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China’s importance for the global economy has been growing for years. And it will continue to grow. Since 2020, the country has been a member of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in the Asia-Pacific region, the largest free trade zone in the world. Due to its great economic weight, the Chinese economy is now not only an important partner for the European Union, but also a competitor. After several years of negotiations, the EU and China have just reached an agreement on investment. ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach and Dr. Philipp Steinberg, head of economic policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), discussed the agreement and fair competitive conditions for European companies at a #ZEWlive event on Wednesday, 13 January 2021. The event was moderated by Jessica Sturmberg.

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SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the current recession in the global economy. However, there is an information problem underlying the coronavirus pandemic, according to Professor Joshua Gans from the University of Toronto, Canada. He presented this insight along with his book “The Pandemic Information Gap: The Brutal Economics of COVID-19” at the second #ZEWBookTalk on 17 December 2020. In his book, he explains the economic choices that have been made in response to the pandemic and what their motives are. ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach moderated the subsequent discussion with the speaker.

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This year, the twelfth conference of the Leibniz Network “Real Estate Markets and Capital Markets” (ReCapNet) took place as an online-only event with guests from all over the world. Between 10 and 19 November 2020, around 100 researchers met to attend the presentations and discussions of twelve selected research papers as well as the keynote address by Professor Edward Glaeser from Harvard University.

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Markets do not come out of thin air, they are created by humans to achieve certain aims. How well a market is equipped to achieve these aims depends largely on the rules that apply there. Market design is dedicated to analysing and optimising markets by designing these rules.

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The allocation of daycare places, mobile phone frequency auctions, or the distribution of donations – markets are diverse and can be improved by an efficient design of their rules. Market design is dedicated to optimising and analysing markets. In the latest episode of the #ZEWPodcast, Professor Vitali Gretschko talks about where this economic discipline can be applied. He explains what markets and market design are all about and in what way market design could help, for example, in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.

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One year ago, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Wuhan. Since then, more than 65 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus, the death toll has passed 1.5 million, and the global economy is experiencing its biggest slump since the end of World War II.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to one of the most severe recessions of the post-war period, and there is currently no sign of the economic situation returning to normal. Against this background, Professor Lars P. Feld, chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts, presented the key results of the recently published Annual Report 2020/21 on 8 December 2020. In its report entitled “Overcoming the Coronavirus Crisis Together; Strengthening Resilience and Growth”, the council calls on the German government to readjust its economic policy. The virtual event took place as part of the lecture series “First-Hand Information on Economic Policy” at ZEW Mannheim. ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach moderated the subsequent discussion with the speaker.

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Academics and policymakers met virtually to discuss how the EU’s fiscal architecture might be adjusted in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic during a lunchtime seminar on 3 December 2020. The seminar was organised jointly by ZEW Mannheim and the international research network EconPol Europe, moderated by ZEW economist Dr. Zareh Asatryan, deputy head of the “Corporate Taxation and Public Finance” Research Department. Around 120 participants from all over Europe joined the special policy session of the ZEW seminar series.

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The German Real Estate Financing Index (DIFI) of ZEW Mannheim and JLL continues to improve in the fourth quarter of 2020. The sentiment indicator climbed 12.5 points to minus 23.5 points, thus almost returning to the level of the first quarter of 2020 (minus 18.5 points). In particular, the assessment of the financing situation of the past six months has resulted in the index almost reaching pre-pandemic levels.

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During the coronavirus pandemic, German economic policymakers must not lose sight of two developments: On the one hand, the growth of powerful internet giants through digitalisation, and on the other hand the economic success of China, which rests on the influence of large state-owned corporations. Taking up these developments, Social Sciences Academic Press has now published the book “Digital Prosperity for All” by ZEW President Achim Wambach, PhD and Handelsblatt journalist Hans Christian Müller in Chinese.

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