Im Bundestag wird ein Gesetzentwurf der Bundesregierung zur Reform der staatlich geförderten privaten Altersvorsorge ("Riester-Rente") diskutiert. Der Policy Brief analysiert die Vorschläge zur Änderung der Förderung durch Zulagen und Sonderausgabenabzug. Im Ergebnis fällt der bisherige...

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we provide a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between workplace co-determination in the form of works councils and income satisfaction. Controlling for a wide range of individual, job-related, and firm-level characteristics in OLS...

This paper studies gender gaps in labor-market outcomes, with a focus on job ladder dynamics. We show that women experience substantially lower wage growth conditional on prior wages despite nearly identical job-to-job transition rates for men and women. To reconcile these observations, we...

Children and their parents resemble each other in terms of economic preferences such as patience and risk tolerance. What drives the intergenerational correlation in preferences? We build a model of preference formation that combines genetic transmission, state influence through childcare...

In 1995, Germany established a two-tier compulsory long-term care insurance scheme. While the public branch, with its pay-as-you-go character, lacks sustainable financing due to demographic circumstances, the capital-funded private branch is supposed to be sustainably financed through its...

Many countries use job-retention schemes, such as short-time work (STW), to stabilize the labor market during economic downturns. While these schemes might prevent unemployment (UE) and its adverse effects on workers, STW could also deter workers from moving to more productive firms, thereby...

We extend the heteroskedasticity IV estimator of Rigobon and Sack (2004) from one to multiple monetary policy shocks by imposing recursive zero restrictions on the impact matrix. Unlike high-frequency identification, the approach requires neither intraday tick data nor precise announcement...

Lifelong learning is increasingly recognized as important for individual well-being, but causal evidence on this relationship remains scarce. This paper evaluates the effects of non-formal adult education on life satisfaction by exploiting the substantial expansion of courses at East German...

In einem Impulspapier weist der wissenschaftliche Beraterkreis des Bundeswirtschaftsministeriums auf die Notwendigkeit entschlossener Reformen des Rentensystems hin, damit die Rente finanzierbar bleibt. Die Reformvorschläge reichen von der Kopplung des Renteneintrittsalters an die fernere...

In einem Gutachten zeigt der Beraterkreis fünf zentrale Handlungsfelder auf, die für eine zukunftsfähige Wachstumsstrategie relevant sind: 1. Innovation und Strukturwandel müssten zugelassen werden, 2. staatliche Investitionen seien strategischer auszurichten, 3. Deregulierung sei...

German government debt is considered a safe asset in times of turbulence. We estimate the impact of changes in the risk appetite of global investors on weekly investment fund flows into the German sovereign bond market. Our key contribution is to allow the impact of such shocks to depend on the...

Die große Mehrheit der Beschäftigten in Deutschland bewertet ihre Arbeitsbedingungen überwiegend positiv. Rund 5.000 Beschäftigte wurden in der IW-Beschäftigtenbefragung 2025 zwischen Ende Mai bis Anfang Juni gebeten, neun zentrale Merkmale ihres Arbeitsplatzes anhand von Schulnoten zu...

Der deutsche Arbeitsmarkt wird in den kommenden Jahren vor großen Herausforderungen stehen, die durch den demografischen Wandel hervorgerufen werden. Die gegenwärtige konjunkturelle Krise und damit einhergehende Schwäche der Arbeitskräftenachfrage ändern nichts an der Tatsache, dass das...

Gesellschaftspolitische Diskussionen sind in deutschen Unternehmen weit verbreitet: Nur fünf Prozent der befragten Personalverantwortlichen berichten, diese überhaupt nicht wahrzunehmen. Aus Sicht der Beschäftigten bestätigt sich die Relevanz: Acht von zehn Beschäftigte in Deutschland...

This study aims to examine the impacts of AI investment on economic growth, while controlling for labor force participation and gross fixed capital formation in Germany. The analysis is based on data collected on the state of economic development in Germany from the first quarter of 2012 to the...

