German Economic Institute
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Second Quarter 2019
  • Markus Demary ·
  • IW-Report No. 15 ·
  • 18 April 2019

IW Financial Expert Survey: Second Quarter 2019

Pessimism determines the experts’ predictions for the second and third quarter of 2019 which can be inferred from the downward revisions of the experts’ forecasts. All in all, more downward revisions than upward revisions can be found in the forecasts indicating that the experts have interpreted the incoming information between end of December 2018 and end of March 2019 as bad news.
Popular Will and Political Reality
  • Judith Niehues ·
  • IW-Trends No. 1 ·
  • 2 April 2019

Subjective Redistribution Preferences in Germany: Popular Will and Political Reality

Survey data suggest that a majority of Germans want the government to reduce income disparities. This subjective preference for redistribution has increased markedly in the past decade, regardless of the actual development of distribution ratios, which have hardly changed since 2005.
The Contribution of Female Inventors to German Patent Applications
  • Oliver Koppel / Enno Röben / Judith Wojda ·
  • IW-Trends No. 1 ·
  • 28 March 2019

The Contribution of Female Inventors to German Patent Applications

Women continue to make only a small, and recently actually diminishing, contribution to patent activity in Germany. In 2016, female inventors accounted for just 4.4 per cent of all national patent applications filed with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office.
Empirical Analysis of Protectionist Attitudes in the EU
  • Galina Kolev ·
  • IW-Report No. 9 ·
  • 22 March 2019

Understanding Protectionism: Empirical Analysis of Protectionist Attitudes in the EU

A changing landscape in trade policy in recent years is undoubtedly related to changing voter preferences. Based on Eurobarometer survey data, the present paper investigates both the factors determining the level of support for protectionism and the striking inconsistency of responses to questions related to free trade and protectionism.
Puzzling attitudes towards protectionism related to lacking knowledge
  • Galina Kolev ·
  • IW News ·
  • 28 March 2019

Protectionism: Puzzling attitudes towards protectionism related to lacking knowledge

The changing course of US trade policy since the election of Donald Trump has strengthened the image of free trade in the EU. However, almost 40 percent of EU citizens also support protectionism.This is puzzling, yet lacking knowledge is an important explanation, a new IW study shows. An information campaign is inevitable in order to secure the sustainability of EU Trade policy.
Attitudes Towards Binding Collective Bargaining in the Metal and Electrical Industry
  • Hagen Lesch / Helena Schneider / Sandra Vogel ·
  • IW-Trends No. 1 ·
  • 20 March 2019

Results of a Company Survey: Attitudes Towards Binding Collective Bargaining in the Metal and Electrical Industry

A survey of 1,553 companies in the metal and electrical industry about their attitude to binding collective bargaining shows that two thirds of these firms are satisfied with their binding sector-level agreements.
Results of a Survey of Companies by the German Economic Institute
  • Sigrid Schöpper-Grabe / Isabel Vahlhaus ·
  • IW-Trends No. 1 ·
  • 14 March 2019

Basic and Continuing Education for the Low-skilled: Results of a Survey of Companies by the German Economic Institute

Corporate personnel development is increasingly recognising the training needs of employees without vocational qualifications: 89 per cent of companies that employ low-skilled workers have offered at least one further training course for this target group in the last five years.
IW-Direktor Michael Hüther
  • Michael Hüther in The Zeitgeist ·
  • Audio ·
  • 8 March 2019

Competing Visions for a New Era of Globalization

In this episode of The Zeitgeist, Michael Hüther, Director of the German Economic Institute, joined AICGS President Jeff Rathke and Senior Fellow Peter Rashish to talk about what Hüther calls the end of the second era of globalization and the challenges of shaping the third era of globalization, creating a European and an international framework that is politically sustainable and economically effective.
Do mixed teams of old and experienced and young and restless employees foster companies innovativeness?
  • Andrea Hammermann / Matthias Niendorf / Jörg Schmidt at IAB Discussion Paper ·
  • External Publications ·
  • 7 March 2019

Age Diversity and Innovation: Do mixed teams of old and experienced and young and restless employees foster companies innovativeness?

In Germany, the labour force is ageing rapidly. At the same time, age heterogeneity within companies is rising. The literature on diversity argues that heterogeneity can have a positive as well as a detrimental effect on team outputs.
Springboard or Dead End?
  • Holger Schäfer ·
  • IW-Trends No. 1 ·
  • 5 March 2019

Fixed-Term Employment: Springboard or Dead End?

The Federal Government is seeking to impose restrictions on the existing statutory vehicles for limiting the term of employment contracts. The justification often offered for this move is that the employees concerned perceive the uncertainty inherent in fixed-term contracts as negative.
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