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The article focuses on the ongoing skepticism among metalworking companies in North Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany as highlighted by the latest economic survey from the Metal Trade Association of North Rhine-Westphalia. It indicates a deterioration in current economic conditions, with one in ten metalworking firms describing the situation as inadequate. It notes a decline in the demand for skilled labor but highlights that many companies still perceive intense price competition in the market.

Copyright of Züchtungskunde is the property of Verlag Eugen Ulmer and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents the author's views related to neutral effects of global quantitative easing (QE) on the U.S. economy which in turn leads to the problem of Stagflation-global stagnation with high inflation in industrial countries. As mentioned, the World Economic Survey was conducted by the German Ifo Institute, Munich, Germany and Paris, France-based International Chamber of Commerce in the fourth quarter of 2011 which indicated the economic fall in all regions.

The IAB Establishment Panel is a large annual establishment survey and servesas a data source for many empirical analyzes, e.g., on labor demand, wages and industrial relations but also for influential policy evaluations. We analyze the selectivity of the IAB Establishment Panel compared with the administrative population of all establishments in Germany to test whether the IAB Establishment Panel is biased towards ‘‘good employers''. By design the survey over-samples large, thus high paying and stable establishments. After flexibly controlling for elements of the sampling design, we do not detect any meaningful difference between establishments participating in the survey and the full population regarding key economic performance indicators. If anything, we observe a slight overrepresentation of stable and slow growing establishments. For applied research, the results highlight that ‘‘typical'' econometric specifications may not be sufficient to control for selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a representative survey of the German population, this article studies self-reported individual consumption responses to a recent exogenous payroll tax reduction. About 55% of the respondents report that they spend the extra money, indicating considerable potential for tax changes to affect consumption and economic activity. Our analysis of the socio-demographic and economic covariates of consumption responses suggests, among other effects, that interest rates are related to consumption responses to tax changes, and that households with higher income have a higher propensity to consume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about the book "OECD Economic Surveys, 1997-1998: Germany." The book presents the annual OECD review of the German economy based on work completed and finalized by July 1998. It reviews recent macroeconomic developments and short-term prospects and discusses some principal structural and microeconomic forces that may be at work and their prospective impact in the medium term. It also examines monetary and fiscal policies.

It is now a quarter of a century since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the gap in living standards between eastern and western Germany is still not fully closed. Admittedly, this could not realistically have been expected. Despite the increase in life satisfaction in eastern Germany, the east-west divide prevails. Evidence of this can be found in the latest data from the long-term Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study gathered by DIW Berlin in cooperation with the fieldwork organization TNS Infratest Sozialforschung. According to the SOEP data, in 2013, eastern Germans were far less happy than western Germans, although the level of life satisfaction in the east was higher than at any other point in the history of the survey, which was conducted for the first time in eastern Germany in 1990--shortly before economic, currency, and social union. Other subjective indicators reveal differences in satisfaction with household income, health, and childcare. In contrast, job satisfaction, as well as satisfaction with housing, housework, and leisure time have converged. Eastern Germans worry more about crime levels and their own financial circumstances, whereas concerns about xenophobia and employment have diminished throughout Germany. The SOEP surveys show that, according to population, living standards in Germany are now largely aligned. Despite a number of specific problems which, in the coming years, will include the development of new pensions in eastern Germany in particular, German reunification has proven to be an extraordinary success story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ifo Schnelldienst is the property of ifo Institute for Economic Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose – Service employees frequently engage in emotional labour to express emotions to customers that conform with organizational display rules. Previous studies report equivocal findings regarding the relationships among emotional labour, job satisfaction, and quitting intentions. This paper aims to shed additional light on the links by distinguishing two dimensions of emotional labour and predicting that job satisfaction mediates its relationship with quitting intentions, while gender and age moderate its relationship with job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – Cross-sectional survey data from German service employees, entered into a structural equation model, test the study's hypotheses. Findings – Job satisfaction partially mediates relationships between emotional labour and quitting intentions. Deep acting positively affects the job satisfaction of male but not female service employees. The surface acting-job satisfaction link is negative for female but not male service employees. The deep acting-job satisfaction link also is stronger for younger than for older service workers. Research limitations/implications – Conservation of resources theory complements and extends previous service research focused on employee-related outcomes of emotional labour. Practical implications – The findings improve service managers' understanding of how employees' emotional labour drive job satisfaction and employee turnover. Originality/value – This study is the first to consider both gender and age as moderators that help explain employee quitting intentions, as well as the first to find a positive effect of deep and surface acting on quitting intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, new evidence from the financial Almost Ideal Demand Sysytem (AIDS) portfolio model is featured, making use of additional exogenous rate-of-return variation, which has been mostly disregarded in the relevant literature so far. A Two-Stage Budgeting Model (2SBM) of asset demand is constructed and applied to German survey data for a time frame where first implementations of a major income tax reform in Germany significantly altered the tax schedule. Marginal Tax Rates (MTR) at the household level are simulated in an income taxation module. Relatively great rate-of-return elasticities for, among others, owner-occupied housing as well as capital and private pension insurances suggest that return-related reactions are stronger at the asset allocation decision than they are usually found for the consumption-savings decision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the GESIS Microcensus-Trendfile, which composed of data from the German Microcensus from 1962 to 2006. The database contains variables which cover a wide array of topics ranging from regional information, employment, education to household and family. The article also describes the strategies and problems of harmonizing the German Microcensus, offers information on services for users and presents insight into the analytical capability of the Trendfile by example.

