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Personality in the Classroom: Interactions of Parental SES and Students’ Big Five in Predicting School Performance

While socioeconomic status (SES) and personality have both been identified as relevant predictors of academic achievement, little is known about their possible interplay in predicting school performance. The present study used the latent moderated structural equations (LMS) method to investigate latent interactions between familial SES and parent-rated Big Five in a sample of German high school students ...

Economic Insecurity: Trade Dependencies and Their Weaponization in History

Do trade dependencies leave countries vulnerable to geopolitical coercion? We study the economic costs of trade and financial sanctions, from 1920 to the present. We first develop a continuous measure of sanction intensity, using bilateral commodity-level data to calculate the importance of specific flows that fall under sanctions. We find that sanctions inflict relatively small costs on average: sanctioning ...

Hegemonic Globalization

How do shifts in the global balance of power shape the world economy? We propose a theory of alignment-based “hegemonic globalization,” built on two central premises: countries differ in their preferences over policies (such as the rule of law or regulatory frameworks) and trade between any two countries increases with the degree of alignment in these policies. Hegemons promote policy alignment and ...

Heat Monitor 2024: Following the Energy Crisis, Prices for Heating Energy Sources Are Developing Very Differently

In 2024, the heating energy demand of households in Germany remained at a similar level as in 2023. Thus, the heating energy savings achieved during the energy crisis were maintained, as data from real estate service provider ista SE show. Compared to 2023, CO₂ emissions fell by three percent after adjusting for temperature. Although heating energy prices rose on average by only 6.2 percent in 2024, ...

LIVESTREAM: Industrial policy and free trade – Managing tensions, exploiting synergies

Free, fair, and diversified trade plays a crucial role in the development of new technologies and thus also in the success of industrial and innovation policy strategies. Access to critical raw materials and other inputs, such as semiconductors or steel scrap, is often a prerequisite for the development of new technologies, including in the important areas of digitalization and decarbonization. At...

Social Media: Population Favors Regulation—but Ban Only for Those up to the Age of 12

Social media usage by children and young people is an increasingly controversial topic. The focus is on risks, opportunities, and possible regulations. Politicians from all relevant parties are now open to a social media ban up to a certain age; the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs has set up a commission of experts. Based on a short survey in the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), conducted in September ...

Majority of the population sees both risks and opportunities in social media

Beyond Overall Income Inequality: Racial Income Gaps and Health Disparities

In this paper, we combine Census data with death records to examine the relationship between income inequality and race-specific mortality across 5,565 municipalities in Brazil. We find that overall income inequality is strongly associated with Non-White mortality but not with White mortality. To understand this disparity, we decompose the Gini coefficient and find that the racial income gap accounts ...

Public Communication and Collusion: New Screening Tools for Competition Authorities

Competition authorities increasingly rely on economic screening tools to identify markets where firms deviate from competitive norms. Traditional screening methods assume that collusion occurs through secret agreements. However, recent research highlights that firms can use public announcements to coordinate decisions, thereby reducing competition while avoiding detection.We propose a novel approach ...

DIW Economic Outlook Spring 2026

German economy on the upswing—global economy continues to grow moderately German Economy Golbal Economy Links und Downloads German economy on recovery path after three years of subdued activity – pressures from Iran war and erratic U.S. trade policy only slightly slow growth The recovery continues to be driven by the domestic economy, while export-oriented industry is only gradually gaining momentum ...