Die vierteljährliche volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnung (VGR) ist das wichtigste Analyse- und Prognose-Instrument des Konjunkturforschers. Das DIW stellt dafür schon seit vielen Jahren - in Ergänzung zu den Daten des Statistischen Bundesamtes (StaBu) - ein geschlossenes Kreislaufsystem zur...

The paper evaluates the quality of the German national accounting data (GDP and its use-side components) as measured by the magnitude and dispersion of the forecast/revision errors. It is demonstrated that government consumption series are the least reliable, whereas real GDP and real private...

The standardisation of the European systems of national accounts has progressed significantly in recent years. Some room for interpretation remains in regard to some accounting standards, the periodicity of the data, and the quality of the forecasts of budget deficits. Yet national accounts data...

This paper investigates the differences between directly and indirectly seasonally adjusted aggregates. This difference is derived analytically for linear seasonal adjustment methods. GDP data for five European countries and three classes of seasonal adjustment methods are used to show...

This paper explores the relationship between risk attitude and asset diversification in household portfolios. We first examine the impact of manifested risk aversion on the total number of distinct assets held in a portfolio (naive diversification). The second part of the paper focuses on a more...

With banking sectors worldwide still suffering from the effects of the financial crisis, public discussion of plans to place toxic assets in one or more bad banks has gained steam in recent weeks. The following paper presents a plan how governments can efficiently relieve ailing banks from toxic...

This document provides an overview of the long-term care system, the number and develop-ment of beneficiaries and the long-term care policy in Germany. The report is part of the first stage of the European project ANCIEN (Assessing Needs of Care in European Nations), commissioned by the European...

It is argued that the observed return rates on capital at firm-level have an upward bias if firms are producing with unobserved intangible capital. Using EUKLEED, a comprehensive firm level data base for Germany, this theoretical preposition is proved empirically. Furthermore, making unobserved...

Vor der Bundestagswahl im September 1998 zeichnete sich ab, daß die Steuerreform weiterhin auf der Tagesordnung beiben würde. Die Vebreiterung der Bemessungsgrundlage hat darin einen wichtigen Stellenwert.Der Subventionsabbau ist ohnehin ein witschaftspolitischer Dauerbrenner. Das...