This paper reports results from a preregistered survey experiment (ca. 2000) designed to test the connection between economic worries and individual attitudes toward migration and universalism. The experiment was conducted in Germany in February 2025, prior to the general elections, at a time...

Does working from home lead to loneliness? If yes, how and for whom? Using a quasi-natural experiment and individual fixedeffects, this study shows that work from home leads to increased worker loneliness. Teleworking not only increases overall loneliness, but it also affects each of the three...

The Meese-Rogoff puzzle suggests that exchange rate models rarely outperform a random walk in out-of-sample forecasting. This paper re-examines that puzzle in the context of the German hyperinflation, an environment in which monetary forces dominate economic behavior. Using simple bivariate...

Nowadays, the European economy faces significant global challenges that threaten the continuity of economic growth, especially in the German manufacturing sector, which is under strain from financial turmoil, resulting in numerous layoffs and firm closures. In this respect, FinTech significantly...

The paper aims to provide spatial evidence on where to prioritize place-based support for women's entrepreneurship by linking the geography of female founders to the proximity of formal support infrastructure in Germany. To pursue this objective, we assemble nationwide venture microdata covering...

Fiscal transparency is a core pillar of open government, yet its implementation at the local level remains uneven. This study investigates how the Open Government Partnership (OGP) contributes to fiscal transparency as a form of public sector innovation through a comparative analysis of local...

The FDZ Ruhr provides a dataset on commercial real estate advertisements in Germany, drawing from information obtained from the internet platform ImmoScout24. The dataset encompasses a wide range of real estate types, including but not limited to offices, retail, and hotels. It is important to...

The FDZ Ruhr provides a dataset on commercial real estate advertisements in Germany, drawing from information obtained from the internet platform ImmoScout24. The dataset encompasses a wide range of real estate types, including but not limited to offices, retail, and hotels. It is important to...

In European day-ahead electricity markets, carbon allowance costs passed through by marginal fossil plants raise consumer expenditure and generate inframarginal rents for non-emitting generators. We propose a settlement modification: when the zonal day-ahead price exceeds a threshold,...

There are relatively few comparative cross-European studies on segregation, and those that do exist often use a single measure of segregation at a single spatial scale. This paper investigates ethnic segregation in seven European capitals - Amsterdam, Berlin, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Paris, and...

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for assessing individual democratic commitment and demonstrates its usefulness in the German context. Building on and bridging existing strands of research (e.g. on support for democracy, conceptualizations of democracy, evaluations of democracy), the...

Performance appraisals are one of the most widely used human resource management practices. This study investigates the relationship between performance appraisals and sleep satisfaction using large-scale, representative data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Sleep satisfaction is...

Many countries and regions remain below the level of economic activity of the world’s most advanced economies. Some countries form growth clubs, some are stuck in the middle-income trap, and some stay on a very low level of economic activity. Although this situation is well documented on the...

Das FDZ Ruhr am RWI stellt Preisindizes für Wohnungen und Häuser (Vermietung und Verkauf) in Deutschland ab dem Jahr 2008 zur Verfügung. Die Preisindizes basieren auf dem Immobiliendatensatz RWI-GEO-RED, der Immobilienangebote von ImmoScout24 zusammenfasst. Wir führen drei Arten von...

Das FDZ Ruhr stellt einen Datensatz zu gewerblichen Immobilienanzeigen in Deutschland zur Verfügung, der auf Informationen der Internetplattform ImmoScout24 beruht. Der Datensatz umfasst ein breites Spektrum an Immobilienarten, unter anderem Büros, Einzelhandel und Hotels. Es ist wichtig zu...

The Arctic and the Arctic-North Atlantic region are gaining in geopolitical relevance as Arctic shipping routes and resources become more accessible. Germany should step up its political, military and economic engagement in this part of the world. A successful German Arctic policy requires...

Sample S is the 2024 refreshment sample of the SOEP-Core. We applied a stratified two-stage cluster sampling design to draw a sample of anchor persons from the German population register. The sample adds 5,314 new households to the panel. Potential selectivity in participation is corrected by...