The dynamic recent development of asset prices, especially of real estate since 2010, and the widening wealth gap have sparked renewed public debate on the topic of wealth accumulation. Yet the existing literature leaves important questions about wealth accumulation unanswered: How great is the disparity in capital gains between rural and urban real estate owners? What are the drivers of wealth...
Background: The present study aims to delineate the role of preexisting depression for changes in common mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Using mixed-effects linear regression models, we analyzed data on the course of depressive (Patient Health Questionnaire-2) and anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2) symptoms as well as loneliness (three-item UCLA Loneliness Scale) ...
We analyse a measure of loneliness from a representative sample of German individuals interviewed in both 2017 and at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Both men and women felt lonelier during the COVID-19 pandemic than they did in 2017. The pandemic more than doubled the gender loneliness gap: women were lonelier than men in 2017, and the 2017-2020 rise in loneliness was far larger for ...
In response to strong revenue and income losses that a large share of the self-employed faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the German federal government introduced a €50bn emergency aid program. Based on real-time online-survey data comprising more than 20,000 observations, we analyze the impact of this program on the subjective survival probability. In particular, we investigate how the digitalization ...
The effects of the climate crisis are worsening water shortages, not only in the Global South but also in Europe, for example in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Due to inadequate pricing of surface and groundwater abstraction and a lack of regulatory instruments, water overuse is occurring in some regions of Germany. Overuse is especially an issue for industry, which has contractually secured high volumes ...
Over 90 percent of Germany’s raw materials supply is imported and many of these imports come from only a small handful of producer countries. Often, these producer countries tend to be less democratic. In this respect, supply risks are extremely high in some cases, including for mineral raw materials such as rare-earth elements, lithium, and magnesium. To increase raw material import security of supply, ...
The building sector plays a major role when it comes to meeting climate targets. An analysis by DIW Berlin based on data from energy provider ista SE shows that in the past two years both the temperature-adjusted heat consumption in German multi-apartment buildings and the temperature-adjusted CO2 emissions have dropped slightly. As positive as this decrease is—despite the increase in homeworking due ...
