DIW Economic Bulletin

Executive Board and Supervisory Board Members in Germany’s Large Corporations Remain Predominantly Male

The executive boards of large corporations in Germany continue to be in men’s hands: at the close of 2014, a good five percent of executive board members at the top 200 companies in Germany were women. This is equivalent to an increase of one percentage point over 2013, which is evidence of the rather sluggish development in this area. DAX 30 companies recorded the largest proportion of female board ...

Ganzes Heft

German Construction Industry: New Residential Construction at Cyclical Peak - Public Construction Gaining Ground

The construction industry remains a key pillar of the German economy. According to the latest construction volume calculations by DIW Berlin, the value of construction in 2014 and 2015 is forecast to grow far more rapidly than the economy as a whole: by a price-adjusted 3.3 percent and 2.1 percent in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Currently, new residential construction is an important engine for growth ...

Crime Statistics: “Dark Figure” Survey to Correct Police Statistics: Eight Questions to Mathias Bug

How to Obtain a More Accurate Picture of Crime through Crime Statistics: Proposals and Methods

This report aims to show the distribution of crime in Germany. For this, police crime statistics (polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik – PKS) are treated so that they integrate dark figures (unreported crime) of crime types along with their specific grade of burden. The different treatments are based on own recent survey data. Two major trends are confirmed by both treatment methods: First, there is a northsouth ...

Ganzes Heft

Young People's Intention to Study: Personality Traits Play a Role: Seven Questions to Johanna Storck

Personality Traits Affect Young People's Intention to Study

Although in recent years the number of new students has been growing constantly, socio-economic differences remain an issue in the transition from school to college: those eligible for higher education whose parents do not have a college degree are less likely to take up higher education than their peers from academic parental homes. This means that they may not be fully utilizing their educational ...

Ganzes Heft

Everyone Happy: Living Standards in Germany 25 Years after Reunification

It is now a quarter of a century since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the gap in living standards between eastern and western Germany is still not fully closed. Admittedly, this could not realistically have been expected. Despite the increase in life satisfaction in eastern Germany, the east-west divide prevails. Evidence of this can be found in the latest data from the long-term Socio-Economic Panel ...

Wages in Eastern Germany Still Considered More Unjust Than in the West

Almost twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, far more eastern Germans are unhappy with their income than western Germans. In 2013, around 44 percent of employed eastern Germans rated their earnings as unjust compared with approximately one-third in western Germany. Although the east-west gap has been diminishing since 2005—to around 12 percent in 2013—this is not because eastern Germans ...

Childcare Trends in Germany: Increasing Socio-Economic Disparities in East and West

In East Germany, prior to reunification, daycare provision was widely available to encourage mothers to return to work soon after giving birth. Conversely, in West Germany, childcare facilities for under-threes were few and far between and, at the end of the ’80s/ beginning of the ’90s, the length of parental leave was gradually extended up to three years following the birth of a child. Since 2005, ...

Gender Pension Gap in Eastern and Western Germany

Now, 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, eastern and western German men are receiving similar state pensions, the main pillar in the system of old age provision in Germany. In contrast, the average pension paid to eastern German women far exceeds that of their western counterparts. A cohort comparison shows a narrowing of the gender gap when it comes to pension entitlements in eastern Germany. ...

Eastern Germany Ahead in Employment of Women

Almost a quarter of a century after the fall of the Wall, there are still more women in employment in eastern Germany than in the west. Although the disparity is marginal now, the two regions started from dramatically different levels. In 1991, immediately after reunification, the employment rate for women in western Germany was 54.6 percent, but since then it has increased year on year, reaching 67.5 ...

Private Net Worth in Eastern and Western Germany Only Converging Slowly

Very nearly 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, households in eastern Germany have an average net worth of 67,400 euros which is less than half that of their counterparts in western Germany with an average net worth of 153,200 euros. In both parts of the country, real estate ownership is quantitatively the most important asset type. Although the share of owner-occupiers has increased significantly ...

Eastern Germany Must Focus on Education and Innovation: Six Questions to Karl Brenke

Eastern Germany Still Playing Economic Catch-Up

The economic gap between eastern and western Germany is still sizeable, even 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In terms of GDP per inhabitant and productivity, eastern Germany has attained nearly three-quarters of western German levels, respectively. Since some years, the catch-up process is advancing very slowly indeed. The main reason for low productivity is the lack of highly skilled jobs. ...

Reunification: An Economic Success Story

People’s expectations after the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago and of reunification in 1990 were huge. The government promised to create “flourishing landscapes” within a few years. The euphoria of reunification came not only through the desire to finally become one country and one nation again but also had tangible economic reasons: the people from East Germany wanted better economic prospects, ...

Ganzes Heft

Education as a Tool for Democratization

Calls for democratization have been a new landmark of the current decade. Protestations and revolutions demanding political change and democratic reforms have spread across most of the Middle East and North Africa. Yet, the origins and the determinants of success of these movements remain unclear to researchers and policy makers. Historically higher educational attainment has undeniably been associated ...