After the outbreak of the global financial crisis, some governments in the EU experienced serious fiscal problems, while others were less affected. This paper seeks to shed light on the divergent fiscal performance in the EU countries before and after the outbreak of the crisis. Fiscal reaction functions of the primary balance are estimated for different groups of EU countries using quarterly data ...
Sarah Dahmann, a doctoral student of the German Socio-Economic Panel department, was awarded the "Sir Alec Cairncross Award" for her paper "How Does Education Improve Cognitive Skills? Instructional Time versus Timing of Instruction" at the 2016 Annual Conference of the Scottish Economic Society. The prize was handed over to Sarah by nobel lauterate Sir Christopher Pissarides.
We live in a time of increasing publication rates and specialization of scientific disciplines. More and more, the research community is facing the challenge of assuring the quality of research and maintaining trust in the scientific enterprise. Replication studies are necessary to detect erroneous research. Thus, the replicability of research is considered a hallmark of good scientific practice and ...
The estimation of over- and underemployment in Germany is normally based on data of Mikrozensus (Ehing 2014: 4) or of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). However, the results differ and may lead to different political conclusions. A recent publication of the Statistisches Bundesamt (Rengers 2015), which is based on the Mikrozensus 2014, points out that for 9.3 percent of the overall labour force...
DIW Berlin claims that the US Federal Reserve’s decision to end its zero interest-rate policy has not caused turbulence in financial markets According to a recent analysis conducted by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), the interest rate lift-off introduced by the US Federal Reserve at the end of last year has not led to distortions in the financial markets. Financing costs ...
Energy sectors—primarily power generation and gas production, but also energy transmission and distribution—require significant capital investment in infrastructure. Market structures as well as the degree of competition and regulation are key factors that determine firms’ incentive to invest. Yet the empirical research on the link between these factors and private investment is still ...
Mr. Fratzscher, there are concerns about an overall lack of investment in Germany. Is the problem more urgent in the public sector or in the private sector? The investment gap exists in both the public and private sector. Three years ago, we calculated that Germany’s investment gap amounts to roughly 75 billion euros per year. The investment gap has also been confirmed by ...
Although the federal government has been taking steps to strengthen investment in Germany, it remains considerably low. This includes private investment, on which thepresent study focuses. German companies are barely investing more than they did before the crisis, but this is not the case elsewhere: in the US, for example, the level of investment is nearly 14 percent higher than it was in 2007. One ...
