DIW Economic Bulletin

Ganzes Heft

Aircraft Noise Has Negative Impact on Well-Being and Health - Even When Not Perceived as a Disturbance: Five Questions to Peter Eibich

Aircraft Noise in Berlin Affects Quality of Life Even Outside the Airport Grounds

Aircraft noise is a particularly problematic source of noise as many airports are located in or near major cities and, as a result, densely populated areas are affected. Data from the Berlin Aging Study II (Berliner Altersstudie II, BASE-II), whose socio-economic module is based on the longitudinal Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study which has been conducted since 1984, allows us to examine the effect ...

Ganzes Heft

Private Spending on Children’s Education: Low-Income Families Pay Relatively More

Education is not financed solely by the taxpayer—many institutions and activities require payment of top-up fees, at the very least. This applies for instance to education and care services for children. A household’s private expenditure on education depends largely on the families’ available financial resources. However, to date, very little research has been conducted on the relationship between ...

Redistribution Reduces Inequality in Household Incomes: Six Questions to Stefan Bach

Tax and Transfer System: Considerable Redistribution Mainly via Social Insurance

Overall monetary redistribution via the tax and transfer system leads to net incomes being much more evenly distributed in Germany than market income. As a result, in 2011, the Gini coefficient decreased from 0.5 for market income to 0.29 for household disposable income. The social security system has a significant share in total income redistribution by the government, making up more than half of ...

Ganzes Heft

Inheritance Tax Privileges Must Be Restricted for Ownership Transfers of Large Corporations: Seven Questions to Stefan Bach

Inheritance Tax: Limit Corporate Privileges and Spread Tax Burden

After the inheritance tax ruling by the German Federal Constitutional Court, legislators will have to limit the wide-ranging exemptions on company assets. In recent years, they have exempted half of all assets subject to inheritance tax. In particular, large transfers consisting mainly of corporate assets benefit from the favorable conditions. In 2012 and 2013, over half of all transfers of five million ...

Ganzes Heft

No Barriers to Investment in Electricity and Gas Distribution Grids through Incentive Regulation

Since early 2009, electricity and gas distribution in Germany has been subject to incentive regulation designed to ensure greater efficiency in electricity and gas grid operation. However, it remains to be seen how changes to the regulatory framework will affect the investment behavior of distribution system operators. Against this background, the present study empirically analyzes the investment activities ...

New Scenario Framework with CO2 Emission Reduction Targets and Less Lignite: Five Questions to Christian von Hirschhausen

Electricity Grids and Climate Targets: New Approaches to Grid Planning

Grid optimization, capacity increases, and grid expansion all play a key role in the development of the German power generation system. Thanks to transmission system operators’ foresightedness with regard to grid planning, as well as generous financial incentives related to grid expansion, Germany’s energy transition has not been impeded by transmission congestion in the electricity grid to date. So ...

Ganzes Heft

Labor Market Participation of Women on the Rise: Five Questions to Karl Brenke

Growing Importance of Women in the German Labor Market

An increasing share of the working-age population is active in the German labor market. In particular, the number of women participating in the labor force has grown. The more highly qualified they are, the greater their participation in the labor market — and the level of qualification among women has increased considerably, now approaching that of men. Regardless of their qualifications, women’s ...

Ganzes Heft

Financial Sector: Share of Women in Top Decision-Making Bodies Remains Low

At the end of 2014, women were no better represented on the top decision-making bodies of enterprises in the financial sector than the previous year. The share of women on the executive boards of the 100 largest banks and savings banks remained at an average of almost seven percent and on the executive boards of the 60 largest insurance companies at 8.5 percent. On supervisory boards, change was slow ...

Executive Boards of Large Companies Remain Male-Dominated Monocultures: Seven Questions to Elke Holst