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Number of Women on Boards of Large Firms Increasing Slowly; Legal Requirements Could Provide Momentum

The proportion of women on the boards of large companies in Germany continued to increase during 2020. In the fourth quarter of 2020, there were 101 female executive board members in the 200 largest companies, seven more than in 2019. However, growth was slow, as it was in some of the other groups of companies as well: The proportion of women on the executive boards of the top 200 companies (around ...

Gender Diversity Benefits Supervisory Board Work of Many Companies

Over the past years, the proportion of women on the supervisory boards of major companies in Germany has increased. As this second report in the DIW Women Executives Barometer 2021 shows, this has a meaningful, positive impact on the supervisory boards of many companies, and affects interactions between members, discussions, and decision-making. These findings are based on qualitative interviews with ...

Psychological Distress among Refugees in Germany: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Individual and Contextual Risk Factors and Potential Consequences for Integration Using a Nationally Representative Survey

Objectives Responding to the mental health needs of refugees remains a pressing challenge worldwide. We estimated the prevalence of psychological distress in a large refugee population in Germany and assessed its association with host country factors amenable to policy intervention and integration indicators.Design A cross-sectional and population- based secondary analysis of the 2017 wave of the IAB- ...

Crisis Impact on the Diversity of Financial Portfolios: Evidence from European Citizens

Since the 2008 Lehman bankruptcy, it is clearly shown that global economic and financial crises present major challenges to private households, requiring from them, a high level of shock absorption capacity. According to the old adage, “Do not put all the eggs in one basket”, resilience depends, to a large extent on financial diversification. So far, especially for Europe, little is known about whether ...

Mothers in Eastern and Western Germany: Employment Rates and Attitudes Are Converging, Full-Time Employment is Not

Work and family life arrangements differed greatly between the east and west before German reunification in 1990. Since reunification, however, the employment rates of mothers with children requiring childcare have converged. This trend is accompanied by a growing approval of maternal employment, especially in western Germany. However, differences in actual working hours remain. Mothers in the east ...

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Application Schedule Detailed Requirements Scholarships & Fees FAQs Join DIW-GC! Statement against discrimination, sexual harassment and abuse of power Application Documents Start of the next application period (intake 2027): mid-October 2026 (exact date tba) Deadline for applications: mid-January 2027 (exact date tba)  Please note that applications may only be sent during the application ...

The Economic Costs of Hybrid Wars: The Case of Ukraine

With more than ten thousand casualties, the ongoing hybrid Ukrainian war between pro-Russian separatists and the government in the Donbass region, Ukraine’s productive core, has taken a severe toll on the country. Using cross-country panel data over the period 1995–2017, this paper estimates the causal effects of the Donbass war on Ukraine’s GDP. Our counterfactual estimation by the synthetic control ...

Hartz and Minds: Happiness Effects of Reforming an Employment Agency

Since the labor market reforms around 2005, known as the Hartz reforms, Germany has experienced declining unemployment rates. However, little is known about the reforms’ effect on individual life satisfaction of unemployed workers. This study applies difference-in-difference estimations and finds a decrease in life satisfaction after the reforms that is more pronounced for male unemployed in west Germany. ...

SOEPnewsletter 2020-10

Population Decline Creating Constant Pressure on Eastern German States and Municipalities on the Expenditure Side

As the German constitution aims for equal living conditions, a huge number of political measures to enhance the conditions in the new states were undertaken after unification (known as the “Aufbau Ost”). In the new states, expenditure per capita rose significantly over the average expenditure of the old states and their municipalities and huge budget deficits occurred. Beginning in the mid-1990s, expenditure ...