News

On Friday 11 June, ZEW President Professor Wolfgang Franz welcomed almost 400 guests to the institute in Mannheim for the ZEW Economic Forum 2010. The theme of this year’s event was “Agenda 2010 – Review and Future Outlook”, with many talks and discussions taking a close look at the effects of the most comprehensive reform of the German social security system since the founding of the modern republic. Along with a great many other renowned speakers from the world of economic research, ZEW also had the honour of welcoming as a guest speaker former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who was largely responsible for introducing and designing the Agenda 2010.

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There is currently a witch hunt going on in the form ideologically motivated reservations and targeted misinformation campaigns against the idea of a “health premium”, that is, a universal contribution amount for all those subject to statutory health insurance (GKV) contributions. This has already begun with the emergence of the term “per capita premium”, suggesting that some kind of Wild West-like behaviour is afoot. The bold claims that the senior consultant at a hospital would pay the same contributions as the nurses has further helped to solidify negative public opinion. It seems to be extremely difficult to communicate to the public that the health premium actually serves to eliminate unfairness in the current system. It is therefore the job of politicians who truly care about the redistribution of wealth from the top to the bottom of society to emphatically push for the health premium to be introduced.

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From 31 May to 2 June 2010, ZEW, the University of Mannheim, the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation and the Collaborative Research Centre Transregio 15 jointly organised a conference on the implications of platform markets in terms of the economics of competition and regulation. 85 national and international researchers from 16 countries attended the event.

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The exhibition vessel MS Wissenschaft (also known as MS Science) will be on tour through Germany from May 18th until October 7th. ZEW is on board again, this year with a video game about the "dilemma of climate protection".

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Although the number of registered unemployed individuals saw a rise of 160,000 persons last year as a result of the deep economic recession, the rate of unemployment did not increase as expected. While these favourable developments are being referred to as the “German Wunder” in other countries, this has little to do with a “Wunder.” What prevented a dramatic surge in the unemployment rate was the extensive use of the part-time work arrangements instrument. Dr. Holger Bonin, head of the Research Department “Labour Markets, Human Resources and Social Policy” at ZEW, analyses this policy instrument for the labour market and provides an outlook for the development of employment in 2010. After obtaining his degree in economics, Dr. Holger Bonin received his doctoral degree from the University of Freiburg. He worked at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) and the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) and has been head of the ZEW Research Department “Labour Markets, Human Resources and Social Policy” since 2007. As part of his research, Bonin investigates employment issues faced by low-skilled workers, the flexibility of wages, the economic consequences of an ageing population, migration, and the risk propensity of workers. He is a member of the standing field committee “Population Economics” of the economics association Verein für Sozialpolitik.

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Today, Greece is mainly living off past glories of the classical era. The current economic conditions are disastrous and characterised by a combination of self-inflicted crises and actions, which have dire consequences for the other Members of the European Monetary Union (EMU).

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2009 was a year of crisis for the automotive industry, marked by auto manufacturers struggling for survival, governments putting together comprehensive rescue packages, the closure of loss-making companies and the introduction of the scrapping premium as a reaction to the dramatic drop in sales. Christian Rammer, deputy head of the ZEW Research Department “Industrial Economics and International Management” sheds some light on the strategies adopted by German car manufacturers in order to prepare themselves for the future.

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In its most recent annual report, the German Council of Economic Experts has analysed whether the coalition agreement of CDU, CSU and FDP takes into account the diverse economic and political challenges that the German government will have to face in the coming years. After assessing the coalition agreement, the German Council of Economic Experts came to the conclusion although the agreement contains a number of positive aspects, economic policymakers have maybe not yet grasped the scale of these challenges. What are these challenges and why did the Council come to this conclusion?

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The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim pays tribute to the Fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. Until 22 Dezember 2009, the ZEW exhibits wall photographs by artist Piet Joehnk, who is living in Dresden. The vernissage with the artist and 170 invited guests on 9 November 2009, the anniversary of the Fall of the Wall, is the highlight of the exhibition. Joehnk captured the situation of the wall in West Berlin in 1986 in his photograph. Among many unknown graffiti, there are also pictures of paintings by the French artists Christophe-Emmanuel Bouchet and Thierry Noir.

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On 30 and 31 October 2009, ZEW hosted the first conference of the Leibniz network “Real Estate Markets and Capital Markets” (ReCapNet). Launched in early 2009, the international research network aims to investigate the consequences of the growing significance of capital market financing on the real estate markets.

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