Team
The people behind the ifo Institute offer the very high level of expertise and experience needed to fulfill our research and service mandate.
Opportunity Monitor 2023: Educational Opportunities in Germany Strongly Dependent on Parents
Children and young people in Germany have enormously different educational opportunities: depending on their parents’ family background, their likelihood of attending a university-track secondary school ranges from one in five to four in five. This is the finding of the new ifo “A Heart for Children” Opportunity Monitor, which was presented today in Berlin together with the BILD charity “Ein Herz für Kinder” (A Heart for Children), with Germany’s Federal Minister of Education, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, in attendance. “The decisive factors for children’s educational opportunities in Germany are their parents’ education and income. Whether or not they have an immigration background is less important,” says Ludger Wößmann, Director of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education.
ifo World Economic Survey (2015b)
10.7805/ebdc-wes-2015b
Equality for Women in the German Economy is Stagnating
Over the past few years, Germany has made very little progress in achieving equality for women in economic life. This is according to an ifo evaluation of a variety of data sources to coincide with International Women’s Day. “Since women in other countries have caught up more, Germany’s international equality ranking has actually slipped somewhat,” says ifo researcher Britta Rude. This is mainly due to high wage inequality and the small proportion of women in leadership positions.
Après son effondrement, l'économie européenne semble entamer un lent rétablissement, d'après l'ifo et le KOF
Si la performance économique de la zone euro s'est effondrée brusquement au deuxième trimestre, la reprise s'annonce plus lente. C'est ce que prévoient l'Institut ifo de Munich et le Centre de recherches conjoncturelles (KOF) de Zurich dans leur nouveau rapport sur les perspectives économiques de la zone euro (EZEO). L'ensemble de leurs prévisions est entaché d’incertitudes liées à la pandémie du coronavirus, à l'état de la trésorerie des entreprises et au comportement des consommateurs.
Germany’s Chemical Industry Hit Particularly Hard by Price Rise for Russian Gas
The business climate in Germany’s chemical industry deteriorated significantly in the past twelve months. Business expectations fell to a low of minus 44.4 points in July 2022, finds an ifo Institute survey. In the same month the previous year, the figure was plus 11.8 points. The war in Ukraine is further exacerbating the tense situation in the industry. “Natural gas accounts for 44 percent of energy consumption in the chemical industry. It also plays an important role in product manufacturing: around 30 percent of all chemical products require the use of natural gas,” says ifo industry expert Anna Wolf.
Germany: ifo Institute Affirms 1.1 Percent Growth for 2020
The ifo Institute has reaffirmed its forecast regarding economic growth in Germany. “At present, a recession in the general economy is very unlikely. We anticipate economic growth of 1.1 percent for 2020, compared to 0.5 percent this year. We are even looking at 1.5 percent for 2021, one tenth of a point more than previously stated,” says Timo Wollmershaeuser, Head of Forecasts at the ifo Institute.
Personnel Manager Survey (2022)
10.7805/ebdc-ipms-2022
Institut ifo : l'excédent commercial allemand a encore augmenté
l'excédent de la balance courante de l'Allemagne a encore augmenté l'an dernier et reste le plus élevé au monde. « Nous tablons sur 293 milliards de dollars ou 262 milliards d'euros, soit 7,6 % de la performance économique annuelle (PIB). En 2018, ce chiffre n'était que de 7,3 % », déclare Christian Grimme, expert conjoncturel de l'Institut ifo. L'Union européenne estime que tout au plus 6 % sont acceptables sur le long terme.
ifo President Fuest Appointed to Franco-German Council of Economic Experts
ifo President Clemens Fuest has been named to the newly convened Franco-German Council of Economic Experts at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The council consists of ten independent experts and will advise the French and German governments on matters of economic policy, with the goal of bringing the two countries closer together and improving the competitiveness of their respective economies.
ifo Institute: Biden Presidency Could Ease Trade Tensions
Joe Biden becoming US President offers an opportunity to ease worldwide tensions and uncertainties in trade and to secure the future of the World Trade Organization. This is the position taken by Lisandra Flach, Director of the ifo Center for International Economics, in a recent guest article in Handelsblatt. “Biden is no champion of free trade. There is a great deal of protectionism to be found in the Democrats’ election platform, too. However, Biden believes in cooperating with international institutions. This is a clear difference from current US President Donald Trump,” she says.
