Flexible asset purchases and repo market functioning

Flexibility has progressively become a distinctive feature of the implementation of the Eurosystem's asset purchases. In its many manifestations, flexibility has also been used by asset managers in the daily selection of sovereign bonds to limit the impact of asset purchases on repo market specialness. This study shows that, since the inception of the Public Sector Purchase Programme, flexible purchases of bonds greatly mitigated the Eurosystem's footprint on the repo market

Trade, jobs and technological change: What to expect in the next five years?

This Policy Brief explores the intertwined effects of trade and technological change (notably robotics and AI) on employment, highlighting a growing divergence between the number of jobs supported by exports and the declining labour intensity of exports in recent years. The decline in labour intensity may be sharply accelerated by the rise of robotics and the automation of routine tasks, displacing workers in manufacturing and logistics while enhancing productivity. For many countries that have a strong dependence on the tradejobs nexus, the historically declining labour intensity of exports combined with the rapid adoption of robotics in key economic sectors, will mean that industries could now rely on fewer workers for their exporting activities. This dual shock suggests that, in the future, the number of jobs that depend on trade may decline. The convergence of these forces may lead to certain sectors or regions bearing the brunt of such potential labour disruptions. To address these challenges, supporting policies will be required to mitigate these adverse effects

Green central bank measures and public trust: Empirical evidence from survey data

Central banks can play a key role in the change in finance needed for the green transition, but green central bank measures may also have an impact on the general public's trust in the institution. Trust, in turn, is crucial for central banks to successfully conduct monetary policy. The objective of our study is to examine how this trust may change in response to green central bank measures in Hungary, using an independently conducted survey of 1,000 adults. Our results indicate that there is potential for some increase and a limited risk of a decrease in trust as a result of green measures. Although most respondents indicated that their trust in the central bank would not change if it took pro-environmental measures, over one third of respondents thought their trust would increase (37 per cent), while the share of those indicating a decline in trust was low (6 per cent). The majority supports the active involvement of the Central Bank of Hungary in the fight against climate change, but only as long as this does not pose risks to the inflation target and the stability of the banking system. We also find that Hungarians tend to worry about climate change and, accordingly, they consider the central bank's role in environmental sustainability important, but have little knowledge about the tasks of central banks

Vergabe der Kohle-Fördermittel nimmt langsam Fahrt auf: Zweiter Zwischenbericht zur begleitenden Evaluierung des Investitionsgesetzes Kohleregionen (InvKG) und des STARK-Bundesprogramms erschienen

Am 13. Februar 2025 wurde der zweite Zwischenbericht zur begleitenden Evaluierung des Investitionsgesetzes Kohleregionen (InvKG) und des STARK-Bundesprogramms von den Wirtschaftsforschungsinstituten IWH und RWI veröffentlicht. Die Evaluierung, die im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz durchgeführt wird, analysiert die Fortschritte der Programme, identifiziert die Wirkungen der Förderung und gibt konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen, wie die Maßnahmen optimiert werden können, um die Transformation der vom Kohleausstieg betroffenen Regionen in Deutschland erfolgreich zu gestalten

Homeoffice: Zukunftsvision auf dem Weg zu mehr Gleichberechtigung?

Der Hauptgrund für die chronisch niedrige Erwerbsbeteiligung von Frauen im Vergleich zu Männern ist die "Child Penalty". Das Phänomen beschreibt die beruflichen Nachteile, die Frauen nach der Geburt des ersten Kindes erfahren, während Männer keine Einbußen verzeichnen. Wie beeinflusst Homeoffice diese Gender-Ungleichgewichte? Verringert die Arbeit von zu Hause die Unausgewogenheit in Bezug auf Haus- und Sorgearbeit, Erwerbsbeteiligung und Entlohnung? Während die Literatur starke Hinweise liefert, dass Homeoffice die Erwerbsbeteiligung von Frauen fördert und teilweise Lohnungleichheiten verringern kann, ist die Auswirkung in Bezug auf Haus- und Sorgearbeit bislang weitgehend unklar.This article discusses what we know about the impact of working from home (WFH) on gender inequalities in the labour market and unpaid care work. While the literature provides evidence that remote work can promote women's labour force participation and reduce wage inequalities, the impact on gender gaps in care work remains largely unclear. A major limitation is that findings from periods before the big shift to remote work induced by COVID-19 cannot easily be applied to "new" WFH arrangements today

Improving Recycling: How Far Should We Go?

We analyze, in a game-theoretic model, the strategic interaction between competing firms that source their inputs from either primary or recycled material. Because the manufacturers’ primary production today serves as input for the recyclers’ production tomorrow, manufacturers can limit the recyclers’ scale of operation by reducing their output. Improving the recycling process generates then two opposite effects: it reduces primary production tomorrow by exposing manufacturers to stronger competition from recyclers, but it also lowers the manufacturers’ incentives to reduce their primary production today. If primary production exerts a negative externality on the environment, then making the recycling process too efficient might be counterproductive. This intuition equally applies to remanufacturing

Global challenges in the economics of education: Basic skills, natural disasters, and civic engagement

