Residential heating accounts for almost one-fifth of Germany’s final energy consumption. This report evaluates an extensive database of heating bills for buildings with two or more apartments, representing more than two-thirds of the total housing stock in Germany. Despite commitments to...

According to representative survey results of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), volunteer rates have been continually rising in Germany over the past 30 years. Contributing factors include young adults’ growing willingness to volunteer as well as an increase in the volunteer behavior of older...

The present study compares the perceptions of fairness of national earned incomes between the populations of Germany and the rest of Europe based on recent data from the European Social Survey (ESS). The vast majority of European respondents consider very low gross earned incomes to be unjustly...

Italy has yet to recover from the economic consequences of the financial and sovereign debt crisis that began more than a decade ago. In addition to losing 1.4 million jobs across the manufacturing and construction sectors, new industries driving growth across the EU, such as knowledge-intensive...

In many European countries, there is a substantial gender pension gap. Yet, these gaps vary strongly across countries. This cross-national study examines to what extent institutional and labor market-specific factors correlate with gender pension gaps. The findings show that the gender pension...

Housing prices in many countries have increased significantly over the past years, fueling a fear that speculative price bubbles will return. However, it can be difficult for policymakers to recognize when regulatory interventions in the market are necessary to counteract bubbles. This report...

After developing at an increasingly slower pace over the decades, labor productivity in Germany has recently stagnated. This is in contrast to the development of the workforce’s qualifications, which have been growing steadily due to rapid academicization. These phenomena can be found in other...