The German government plans to introduce a minimum wage from 2015. This must be understood as a response to the decline in collective bargaining coverage and the marked increase in employment in the low-wage sector. The authors discuss how many workers are affected by this new regulation and...

Looking around the world, one realizes that national minimum wages are not uncommon. Yet it is still very difficult to estimate what effects a minimum wage might have in Germany. This is not just a question of how high the minimum wage should be — its impacts would also depend on many details...

In Germany in the last decade, corporate incomes have increased much more sharply than private household incomes. At the same time, the inequality of household incomes has increased. High-income households have profited particularly from investment income and self-employment. The income gap has...

Yet again, no significant economic stimulus is expected from this year’s World Cup. Investments in stadiums and infrastructure in Brazil have certainly resulted in high costs for the public sector, but no significantly positive overall economic impact is expected in the course of the next few...

An die Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft in Deutschland werden auch große wirtschaftliche Erwartungen geknüpft. In Anbetracht des bisher vor allem vom Export getragenen konjunkturellen Aufschwungs mehren sich in letzter Zeit Stimmen, dass von dem Sportereignis - auch was die Stimmung anbelangt -...

In Berlin führt kein Weg daran vorbei, die rigorose Konsolidierungspolitik fortzusetzen. Der strikte Sparkurs muss eingehalten werden, obwohl er die regionale Nachfrageentwicklung erheblich dämpft. In für die Zukunft entscheidenden Bereichen wie Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur darf jedoch...

Inzwischen liegen fünf Studien zu den volkswirtschaftlichen Wirkungen der Fußball- WM vor. Naturgemäß behandeln alle nur Teilaspekte, da die gesamte ökonomische Bedeutung des Sportereignisses mit seiner Vielzahl von Wechselwirkungen nicht quantifizierbar ist. Überhaupt nicht messbar sind...

The upcoming World Cup has raised high expectations in Germany, not just for the national team, but for the economy as well. As the cyclical upswing has mainly been supported by exports so far, hopes have been growing recently that this sporting event will have a positive and stimulating effect...

The numbers of migrants from the accessions countries have clearly increased since the enlargement of the EU in 2004. Following enlargement, the net inflow of EU8 immigrants has become 2.5 times larger than the four-year period before enlargement. Poles constitute the largest immigrant group...