News

Economic experts expect lower economic growth for the eurozone and Germany than was forecast a few weeks ago. At the same time, inflation forecasts have been raised, which are now far above the European Central Bank’s target value. This is the result of the business cycle tableaus by ZEW Mannheim and the German daily newspaper, Börsen-Zeitung.

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The German Real Estate Finance Index (DIFI) by ZEW Mannheim and JLL slumped significantly in the second quarter of 2022. The index lost 51.7 points compared to the previous quarter and slipped to minus 44.5 points. In the first quarter of 2022, the DIFI had already recorded a decline for the first time in six quarters.

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From digitalisation in schools to shortage of skilled professionals: On 14 July 2022, seven school teams competed with their ideas and concepts at the South-West regional final at ZEW Mannheim to reach the final round of the YES! – Young Economic Summit school competition in Hamburg in September.

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The 14th conference of the ReCapNet network will be hosted by ZEW Mannheim and organised by Steffen Sebastian (ZEW and IREBS, University of Regensburg) and Bertram Steininger (KTH Institute of Technology). The conference is planned to be held in person. Should this not be possible due to COVID-19-related restrictions, the conference will take place entirely or partly online.

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What impact will the Digital Markets Act (DMA) recently passed by the EU Parliament have? Where is the economics of privacy going? These and many other questions were discussed by about 80 digital economists at the “Economics of Information and Communication Technologies” Conference at ZEW Mannheim on 7 and 8 July 2022. The conference, organised by ZEW’s “Digital Economy” Department, has been one of the most important scientific conferences in the field of digital economics for years.

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Ten prospective high school graduates of the BBS Wirtschaftsgymnasium in Ludwigshafen visited ZEW with their teacher Ute Pentke on 14 July 2022. In addition to an overview of the organisation and goals of an economic research institute, the students also gained specific insights into the day-to-day work at ZEW.

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This year, the ZEW Research Department “Environmental and Climate Economics” again presented its latest findings in the field of environmental economics at the annual conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE). In addition, there were also two ZEW presentations from the Research Department “Digital Economy” and the Research Group “Health Care Markets and Health Policy”. A total of nine ZEW researchers presented their results from 28 June to 1 July 2022 in Rimini, Italy.

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The pandemic has struck sub-Saharan Africa with particular intensity. In 2020 – the first year of the pandemic – GDP per capita in the region fell an unprecedented 4.5 per cent. But while agriculture, industry and trade are slowly recovering, lost teaching days will exert an acute impact over the long term. A new ZEW study quantifies COVID-19’s impact on education in eight sub-Saharan countries.

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Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has proposed to reform the financing of the statutory health insurance system in order to close the financing gap without excessively raising health insurance contributions. In the latest episode of the #ZEWPodcast format “Put into Context”, ZEW Health Economist Dr. Simon Reif explains the reform package and evaluates the individual measures.

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What contribution must municipalities, the federal government and the EU make in order to achieve the climate targets? Which instruments are effective and which are counterproductive? And what can each and every one of us do to make a difference? These are some of the questions ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach addresses in his latest book “Klima muss sich lohnen” (“Climate Protection Must Be Worthwhile”). At the #ZEWBookTalk on 4 July 2022, the economist gave a preview of his book and presented its core theses. In his presentation, Wambach provided the around 55 participants with an overview of the various dimensions of climate policy. Furthermore, he pleaded for more economic rationality in the choice of appropriate instruments, as markets and mechanisms operating in the background determine the effectiveness of individual climate policy measures. The way they operate, however, is less obvious than often assumed.

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