IW-Reports are scientific reports with methodological, empirical or regulatory backgrounds and offer space for statements of the scientists in policy advice. They appear exclusively online.
The lasting economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will become apparent in the development of the macroeconomic factors of production – labour, capital, human capital as well as the stock of technical knowledge.
Only four weeks before the planned date in June 2012, the opening of Berlin's major airport BER, which had already been postponed from autumn 2011, was cancelled. This was followed by years of announcements, ever new lists of construction deficiencies and further delays.
Generalized trust in other people is especially important in times of crisis. If there is a lack of trust, more control and sanctions are necessary, which result in transaction costs. In addition, all people suffer from control measures, even if only a few show wrongdoings.
The first corona cases in China appeared in December 2019. To contain the pandemic, the government had to take far-reaching measures in February. Although these measures reduced the numbers of new cases, they also had a dramatic impact on the economy.
Germany as a business location relies on international qualified professionals in the long term. Since March 2020, the Skilled Immigration Act has also made it possible for professionally qualified people from third countries to immigrate to Germany for the purpose of work. A requirement for this is that the foreign vocational qualification has been recognized in Germany.
The COVID-19 measures of the federal and state governments have at times massively affected public life in Germany. The ban on contact has temporarily restricted the freedom to pursue a profession, the freedom of trade, compulsory education and religious freedom.
In the second quarter of 2020 the corona pandemic adversely affected global economic activity to an extent unparalleled in the last seven decades. This was the result of health policy measures and the virus’s widely varying impact on both the supply and demand sides of the economies it has affected around the world.
The German automotive industry can now look back on a golden decade. Between 2008 and 2018 its businesses reached numerous record peaks in sales. The main driver was the strong market growth in China.
Although the period of the strongest influx of refugees in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany is five years ago, more asylum seekers have come to Germany in recent years than at the beginning of the 2010s.
The current economic difficulties for numerous companies are likely to further intensify the structural trend of digitization. Especially in times of crisis, companies will decide on their use of the technical possibilities.
