

The role of energy taxation and prices for the clean energy transition, Lot 2

This project analyses the energy-related impacts of a possible EU carbon border adjustment and aims to answer the question how the absence or presence influences the outlook of the energy system in Europe (both on the supply and demand side) against the global dynamics.

The role of inherited wealth for wealth inequality in Germany

In this project, a top-corrected wealth distribution is estimated on the basis of the inheritance tax statistics and the SOEP. We analyze the concentration of wealth, the portfolios of the wealthy, the importance of inherited wealth, the gender inheritance gap and the gender wealth gap as well as reactions to inheritance taxation.

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Unequal ageing: life-expectancy, care needs and reforms to the welfare state

The main objective of this project is to analyse how inequalities in old age have developed over time and birth cohorts, to what extent public policies have influenced these trends, and to assess the potential of sociopolitical reforms to reduce such inequalities. This project analyses and compares data and sociopolitical reforms (retirement and longterm care) from North America (Canada), Western...

Vaccine hesitancy: Exploring the role of temporal and cross-country variation in COVID

We propose to use new survey data to investigate factors that explain whether and why individuals either did not get a COVID-19 vaccine shot or chose to delay getting one. While we examine hesitancy about the COVID-19 vaccine, our study will yield broader insights. Our project has many strengths. In fifteen countries, we will use internationally-harmonized data on individual vaccination behavior...

Video-interviewing as part of a targeted multi-mode design in household panel surveys (CALVI)

To ensure continued survey participation and data quality, the survey landscape must adapt to the changing social reality, especially with regard to mobility and digitalization. This requires survey researchers to move from one-size-fits-all solutions to a data collection strategy that takes into account people's communication habits, abilities and preferences. For several decades, computer...

Wealth-Holders at the Top (WATT): An Interdisciplinary Research Network

How much do Germany’s top wealth holders own in assets? What are their socio-demographic and psychological characteristics? How do the rich get rich in the first place? And how involved are they in civic and political activities? The project Wealth-Holders at the Top (WATT) seeks to answer these key questions. The aim is to understand the extent, causes, and consequences of economic inequalities....

WEALTHTRAJECT: Understanding Trajectories of Wealth Accumulation and Their Variability

As part of the ERC Consolidator Grant WEALTHTRAJECT, Philipp Lersch will break new ground in wealth research over the next five years, and further expand the range of high quality data collection by SOEP. WEALTHTRAJECT is the first project to comprehensively and systematically investigate diversity in long-term wealth trajectories within and between social groups. The starting point of the...

WinIt – Scientific Analyses of Industrial Transformation

The project deals with scientific questions on industrial transformation towards a climate-neutral and resilient economy, covering the entire breadth of this topic. Questions on industrial transformation in Germany and beyond are formulated with a view to the EU's energy and climate policy instruments. The approach applies scientific methods throughout.  The background to the project is the very...

Work and disability in old age: restriction and incentives

We conduct a stated preference experiment to analyze the effects of pension incentives, increasing retirement age, and provision of a partial retirement scheme on individuals’ preferences to work parttime and full-time beyond the early and legal retirement ages. We conduct the experiment in Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, and the United States for an international comparative analysis.

Expert Studies on Fundamental Issues of Public Finance, Taxation, and Economic Policy

After being commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Finance, researchers at DIW Berlin and the ifo Institute prepare short-term expert reports and analyses on national, European and international financial, tax and fiscal policy issues.

Expert Studies on Fundamental Issues of Public Finance, Taxation, and Economic Policy

After being commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Finance, researchers at DIW Berlin and the ifo Institute prepare short-term expert reports and analyses on national, European and international financial, tax and fiscal policy issues.

Labor Market and Welfare Effects of Family Policy – A Microsimulation Study für Germany

The aim of this research project was to empirically analyze the incentive as well as welfare effects of different family policy reforms that have been discussed in the past years. The starting point for this study is a detailed analysis of the current system of family support and its effects on household labor supply and welfare. The challenge in this empirical analysis is the adequate modelling...

Leibniz ScienceCampus Berlin Centre for Consumer Policies (BCCP)

Promoting consumers’ rights, prosperity, and wellbeing are core values of the European Union. A wide array of laws, institutions, and regulations – which can be generally termed as consumer policies – aim at protecting consumers by ensuring adequate and truthful information in the marketplace as well as preventing firms from engaging in unfair and competition-impairing practices. While some of...