ifo Institute: Scrappage Schemes Are Just a Flash in the Pan
Although scrappage schemes boost car sales in the short term, they do almost nothing to increase overall sales in the medium term. This is the result of a study conducted by the ifo Institute’s Dresden Branch. The study evaluated 15 data-based surveys on scrapping schemes in Germany, Spain, the US, and other countries.
ifo President Fuest Calls for the New German Government to Show Greater Commitment to European Politics
The ifo President Clemens Fuest wants Germany’s next government to show more commitment to European politics. The EU must deepen collaboration with the US but at the same time reduce unilateral dependencies vis-à-vis the US and China, he writes today in a guest article in Handelsblatt. In the eurozone, the new government should oppose a softening of debt rules and work for a balance between solidarity, ownership, and fiscal discipline. This includes requiring banks to back investments in government bonds with equity capital.
ifo Dresde : 180 000 décès supplémentaires en Allemagne pendant les années Covid
Au cours des années 2020 à 2022, l’Allemagne a enregistré 180 000 décès de plus que les estimations usuelles. C'est ce qu'indiquent les chiffres de l’étude de surmortalité réalisée par l'Institut ifo. « Les personnes âgées étaient particulièrement exposées », constate Joachim Ragnitz, le directeur adjoint de l'établissement dresdois de l'institut. C'est ainsi que 116 000 décès supplémentaires ont été enregistrés dans la seule tranche des personnes âgées de 80 ans et plus, tandis que ce nombre a été de 51 000 personnes parmi les Allemands âgés de 60 à 79 ans. Particulièrement nombreuses, les personnes âgées de 30 à 59 ans n'ont été concernées quant à elles qu'à hauteur de 12 000 morts supplémentaires. Enfin, la surmortalité n'a été que de 900 cas parmi les jeunes Allemands de 0 à 29 ans.
Nette amélioration de l'indice ifo du climat des affaires pour l'Allemagne
Le moral des chefs d'entreprise allemands s'est considérablement amélioré. L'indice ifo du climat des affaires a progressé, passant de 92,7 points en février (corrigé des variations saisonnières) à 96,6 points en mars, soit son niveau le plus élevé depuis le mois de juin 2019. Les entreprises se sont déclarées sensiblement plus satisfaites de leur situation actuelle. Elles sont par ailleurs de plus en plus optimistes concernant les mois à venir. L'économie allemande entame les mois de printemps avec confiance, malgré la hausse des nouveaux cas de Covid-19.
Sarah Necker Heads New ifo Center for Social Market Economy in Fürth, Germany
Sarah Necker has been appointed Director of the new Ludwig Erhard ifo Research Center for Social Market Economy and Institutional Economics, a branch of the ifo Institute which will be located in Fürth. The 40-year-old economist will begin her duties on June 3, 2022. The new ifo Center is concerned with further developing the guiding principle of the social market economy. The appointment is linked to a professorship in economics at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU).
Germany’s Wave of Price Increases Recedes
The wave of price increases in Germany will slowly peter out over the next few months. This is a finding from the ifo Institute’s survey. The ifo price expectations dropped to 16.3 points in June, down from 19.1 points* in May. Food and beverage retail experienced a steep decline from 61.4 points* to 45.6 points. The pace of price increases in that segment is expected to gradually lessen. “Overall, however, inflation for consumers will fall only very slowly, because for many service providers, price expectations are declining sluggishly; for example, they went down in hospitality from 34.2 points* to 32.9 points, and in travel agency activities from 46.5 points* to 45.5 points,” says Timo Wollmershäuser, Head of Forecasts at ifo.
Germany: ifo President Fuest considers real estate tax compromise "acceptable“
The ifo President Clemens Fuest has described the provisional agreement on a new property tax in Germany as "acceptable".
ifo Business Survey Construction (2019a)
10.7805/ebdc-ibs-con-2019a
Supply Problems in German Retail Have Worsened
In the run-up to Christmas, delivery problems have worsened significantly for German retail. In November, 77.8 percent of retailers complained that they will not receive all the goods they ordered. The figure was 60 percent in October and 74 percent in September, according to surveys by the ifo Institute. “It looks as though there will be gaps on store shelves over the Christmas period,” says Klaus Wohlrabe, Head of Surveys at ifo. “Consumers will need to show some flexibility when it comes to Christmas gifts.”
Germans Favor a Right to Lifelong Learning
A full 77 percent of Germans are in favor of a right to lifelong learning from a catalog of options offered by companies; 63 percent support mandatory annual training courses for employees in occupations that are particularly affected by structural change; 72 percent of those surveyed consider professional lifelong learning to be a good way of keeping pace with structural change.