Common ownership - when an investor holds shares in two companies - has recently attracted significant attention from policy-makers and researchers, studying mainly US firms. European firms, however, are different as top investors with large stakes, like governments, founding families and foundations are much more prevalent. This paper takes a well-known common ownership measure derived from theory, "lambda," capturing managerial incentives, and compares its implications for S&P Europe 350 firms to those of the S&P 500.

We provide a description of ownership patterns in the top 25 European banks for the period 2003–2015, where we especially focus on the global financial crisis. Investment managers, such as Blackrock, are dominant in terms of number of block holdings in different banks, maintaining fairly stable “common ownership” networks throughout our sample. However, the financial crisis led to a jump in holdings by governments, individuals and corporations, which typically are “non-common owners” (i.e., they hold only shares in only one bank). This jump translated into these investors temporarily being the top investor with a large share, and non-common owners being the majority among large shareholders. A brief comparison with US banks uncovers large ownership differences between the European and US banking sectors. We briefly discuss what these ownership patterns might imply for competition, stability and performance in the banking industry.

The German Socio-Economic Panel Study is a representative panel study for the German population, collecting data on a broad variety of topics of everyday life, including general wellbeing, household composition, educational aspirations and educational status, income and occupational biographies, leisure time activities, housing, health, political orientation and more. With its long running panel structure, the breadth of topics and the representative nature of the data, the SOEP has become a central resources for quantitative research in the social sciences in Germany.

How are individual and collective memories of extreme economic moments produced in a community? How do these memories translate into the political economy and shape the realm of possibility of macroeconomic policies? Why is some statistical data and economic policy represented more factual than other in the historical narration of national economies? How do some economic indicators become more powerful symbolic frameworks than others and receive different degrees of affective intensity? How can methods and key concepts of memory studies inform and enrich the historical and economics analysis related to these questions?

The 2nd annual Workshop for Women in Macroeconomics, Finance and Economic History is being organized by the DIW Berlin. The aim is to bring together female academic researchers and practitioners to promote and exchange ideas in the field of Macroeconomics, Finance, and Economic History. We invite contributions, including, but not limited to macroeconomic and financial stability, interactions between monetary policy and financial regulation, institutional change and capital market integration, and studies dealing with expectations and experience. The conference will facilitate and support the formation of professional networks among female economists across academia and policy institutions.

After failing to fully recover from the last financial crisis, the pandemic poses major new challenges for banks. However, this time, banks are not the problem, but part of the solution. By providing credit to the economy, banks play a crucial role in fighting the pandemic by ensuring the transmission of fiscal and monetary stimulus to the economy. Nevertheless, banks are not among the winners of the pandemic, suffering from a drop in interest rates and from increased provisions for non-performing loans.   

In addition, the financial sector is still undergoing a profound transformation process. The regulatory environment remains a headwind for financial institutions, and new technologies are changing the rules of the game. Populism and political and geopolitical uncertainties create additional challenges, curtailing investment and risk-taking. Finally, the ever-increasing focus for investors and corporations alike on topics around ESG – environmental, social and governance – and sustainability brings with it a whole new set of challenges and opportunities that need to be navigated. An important element in successfully tackling these challenges is a healthy corporate culture that allows for the necessary change to happen – including an increase in female representation and a better gender balance in corporate board rooms.

This conference will present an outlook on these developments and their implications for the financial services industry and economies at large, primarily presented by leading female exponents of the financial services industry as well as key public authorities.

Today, half of the world’s migrants are female, amounting to 114 million individuals in 2017. The intersection between migration and gender has profound consequences for individuals: gender affects, amongst others migration motifs, selection into migration, as well as decisions on destination countries. Further, the experiences in the host country are gender-specific and especially so when looking at employment, education, or household production.