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Press Release
In 2012, almost five million people, or roughly 10 percent of the labor force in Germany, worked from home most or some of the time. Of these home workers, 2.7 million were employees, i.e., eight percent of the labor force. It is primarily highly qualified employees such as managers, academics, lawyers, publicists, engineers, or teachers who work from home; the majority has a university degree. However, ...
19.02.2014
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Press Release
Member states of the euro area have been struggling with the legacies of the severe financial and economic crisis for four years now. But debt ratios are still rising. Negative primary balances, low growth, and low inflation do not allow for a recovery similar to the one in the US after the Second World War. Between 1946 and 1953, the US was able to almost halve its debt with no haircuts. The crisis ...
12.02.2014
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Press Release
To date, the European Union has been at the forefront of international climate protection. But there are now a number of other countries also pursuing a proactive energy and climate policy. They are increasingly investing in renewable energies, exploiting potential energy efficiencies in industry, buildings and transportation, and contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through carbon ...
05.02.2014
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Press Release
In the fall of 2013, DIW Berlin presented a study on minimum wages which was based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel Study for 2011. The data for 2012 have since become available. As expected, in terms of structures for employees with gross hourly earnings of less than 8.50 euros, i.e., those expected to receive the planned minimum wage, little has changed. These include, to an above-average degree, ...
29.01.2014
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Press Release
As part of the energy transition process, the German government has set far-reaching energy efficiency targets, including doubling the annual energy-efficient refurbishment rate for existing residential buildings from one to two percent. DIW Berlin has estimated the additional energy-related investment required to meet these targets and analyzed the impact this could have on the economy. In the long ...
22.01.2014
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Press Release
The trend toward more women on the boards of directors of German companies continued in 2013, albeit on a small scale. The share of women on the supervisory boards of the 200 largest companies increased by more than two percentage points, and thereby at a somewhat higher rate than in recent years, to just over 15 percent. The corresponding share of women on executive boards virtually stagnated at a ...
15.01.2014
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Press Release
In 2013 the German economy will grow at 0.4 percent which is below the growth rate of potential output. The output gap is 0.5 percent. In 2014 gross domestic product will expand at 1,6 percent and the output gap will nearly be closed. In 2015 the economy will grow above trend at a rate of 2 percent.
The pace of expansion of the world economy has accelerated in the third quarter. Advanced economies ...
18.12.2013
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Press Release
The 54 million vehicles in Germany drove almost 720 billion kilometers in 2012. To date, alternative drive systems and fuels have not achieved any notable success in terms of vehicle numbers or vehicle use. However, the diesel engine, which has higher emissions of air pollutants, is gaining ground: diesel vehicles now constitute 29 percent of all passenger vehicles and 43 percent of all kilometers ...
16.12.2013
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Press Release
As of 2005, and since 2008 in particular, child care provision for under-three-year-olds in Germany has been expanded across the board. We examine whether this expansion of services using evidence of a reduced burden on mothers and fathers with children in this age group has significantly increased these parents’ satisfaction with various areas of their lives. To shed more light on this issue, ...
12.12.2013
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Press Release
Since 2010, housing prices in Germany have been growing on average by 6 percent a year. During the same period, the rents have been increasing by 4 percent, which is significantly slower than the housing prices, but substantially faster than the consumer prices. This is one of the results of the DIW Berlin study that examines the housing price dynamics in 71 large German cities. The largest rent increases ...
05.12.2013
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Press Release
Recently, the number of immigrants to Germany, especially from the eastern and southeastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 or 2007, has risen sharply. In addition, migration from southern Europe has regained importance. Many migrants have come to take up some training, the vast majority, however, for employment. These migration flows are having distinct effects on the recent development ...
05.12.2013
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Press Release
There is an ongoing discussion about whether the German electricity market offers sufficient incentives for investment in power plants and for keeping them connected to the grid, thus ensuring sufficient security of supply. Recommendations for further securing power supply include payments, some of them comprehensive, to power plant operators - in addition to energy revenues and based on their generating ...
29.11.2013
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Press Release
Today, Germany's citizens are happier on average than at any other point in time since reunification. Even though more than 20 years have passed, the average level of happiness in eastern Germany is still significantly lower than that in western Germany. This is demonstrated by the most recent long-term Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) data gathered by TNS Infratest Sozialforschung in collaboration ...
21.11.2013
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Press Release
Following a decline last year and stagnation in 2013, the construction industry's economic prospects for 2014 are looking noticeably brighter. DIW Berlin expects more than six percent nominal growth for construction in Germany, or four percent in real terms, primarily as a result of persistently brisk residential construction activity and recovery in public-sector building. The core construction industry ...
20.11.2013
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Press Release
According to current survey results the reconciliation of family and work is still very difficult for a lot of parents. Most parents seek to share gainful employment and family duties more equally. Yet, financial incentives often favor the conventional single- or one and a halfearner model. In a study commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Hans Bockler Foundation DIW Berlin has investigated ...
13.11.2013
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Press Release
OPEC countries has benefited from the increase of oil prices in the past few years. Except the worldwide crisis 2008/2009 the demand of oil from OPEC countries was high stabilizing the cohesion within the OPEC. However, this might change in the future: Worldwide demand may not grow as fast as assumed in actual projections due to reduction of subsidies for oil consumption or other demand restricting ...
06.11.2013
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Press Release
Since the beginning of the crisis, large Target 2 positions developed on the balance sheets of the national central banks in the euro area. At the height of this development in the middle of 2012, the German Bundesbank disclosed Target-claims vis-à-vis the ECB amounting to around 750 billion euro. Since then, the balances decreased and currently amount to 570 billion Euro, which is still considerably ...
30.10.2013
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Press Release
Project Group Joint Economic Forecast
Completed in Essen on 15 October 2013
Economy Picking Up – Put Budget Surpluses To Good Use
The German economy is on the verge of an upturn driven by domestic demand. The improving global economic climate and decreasing uncertainty are fuelling investment. Private consumption is benefitting from favourable employment and income prospects. Real gross domestic ...
17.10.2013
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Press Release
The poor and the unemployed are politically less interested and active than persons above the poverty line and the working population. Compared to other European democracies, Germany shows above-average levels of inequality of political participation. Data from the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) suggest that this inequality has been increasing in the past three decades. The data also indicate ...
17.10.2013
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Press Release
The Chinese model for economic growth is further transforming. While the rise in output was heavily based on investment and export activities in recent decades, private consumption is expected to become a driver for growth in the period ahead. However, the conditions for higher consumer demand of private households are not optimal: The savings rate is high, particularly driven by the low level of social ...
09.10.2013