This study introduces a monthly coincident indicator for consumption in Germany based on Google Trends data on web search activity. In real-time nowcasting experiments the indicator outperforms common survey-based indicators in predicting consumption. Unlike those indicators, it provides predictive information beyond that already captured in other macroeconomic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the properties of qualitative inflation expectations collected from economic experts for Germany. It describes their characteristics relating to rationality and Granger causality. An out-of-sample simulation study investigates whether this indicator is suitable for inflation forecasting. Results from other standard forecasting models are considered and compared with models employing survey measures. We find that a model using survey expectations outperforms most of the competing models. Moreover, we find some evidence that the survey indicator already contains information from other model types (e.g. Phillips curve models). However, the forecast quality may be further improved by completely taking into account information from some financial indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does tax policy affect entrepreneurial choice? We use two tax reforms in Germany as “natural experiments”. These reforms reduced the marginal income tax rate for entrepreneurs with income above a certain threshold, with the exception of freelance professionals. The two conditions for belonging to the treatment group allow us to apply a “difference-in-difference-in-difference” identification strategy to estimate the effects of the tax rate reductions. We base our analysis on the microcensus, the official representative continuous household survey in Germany. The results indicate that the tax rate reductions increased the probability of choosing self-employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of public R&D subsidies on firms' private R&D investment per employee and new product sales in German manufacturing. Parametric and semiparametric two-step selection models are applied to this evaluation problem. The results show that the average treatment effect on the treated firms' R&D intensity is positive. The estimated effects are robust with respect to the different selection models. Further results show that publicly induced R&D spending is as productive as private R&D investment in generating new product sales. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the Ifo Business Survey, which is being conducted by Ifo Institute in Germany. It discusses the data quantity, documentation and the availability of the survey, as well as the previous scientific usage of these data. An overview of the Ifo DataPool, in which the micro data of Ifo Business Survey are available, is also offered.

The article focuses on the Ifo World Economic Survey (WES), an economic confidence survey being conducted in more than 90 countries by the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich, Germany. It states that the aim of this survey is to assess worldwide economic trends. It mentions that qualitative information is the emphasis of WES which asks economists for their assessment of main economic indicators for the present and for the future.

The article provides information on various journals related to economics and sociology. The "Economic Journal" contains papers by economist R.L. Wedgwood that discusses the statistics of railway costs. He analyses the recent returns of traffic and receipts, and contends that a more scientific statistical system should be introduced. Economist H.W. Macrosty submits proposals for an economic survey of Great Britain and physician Jacques Dumas discusses the present state of the land system in France. The "International Journal of Ethics" shares the views of economists. Professor J.S. Mackensie gives his opinion that late Edward Cuird has built up a solid treasure-house of wisdom that will outlast many erections in breadth of knowledge, balance and judgment, maturity of insight and power of luminous expression. Professor F. Tidily figures out the late Friedrich Paulsen, as child of a hardy, frugal, clear-headed and warm-hearted seafaring race who gave philosophical expression to the ideals of a stock from which so many intellectual leaders of the old fatherland had sprung, and upon the integrity of which the future glory of Germany depends.

The article reviews the welfare states of Sweden and Labor party England and their reconciliation of socialism and democracy. Specifically discussed is Sweden's national business institute founded in 1932 by the finance ministry for independent reportage of economic survey information and development of a long term economic program. A similar institute for Germany is proposed.

The article summarizes the discussion paper "Conversion of Non-Respondents in an Ongoing Panel Survey: The Case of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)" by Jörg-Peter Schräpler, Jürgen Schupp and Gert G. Wagner.