Studies

Scientific Publications of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research: IW-Trends, IW policy papers, IW-Analysen, IW-Studien, IW-Reports, IW-Kurzberichte and Expertises. Read more about our Approach to Research.

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IW-Policy Paper No. 3 23. January 2025

Rising social security contributions weigh on competitiveness

Michael Hüther / Thomas Obst / Jochen Pimpertz

Germany is suffering from a loss of international competitiveness. Revitalising economic growth therefore not only requires a sustainable change of economic policy. Even in the short term, measures must be taken to revitalise public and private investment in Germany.

IW-Trends No. 4 22. January 2025

More Productive with AI?: How Companies and Employees Assess its Effects on Productivity

Andrea Hammermann / Roschan Monsef / Oliver Stettes

Almost one third of all employees in Germany have had at least one new artificial intelligence (AI) application introduced at their workplace since 2022. AI is most commonly used for automatic data processing and text recognition.

External Publication 22. January 2025

Financing the Sustainability Agenda

Markus Demary / Adriana Neligan in Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies

Financing the necessary innovations and investments for a successful decarbonisation in the EU is challenging. The main reasons are tighter banking regulations, increased bureaucracy for loan applications and portfolio reallocations away from carbon-intensive industries.

IW-Policy Paper No. 2 22. January 2025

An agenda for more private investment

Markus Demary / Tobias Hentze / Jasmina Kirchhoff / Michael Voigtländer

Germany has a massive lack of investment, which dampens productivity, thereby reducing economic growth and increasingly endangering prosperity.

IW-Report No. 2 21. January 2025

Effects of the new US administration on companies in Germany

Michael Grömling

According to the latest economic survey by the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (German Economic Institute), companies in Germany primarily expect competitive disadvantages as well as trade and sales restrictions in the event of a confrontational economic policy by the new US administration.

IW-Report No. 1 19. January 2025

Proliferation of works councils and the desire for interest representation

Oliver Stettes

Works councils exist in 7 per cent of the German establishments with five and more employees. The coverage rate has fallen significantly in the long run. Non-existence of works councils is, however, not equivalent to a lack of participation by the employees.

Expertise 16. January 2025

Digitalisation Index 2024: Digitalisation of the economy in Germany

Jan Büchel / Marc Scheufen / Barbara Engels

The Digitalisation Index 2024 shows that the German economy has become around 14 percent more digital in the last five years. However, despite this progress, key challenges remain: The East has not been able to escape its role as the digitalisation bottom performer in the past five years.

IW-Trends No. 4 14. January 2025

Growing up in Educationally Disadvantaged Families: What the Microcensus Tells us about its Occurrence and Consequences

Wido Geis-Thöne

In recent years, more and more children in Germany have been growing up in educationally disadvantaged environments.

IW-Policy Paper No. 1 8. January 2025

An agenda for the new legislative period: Competitiveness and transformation

Michael Hüther

The German business model, based on industry, services, exports, and regional balance, faces significant pressure.

Understanding Science

The scientific work of the German Economic Institute is independent and solution-oriented, internationally networked and socially relevant, methodologically open and interdisciplinary. We address the scientific discourse of experts, the general public as well as opinion leaders in politics, business and society. We want to be an audible voice in the economic policy discourse in Germany.
Our work is innovative and confronts the scientific discourse: On the basis of scientifically recognized standards, we apply new methods, use new data sets, discuss new arguments and provide solution-oriented answers to current questions in economic analysis and economic policy. Our statements are theoretically founded and, where it is methodologically and empirically possible, evidence-based. We ensure that both the data basis and the methodological approaches are comprehensible. Modern methods of empirical economic and social research are as much a part of our tools as in-depth analyses of the institutional and political-economic conditions of economic developments.
We do not exclude any theoretical and methodological approach, because diversity and competition promote progress in the sciences. The decisive factor is not a traditional paradigm, but whether and how a scientific approach leads further in the search for decision-guiding and action-relevant knowledge. Our research is not limited to economics, but is connectable to the debates and insights of other disciplines, such as ethics, history, education, political science, psychology, law, and sociology.
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