Structural Change

International competition changes the economy. However, governments should refrain from trying to push structural change into a specific direction.

Date | Relevance |

Vanessa Hünnemeyer / Hanno Kempermann ·
IW-Trends Nr. 2 ·
4 June 2020

Rural Regions in Germany: Results of the IW Regional Ranking 2020

Rural regions have historically played an important role in securing Germany’s prosperity and growth. It is here that a significant number of the country’s hidden champions are to be found, inconspicuous manufacturers whose innovativeness and high-quality production are nonetheless the hallmark of the German business model.

Susanne Seyda / Luisa Wallosek / Michael Zibrowius ·
IW-Trends Nr. 2 ·
22 June 2018

An Index Measuring Low-skilled Jobs: Low-skilled Work in Germany

The present article examines how the extent and importance of low-skilled work has developed over a period of skill-biased technological change.

Hanno Kempermann / Agnes Millack ·
IW-Trends Nr. 1 ·
11 April 2018

Digital Regions in Germany

The digital transformation is not only revolutionising the world of business but also affecting geographical developments. Picking up on this trend, the thematic focus of this year's IW Regional Ranking is on the digital prospects of Germany’s various regions.

Digital Transformation and Globalization in Germany and Japan

13 June

Hubertus Bardt ·
Event ·
13 June 2017

Symposium: Digital Transformation and Globalization in Germany and Japan

This symposium Symposium of Japanese-German Center Berlin, Fujitsu Research Institute and Cologne Institute for Economic Research has brought together experts and affected companies from Germany and Japan to discuss their views on and strategies for digital transformation to gain productivity and overcome market obstacles across Europe and Asia.

Vera Demary ·
IW-Report Nr. 11 ·
8 May 2017

The role of innovation in the sharing economy

While the sharing economy is generally perceived to be very innovative, it has hardly been analyzed what defines this innovativeness. The main aspect for the sharing economy as a whole is the peer-to-peer (P2P) organization of its businesses. This allows sharing platforms to enter markets more easily, consequently increasing competition in these markets.

Digital Single Market ·
IW News ·
10 January 2017

Europe, soon a single data market?

Data is the currency of the digital age. In order to take full advantage of the potential of the European data economy, the European Commission wishes to further harmonize data rights. This is overdue in order not to lose the connection to the USA completely.

Markus Demary / Vera Demary ·
IW-Kurzbericht Nr. 2 ·
4 January 2017

Blockchain: Down to Earth

The blockchain technology offers the promise to be cheaper, faster, less error-prone and safer compared to traditional financial services. Whether a market for blockchain services will emerge, depends, however, on several criteria.

Markus Demary / Vera Demary ·
IW-Kurzbericht Nr. 1 ·
4 January 2017

The Promise of Blockchain

Digitization affects all sectors of the economy. A new and possibly disruptive digital technology is the blockchain, a decentralized ledger, which seems to offer great promise for many financial and business applications.

Michael Hüther ·
IW-Policy Paper Nr. 15 ·
8 December 2016

Digitalisation: An engine for structural change

In this policy paper a classification for digital business models is developed, in order to analytically exploit the different scopes and consistently infer politico-economic need for action.

Vera Demary / Michael Grömling / Galina Kolev / Jürgen Matthes ·
IW-Policy Paper Nr. 6 ·
27 April 2016

Prosperity in a Changing World

Structural change and economic growth

Industrialised countries often react to the increasing competition from emerging markets by focusing on those sectors of production in which they are superior to their competitors. German companies, for instance, concentrate on highly specified tasks such as research and development in their home-country and perform simple manufacturing processes abroad.

Before the global economic and financial crisis, building a large service sector was considered indispensable for reaching economic prosperity. This has changed: History has shown that both countries with a large service sector and countries with an important industrial sector can reach high income levels. Therefore, governments should refrain from steering structural change into a particular direction. Rather, they should allow for flexibility in the labour market, so as to enable the downsizing of sectors that are no longer profitable and to encourage entrepreneurship and growth in growing economic sectors.