This paper investigates the attitudes towards the Euro and their changes over time in Germany by using longitudinal micro data from the German Socio Economic Panel Study (SOEP). We observe that a large part of the German population was worried about the new currency before its implementation....

There is a large part of the population worried about the implementation of the Euro in Germany. This study deals with the individual factors influencing these worries and with the development of them. In psychological research on anxiety, worries are the cognitive component of anxiety and...

Private paid tutoring is a subject that is not well recognised in education research. By using theories on educational choice one could argue that tutoring promotes inequalities in attaining qualifications. Empirical analyses based on the German Socio Economic Panel Study (SOEP) show that more...

This paper studies the importance of politician's qualification, in terms of education and experience, for fiscal outcomes. The analysis is based on a large panel for 2,031 German municipalities for which we have collected information on municipal budgets as well as the election results and...

This paper empirically assesses whether the deployment and use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure at the national level affects trade flows within the European Union (EU) and between the EU and its main trading partners. The analysis tests the hypothesis that...

We analyze a client's choice of contract in auctions where Dutch law firms compete for cases. The distinguishing feature is that lawyers may submit bids with any fee arrangement they prefer: an hourly rate, a fixed fee or a \mixed fee," which is a time-capped fixed fee plus an hourly rate for...

In the face of interest rates having hit their zero lower bound in major economies, large-scale asset purchases have become an important weapon of central banks in recent years. It is, however, not clear whether and under which circumstances such policy measures produce the desired effects. This...

We study political determinants of municipality amalgamations during a boundary reform in the German state of Brandenburg, which reduced the number of municipalities from 1,489 to 421. The analysis is conducted using data on the political decision makers as well as fiscal and socio-economic...

Not just since the European Central Bank announced the large-scale purchase of government bonds a few weeks ago, large-scale asset purchases have always been a controversially discussed topic. This DIW Roundup summarizes the measures that have been taken by central banks in Japan, USA and UK and...

Das Thema Altersarmut wird in Deutschland kontrovers diskutiert. Altersarmut gilt für viele als ein wichtiges sozialpolitisches Problem, da ältere Menschen nur wenige Möglichkeiten haben, etwas an ihrer Einkommensposition zu ändern. Arme Ältere sind deswegen einem hohen Risiko ausgesetzt,...