ifo Media Center
The ifo Institute invites you to participate in the discussion of interesting economic topics via the Internet. In our ifo Media Center a whole series of remarkable events are available and can be viewed in full length. We also record selected speeches and presentations given by employees or at events and make them available in our Media Center.
Eastern Germany
30 years after the reunification a positive balance can be drawn. The economic “reconstruction of the East” has largely been completed. Driven by politics and supported by private investment, productivity and wages have risen sharply in the new Länder over the past 30 years.
Structural Policies
In many European countries, there is a huge discrepancy between living conditions in booming centers and disconnected regions. To mitigate this effect, the EU makes funds available for regional policy measures through the European structural and investment funds.
Monetary Policy
The European Central Bank (ECB) is coming under increasing pressure. It wants to achieve its goal of long-term price stability with an inflation rate of below, but close to, 2 percent for the euro area. At the same time, it is concerned about the weak economic environment. Given how low interest rates already are, the ECB seems to have exhausted its options. What strategy will the ECB follow now? In the United States, the distinction between monetary and fiscal policy already seems to be blurring.
Industry Policy
For decades, Germany has been one of the world’s leading industrial nations, but there is no guarantee that it will stay that way. The emergence of new technologies, US dominance in digitalization and, in particular, the rise of China as a global player pose major challenges for Germany’s and Europe’s industrial companies. How can Germany secure its future as an industrial location?
Brexit
Skepticism has always been a feature of the UK’s relationship with Europe, culminating with a referendum in 2016 when 51.9 percent of UK citizens voted to leave the European Union. This makes the United Kingdom the first member state in the history of the European Union to leave the international community. Following the official withdrawal on January 31, 2020, a transition period ran until the end of 2020. After nearly a year of negotiations, the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) was applied provisionally as of January 1, 2021, and entered into force on May 1, 2021.
ifo World Economic Survey (2019q2)
10.7805/ebdc-wes-2019q2
Equality of Opportunity
The topic of inequality in society is increasingly the focus of public debates. Apart from inequality of income and wealth, the topic also refers to missing equality of opportunity, which arises particularly in the education system. In fact, the association between educational achievement and socioeconomic background is particularly strong in Germany, indicating limited equality of opportunity for children from different social backgrounds.
Vocational Education 4.0
The digital transformation is a key technological trend that will change the world of labor in the future. Our research shows that people with a vocational education run the risk of losing their jobs later in life when demand for their occupation-specific skills fades over time due to technical and structural change. This creates a trade-off between early employment advantages and later employment risks for educational programs that train for work in a specific job which is particularly pronounced in apprenticeship countries.
Education Comparisons
Students in some countries perform much better on international achievement tests than students in other countries. Is this all due to socioeconomic and cultural differences, or do school systems make a difference? Our research based on the micro data of international student tests such as PISA and TIMSS suggests that school systems are indeed very important.
ifo World Economic Survey (2019q1)
10.7805/ebdc-wes-2019q1
ifo Investment Survey Industry (2017)
10.7805/ebdc-ivs-ind-2017
EBDC Business Investment Panel (2018)
10.7805/ebdc-bip-2018
Personnel Manager Survey (2018)
10.7805/ebdc-ipms-2018
ifo Business Survey Service (2018b)
10.7805/ebdc-ibs-serv-2018b
ifo Investment Database (2018)
10.7805/ebdc-iidb-2018
ifo Business Survey Trade (2018b)
10.7805/ebdc-ibs-tra-2018b
ifo World Economic Survey (2018q4)
10.7805/ebdc-wes-2018q4
ifo Business Survey Construction (2018b)
10.7805/ebdc-ibs-con-2018b
ifo Business Survey Industry (2018b)
10.7805/ebdc-ibs-ind-2018b
ifo World Economic Survey (2018q3)
10.7805/ebdc-wes-2018q3
