The Covid-19 pandemic caused a global economic crisis, leading governments to provide substantial State Aid to support firms. This paper examines the effectiveness of Covid-related financial support in Spain and Italy, focusing on its impact on firm recovery. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach combined with propensity score weighting, it compares outcomes of similar firms receiving aid ...
Martin Kittel, Research Associate in the Energy, Transportation, Environment Department, successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Five Essays in Energy System Analysis - Exploring the Dunkelflaute and Unintended Storage Cycling” on January 27, 2025. The scientific reviewers were Tom Brown, Claudia Kemfert, and Wolf-Peter Schill. Congratulations!
Gender inequality remains a pressing issue in our society. Women are underrepresented in many decision-making positions and the gender pay gap remains at 16%. Whether or how language contributes to forming and transporting gender stereotypes has sparked intense scientific and public debate. In German, masculine role nouns are still often used in a generic sense to address people of unknown gender ...
This project investigates the underlying causes of gender gaps in the labor market, emphasizing skill mismatches, task divisions, social norms, and implicit gender biases. By employing quasi- and survey-experimental methods with data from Germany and OECD countries, the research examines policies like parental leave and public child care. It explores the effects of these factors on skill...
The PhD Summer School on Economic Foundations for Energy and Climate Policies is part of a series organised jointly by a consortium of institutions including DIW Berlin, Technical University Berlin, Université Libre de Bruxelles, EUI-Florence School of Regulation, University College London, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. This year, DIW Berlin, TU Berlin, and...
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was accompanied by a significant reduction of its gas supply to Europe, causing sharp energy price surges and prompting governments to respond with public appeals and programs aimed at reducing consumption. This paper investigates the effects of price increases and non-monetary factors, such as public appeals and saving programs, on residential energy savings during ...
