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Weekly Report 2 / 2010
In January 2009, the supply of natural gas from Russia via the Ukrainian pipeline system was interrupted for nearly two weeks. Particularly the countries in Southeastern Europe were ill-prepared for such an event. Disputes regarding both the payment of natural gas supplies and transit rights between Russia and Ukraine have recently flared up again, which gives rise to the question of whether the EU ...
2010| Hella Engerer, Manfred Horn, Anne Neumann
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Weekly Report 1 / 2010
Experts on investments and financial products assume that women are less amenable to risks and therefore put their money into secure investment products. A current study conducted by the DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research) challenges this view. The study demonstrates that men and women are equally likely to take a chance on risky investments - assuming that they have the same financial ...
2010| Oleg Badunenko, Nataliya Barasinska, Dorothea Schäfer
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Weekly Report 33 / 2009
In Germany, two statistics examine the development and structure of public funding for research and development (R&D) in the private sector of the economy: the R&D statistics of the so-called "Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft - SV", a joint initiative of German industries to promote science an higher education (SV), and, secondly, the statistics of the "Bundesministerium für Bildung und ...
2009| Alexander Eickelpasch, Christoph Grenzmann
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Weekly Report 22 / 2009
In spite of the sharp decline of crude oil prices since the fall of 2008, the current price level of approximately $65 per barrel is significantly higher than the long-term average. The market power of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which is partially responsible for this price level, remains strong. While market prices for commodities such as coal are typically reflecting ...
2009| Christian von Hirschhausen, Franziska Holz, Daniel Huppmann, Claudia Kemfert
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Weekly Report 20 / 2009
According to conservative calculations, over $580 billion was spent worldwide on environmental goods and services and renewable energy technologies1 in 2004. So-called "green spending" is set for strong growth in the future on account of the long-term expansion of the global economy and mounting environmental challenges. Significant opportunities for growth and employment in Germany are also offered ...
2009| Jürgen Blazejczak, Frauke G. Braun, Dietmar Edler
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Weekly Report 16 / 2009
Germany's economic profile gives reason to believe that the country will emerge strengthened from the current economic crisis. Germany boasts the world's highest share of value-added output attributable to (R&D) intensive goods and knowledge intensive services. At the same time, Germany possesses an extremely broad range of economic sectors that rely on R&D intensive goods and knowledge intensive services. ...
2009| Heike Belitz, Marius Clemens, Martin Gornig
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Weekly Report 13 / 2009
With Germany's banking sector still suffering from the effects of the financial crisis, public discussion of plans to place toxic assets in one or more bad banks has gained steam in recent weeks. The following paper presents a bad bank plan from the German Institute for Economic Research. The key element of the plan is the valuation of troubled assets at their current market value - assets with no ...
2009| Dorothea Schäfer, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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Weekly Report 7 / 2009
Since the summer of 2007, participants in financial markets have been confronted by a crisis of their own making. In order to prevent the recurrence of a similar crisis in the future, the G-20 nations, at their finance summit in Washington on 15 November 2008, resolved to "ensure that all financial markets, products and participants are regulated or subject to oversight, as appropriate to their circumstances." ...
2009| Dorothea Schäfer
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Weekly Report 2 / 2009
The broadest possible diversification of investments is considered an important strategy for minimizing investment risk. Most households in Germany do distribute their financial assets over several types of investment. However, investment behavior is only partially consistent with the overall readiness for risk-taking reported by heads of households. This is demonstrated by a current empirical study ...
2009| Nataliya Barasinska, Dorothea Schäfer, Andreas Stephan
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Weekly Report 15 / 2008
An analysis of patent applications filed with the European Patent Office reveals that German companies primarily expand their research activities abroad in high-tech sectors in which they already conduct long-term intensive research. These sectors are: electrical engineering, control technology, engines, pumps, turbines, thermal processes, mechanical components, and transport. German R&D internationalization ...
2008| Heike Belitz, Jens Schmidt-Ehmcke, Petra Zloczysti