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Press Release
DIW study takes broader approach to expenditure on education: in addition to spending on child daycare services and schools, expenditure on non-formal educational provisions such as leisure activities is also captured – researchers recommend linking contributions to income
Families who spend money on their children’s education face a heavier financial burden, the lower their income: while ...
18.02.2015
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Press Release
Germany's draft bill to improve the benefits provided under the statutory pension insurance scheme (Gesetz über Leistungsverbesserungen in der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherungen) will entitle, in particular, those who have contributed for many years (at least 45) to retire early on a full pension (without any reductions to their pension payments) at the age of 63. The proposed reform is in stark ...
07.05.2014
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Press Release
According to current analyses based on the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), the total net assets of German households in 2012 amounted to 6.3 trillion euros. Almost 28 percent of the adult population had no or even negative net worth. On average, individual net worth in 2012 totaled more than 83,000 euros; that is slightly more than ten years previously. The degree of wealth inequality remained virtually ...
26.02.2014
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Press Release
As of 2005, and since 2008 in particular, child care provision for under-three-year-olds in Germany has been expanded across the board. We examine whether this expansion of services using evidence of a reduced burden on mothers and fathers with children in this age group has significantly increased these parents’ satisfaction with various areas of their lives. To shed more light on this issue, ...
12.12.2013
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Press Release
Today, Germany's citizens are happier on average than at any other point in time since reunification. Even though more than 20 years have passed, the average level of happiness in eastern Germany is still significantly lower than that in western Germany. This is demonstrated by the most recent long-term Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) data gathered by TNS Infratest Sozialforschung in collaboration ...
21.11.2013
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Press Release
The poor and the unemployed are politically less interested and active than persons above the poverty line and the working population. Compared to other European democracies, Germany shows above-average levels of inequality of political participation. Data from the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) suggest that this inequality has been increasing in the past three decades. The data also indicate ...
17.10.2013
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Press Release
A job loss has considerable negative consequences for those hit by unemployment. This is all the more relevant if families are affected. It not only relates to a family's financial situation: a mother losing her job can also impact on child development. A study conducted by DIW Berlin using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) shows that this is indeed the case as far as non-cognitive ...
14.08.2013
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Press Release
The article analyzes the question of whether career politicians differ systematically from the general population in terms of their attitudes toward risk. A written survey of members of the 17th German Bundestag in late 2011 identified their risk attitudes, and the survey data was set in relation to respondents to the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) for the survey year 2009 (2002 through 2012). ...
06.03.2013
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Press Release
Numerous people in Germany, including politicians and researchers, believe that the gross domestic product (GDP) is an outdated indicator of a society's prosperity. Therefore, at the end of 2010, the German Bundestag, the federal parliament, established a study commission (Enquete-Kommission) tasked with developing an alternative to the GDP for measuring growth, prosperity, and quality of life. This ...
01.03.2013
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Press Release
Young people tend to smoke more, do less sport, and are more frequently overweight, the lower their mother's school-leaving qualifications. This has been shown by a study conducted by DIW Berlin using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). At least some of these health-related differences can be causally attributed to the mother's education. Social differences are already reflected ...
30.01.2013
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Press Release
For many years, securing equal life opportunities has been a normative goal shared by all democratic societies in the western world. Although, in principle, all citizens enjoy the same rights, in reality, individual life opportunities still vary according to family background which, in turn, shapes the prevailing pattern of social inequality. This is not a specifically German phenomenon. Based on a ...
23.01.2013
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Press Release
Despite companies' commitment to more women in top-level management, at the end of 2012 only four percent of all seats on the executive boards and 12.9 percent on the supervisory boards of the top 200 companies in Germany were occupied by women. This corresponds to an increase of one percentage point on the previous year in both cases. Nevertheless, at the end of the year, the proportion of women ...
16.01.2013
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Press Release
Differing methods of calculation explain recent discrepancies between OECD/DIW Berlin poverty figures According to recent estimates by DIW Berlin, children and young adults were the group most severely affected by poverty in Germany in the year 2009. DIW Berlin rejects claims that it manipulated or withheld statistical data on poverty. “These accusations are false,” said Gert G. Wagner, ...
24.05.2011