Sarah Gust führte diese Studie während ihrer Tätigkeit am ifo Institut durch. Die Studie wurde im September 2024 abgeschlossen und als Dissertation an der Volkswirtschaftlichen Fakultät der LMU München angenommen. Sie besteht aus drei eigenständigen empirischen Essays, die mikroökonometrische Methoden anwenden. Die Studie beleuchtet durch die Perspektive der Bildungsökonomik drei zentrale Herausforderungen, mit denen moderne Gesellschaften weltweit konfrontiert sind: die Sicherstellung grundlegender Kompetenzen, das Verständnis der Auswirkungen von Naturkatastrophen und die Förderung des zivilgesellschaftlichen Engagements. Das erste Kapitel bietet eine allgemeine Einführung in die Themen und Methoden der Studie. Kapitel 2 erstellt eine globale Datenbank zum Mangel an grundlegenden Kompetenzen und simuliert die wirtschaftlichen Verluste, die mit dem Nichterreichen universeller Grundkompetenzen einhergehen. Kapitel 3 untersucht die Auswirkungen von Naturkatastrophen auf die schulischen Leistungen von Schülern und analysiert die zugrunde liegenden Mechanismen, wobei sich anhaltend negative Effekte zeigen. Kapitel 4 erforscht den Zusammenhang zwischen politischer Bildung in der Schule und dem zivilgesellschaftlichen Engagement im Erwachsenenalter. Die Analyse zeigt, dass die Einführung von politischer Bildung als eigenständiges Schulfach einen positiven Einfluss auf das zivilgesellschaftliche Engagement hat. Die Ergebnisse zur Wirkung einer erhöhten durchschnittlichen Unterrichtszeit, sind hingegen weniger eindeutig und zeigen im Durchschnitt keine Effekte

Die neue generalistische Pflegeausbildung in Bremen. Gute Ausbildungsqualität - Ergebnisse einer Evaluationsstudie

Die seit 2020 umgesetzte "generalistische" Pflegefachkraftausbildung führt drei zuvor getrennte Fachkraftabschlüsse zu einem gemeinsamen Abschluss zusammen. Die neue Pflegeausbildung ist dadurch inhaltlich und organisatorisch sowie in den Lernanforderungen komplexer geworden. Die vorliegende Studie hat aus einer arbeitswissenschaftlichen Perspektive untersucht, welche Auswirkungen die Reform im Land Bremen auf die Ausbildungsqualität als wichtige Variable für den Ausbildungserfolg der Pflegeauszubildenden hat. Was sind die größten Herausforderungen? Welche Rahmenbedingungen sind wichtig, damit möglichst viele Auszubildende die Ausbildung erfolgreich durchlaufen und anschließend auch als Pflegefachkräfte arbeiten wollen? Zentrales Ergebnis der Studie ist die Feststellung großer Ressourcenunterschiede sowohl bei Auszubildenden als auch bei den Lernorten Pflegeschulen und Praxiseinrichtungen, die einen erheblichen Einfluss auf die Ausbildungsqualität besitzen. Zentrale Empfehlung bildet die Etablierung eines lernortübergreifenden Unterstützungskonzepts zur Förderung der Sprachkompetenz und Ausbildungsfähigkeit bereits vor dem Start und begleitend zur Ausbildung. Wichtig wären zudem eine sozialpädagogische Betreuung an den Schulen sowie die Sicherstellung einer qualitativ hochwertigen und verlässlichen Praxisanleitung.The Nursing Professions Reform Act of 2017 merges the three previously separate specialist nursing qualifications ('geriatric nursing', 'healthcare and paediatric nursing' and 'healthcare and nursing') into a joint 'generalist' qualification under the title 'nursing specialist'. Completing a nursing specialist training programme qualifies graduates to work in all major care areas. An important aim of the training reform is to achieve progress in training and working conditions in inpatient long-term care and outpatient care, where the quality of working conditions lags behind acute care in hospitals for various reasons. Outpatient and inpatient long-term care facilities must now catch up in order to be able to compete for generalist trained nursing staff. The new nursing training has become more complex in terms of content, organisation and learning requirements as a result of the merger. It involves trainees with different school-leaving qualifications and training locations, who have to cope with the increased requirements with different resources. As the reform of nursing training implemented by federal law is being implemented in each of the federal states with its own specifics and encounters different structures and resources of nursing organisation and nursing training in the various states and municipalities, this study asks from an occupational science perspective: How does the reform in the state of Bremen affect the quality of training as an important variable for the training success of nursing trainees? What are the biggest challenges? In view of the high drop-out rates in nurse training in the state of Bremen, how can it be ensured that as many trainees as possible successfully complete their training and subsequently want to work as nurses? In order to clarify these questions, a threeyear accompanying research project on generalist nursing training was launched in 2021 as part of a research project commissioned by the Bremen Chamber of Labour and completed in summer 2024. The central result of the study is the identification of major differences in resources among trainees and at the learning locations of nursing schools and practice centres. The larger the learning location, the better the staffing in various functions, the higher the trainees' school-leaving qualifications and the better their German language skills, the greater the likelihood of being able to complete the training programme well. There are considerable differences between the care sectors. Acute care has better resources than inpatient long-term care and outpatient care, especially when it comes to smaller facilities. This is also reflected in the quality and scope of practical instruction and teaching staff, the equipment of the learning locations (e.g. skills labs) and the management of the organisational workload. The central recommendation for improving the quality of training and equal opportunities for trainees and learning centres is the establishment of a cross-learning centre support concept for language support and training skills. This support should start as early as possible before the training programme in order to give trainees a good start to their training and accompany them into training as required. A great deal of importance is also attached to the provision of socio-educational support at schools and the expansion of high-quality and reliable practical guidance

An estimation and decomposition of the government investment multiplier

We construct a narrative instrument for government investment from official records in Germany. Using structural vector autoregressions, we document a significant crowding-in of private investment and an output multiplier of roughly 2. Then, we match a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to the empirical responses, and we decompose the multiplier into three channels. Public investment reduces private investment costs in the short run, it increases the production capacity in the medium run, and it generates demand effects along the production network. We find a similar multiplier in other euro area countries, using an indirect instrumental variable strategy