[ D] Klaus Tappeser, General Director at Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts, was appointed to the Supervisory Board of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. His predecessor, Dr. Dietrich Birk, State Secretary at Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts, resigned from his office at the end of January 2010. Dr. Heribert Knorr, Head of Section at Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts, was appointed Mr Tappeser's deputy in the ZEW Supervisory Board. read more
The ZEW-CS-Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Switzerland edged up in January 2010 by 2.2 points, reaching the 56.2 mark. The current rise outweighs the indicator's slight decline noted in December 2009. This reveals the current Financial Market Test Switzerland, carried out monthly by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in cooperation with Credit Suisse (CS). read more
The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany decreased by 3.2 points in January 2010. The indicator now stands at 47.2 points after 50.4 points in the previous month. This value is still well above the indicator's historical average of 27.1 points. read more
The banks' supervisory boards have not fulfilled their control function properly over the last few years and therefore are partly responsible for the crisis on the financial markets. The government definitely has to improve the supervisory board structure in banks. Priorities lie on higher requirements regarding the qualification and experience of board members, a limited number of mandates held by each board member and reinforcing the rights on information of the supervisory board towards the board of directors. A longer retention period when changing from the board of directors to the supervisory board is to be considered. These are the clear findings of a current survey conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim among 222 financial market experts within the monthly ZEW financial market test. read more
The ZEW-Erste Group Bank Sentiment Indicator CEE that reflects the business outlook for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) increases by 7.1 points to 59.1 points in January. 67.3 percent of the polled financial market experts expect the economic situation to improve in the region till mid of the year.
The CEE Indicator is calculated monthly by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, with support from the Erste Group Bank, Vienna. It reflects the assessment of the economic development for the CEE region on a six months time horizon. read more
Worldwide activities in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) collapsed dramatically in 2009. Only about 18,500 mergers and acquisitions with majority interests and a total capacity of almost one trillion euro took place in 2009. Therefore, 2009 was the year with the lowest turnovers in this decade. In 2007, more than 22,800 mergers and acquisitions with a total capacity of 1.8 trillion euro took place due to the good economic situation. "In total, the M&A activities increased considerably in the forth quarter of 2009 and therefore improved the bad balance sheet of 2009", explains Dr. Christoph Grimpe, Senior Researcher at ZEW. read more
The economic situation among companies in the economic sector service providers of the information society further improves. Companies in this economic sector overall expect a positive development in the first quarter of 2010. Moreover, the current business situation receives better evaluations than in mid 2009. read more
The term Green IT includes apart from the energy efficient and environmentally friendly production and disposal of information and communication technology (ICT) also the reduction of emissions via the use of ICT. Meanwhile, more than half of the companies of the economic sector service providers of the information society use telephone conferences as a substitute for business trips. For this purpose, a whole series of companies falls back on net-meetings and video conferences. The greatest advantage of Green IT for the companies is the reduction of operating costs, followed by gains in efficiency and productivity as well as the positive effects with regard to the image of the company. This is the result of a business survey among service providers of the information society, conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research in cooperation with the credit reference agency Creditreform, Neuss, in December 2009 (details regarding the survey are provided below). read more
The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) is pleased to announce its 12th Summer Workshop for Young Economists. The general topic of this workshop is "Expectations and Expectation Formation in Financial Markets". The workshop provides a forum for discussions between young talented researchers and distinguished experts in their field of research. The programme will consist of lectures by experienced researchers and presentations by young scholars. We invite submissions of theoretical and empirical papers. Applications should be submitted by February 22, 2010. Please submit your paper and a curriculum vitae (particularly outlining your research) to summer-finance@zew.de read more
In October 11/12, 2010, the first interdisciplinary conference of the Leibniz Network on Real Estate Markets and Capital Markets (ReCapNet) will take place at the ZEW in Mannheim, Germany. This conference is open to all researchers who are interested in the relationship between real estate markets and capital markets. We welcome contributions in finance and economics, as well as in economic and urban geography, regional science, urban development planning, demography, and law.
The deadline for submission of extended abstracts or full papers is July 31, 2010: conference@recapnet.org Further Information and Call for Papers
