1. Home
  2. Studies
Content element with id 9149

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.

361 results
Sort by:
Read study
The Honesty-Attitude-Behavior Gap: A Cross-Country Comparison
IW-Trends No. 3 29. September 2026

The Honesty-Attitude-Behavior Gap: A Cross-Country Comparison

Dominik Enste / Jennifer Potthoff / Augustin Renz

Honesty reduces transaction costs and is therefore a prerequisite for effective economic cooperation.

Read study
Critical Raw Materials: Corporate Exposure, Supply Risks and Adaptation Strategies
IW-Trends No. 2 6. August 2026

Critical Raw Materials: Corporate Exposure, Supply Risks and Adaptation Strategies

Adriana Neligan / Cornelius Bähr / Hubertus Bardt / Edgar Schmitz

Critical raw materials are vital inputs for key technologies and thus for industrial competitiveness.

Read study
AI Specialists in Public Administration – Needs and Options for Action
IW-Trends No. 2 15. July 2026

AI Specialists in Public Administration – Needs and Options for Action

Jan Büchel / Jan Felix Engler / Nicolai Krüger*

The use of AI in Germany’s public sector not only offers potential for efficiency gains but, in view of the sector’s shortage of skilled staff, is also urgently needed.

Read study
Why Do Companies Invest in Germany?
IW-Trends No. 2 11. July 2026

Why Do Companies Invest in Germany?

Hubertus Bardt / Michael Grömling / Thomas Schleiermacher / Susanne Seyda

The growth of Germany’s capital stock is slowing, as current investment increasingly fails to keep pacewith steadily rising disposals. In particular, private investment – which accounts for well over fourfifths of total gross fixed capital formation – has been alarmingly low in recent years.

Read study
The Difficulty of Filling Management Posts in Municipal Planning and Public Works Departments
IW-Trends No. 2 15. June 2026

The Difficulty of Filling Management Posts in Municipal Planning and Public Works Departments

Thomas Puls / Jan-Felix Engler

Germany’s infrastructure is in need of thorough modernisation, and this is particularly true at the municipal level, where the capacity to implement such refurbishment is critical.

Read study
The Reform of Old-Age Pension Systems in Germany
IW-Trends No. 2 19. May 2026

The Reform of Old-Age Pension Systems in Germany

Jochen Pimpertz / Maximilian Stockhausen

Concerns about the risk of poverty in old age have prompted a multitude of reform proposals, most of which aim to introduce additional redistributive elements into Germany’s statutory pension scheme.

Read study
Is Lifelong Learning the Key to Later Retirement?
IW-Trends No. 1 19. May 2026

Is Lifelong Learning the Key to Later Retirement?

Wido Geis-Thöne / Andrea Hammermann / Ruth Maria Schüler

There appears to be a connection between lifelong learning and remaining longer active in the labour market.

Read study
Who Becomes a German Citizen?
IW-Trends No. 1 11. May 2026

Who Becomes a German Citizen?

Wido Geis-Thöne

According to micro-census data (and excluding the ethnic Germans who immigrated from eastern Europe in the 1990s and automatically received citizenship on arrival), in 2022 there were 2.69 million naturalised citizens living in Germany.

Read study
Partnerships between Immigrants and German Natives
IW-Trends No. 1 10. April 2026

Partnerships between Immigrants and German Natives

Wido Geis-Thöne

The extent to which immigrants’ and non-immigrants’ networks of relationships overlap has an im portant impact on the former’s degree of integration into society.

Read study
The Minimum Wage as a Means of Combating Income Poverty
IW-Trends No. 1 28. March 2026

The Minimum Wage as a Means of Combating Income Poverty

Lennart Eckle / Christoph Schröder

Although raising Germany’s minimum wage to12 Euro in October 2022 had a noticeable effect on wage distribution, the effect on income poverty remained minimal.

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.
     
  • Our research is aware of its normative conditionality. Every science of human social action requires a normative clarification of the concept of man. Freedom and (co-)responsibility are the central values for us. We see the human being as a being capable of freedom and responsibility, who in this sense is enabled and called upon to competent decisions and actions. In our view, open, liberal and democratic societies require a liberal and competitive economic order that counts personal responsibility and shared responsibility among its constitutive elements.
Content element with id 9713