Does time-varying business volatility affect the price setting of firms and thus the transmission of monetary policy into the real economy? To address this question, we estimate from the firm-level micro data of the German IFO Business Climate Survey the impact of idiosyncratic volatility on the...

Zukünftig ist mit einem spürbaren Anstieg der Ausgaben der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung (GKV) zu rechnen, dem ein entsprechender Einnahmeanstieg gegenüberstehen muss. Nach geltendem Recht werden dazu die bereits gesetzlich verankerten, aber derzeit noch nicht flächendeckend...

There is an intensive debate about old-age poverty in Germany that has induced political parties to develop proposals for higher pensions of poor pensioners in light of the federal elections of September 2013. In addition, several proposals from economists aim at reforming the pension system in...

Just a few months after the federal elections in Germany, the so called pension package entered into force. It mainly contains three measures: higher pensions for mothers with children born before 1992 ("mother pension"), a reduced retirement age for persons who contributed to the pension system...

The ifo Business Climate Index is the most important early indicator for developments in the German economy. It aggregates thousands of responses from the companies surveyed in the ifo business surveys on a monthly basis. This article presents the new ifo Business Climate for Germany, which will...