After Easter, Germany's new labor and social affairs minister Andrea Nahles will be presenting the grand coalition's first major reform proposal for parliamentary debate: a bill to improve the benefits provided under the statutory pension system. A centerpiece of the reform package is early...

Understanding the risks and consequences of military service in fragile regions is a vital concern facing veterans and policymakers in Germany (and many other nations). Researchers, health professionals, politicians and the news media are actively discussing this contentious topic. A key point...

A wide range of public figures from the social sciences, politics and business have proposed paying every citizen a fixed amount of income without means testing or work requirement. The idea is fascinating. Most recently, a widely reported crowd-funding initiative from Berlin collected EUR12,000...

The introduced sanctions against Russia, which at the moment are on a level of travel bans and asset freezes against a limited group of individuals and firms, are unlikely to trigger a profound change in Russian foreign policy. This can primarily be attributed to the fact that the economic...

Several leading policymakers - from ECB President Mario Draghi to EC President José Manual Barroso - have pushed Eurozone countries to adopt far-reaching structural reforms in labour and product markets in order to foster growth and employment. While there is a broad consensus that structural...

The developed economies of Europe and the United States are slowly recovering from the worldwide financial crisis and the debt crisis in the euro area. How will the economic situation of these countries evolve in the future? Will the developed economies experience high rates of productivity and...

It seems to be widely acknowledged that Germany will face a shortage of skilled workers within no more than a few years. However, the extent of the current and future skilled worker shortage is still up for debate among experts. The disagreement begins with the choice of adequate scarcity...

A key component of the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD signed on November 27 is the adoption of a minimum wage for Germany. Under the agreement, a statutory minimum wage of EUR8.50 per hour will be introduced across the country starting in 2017. Pushed as a make-or-break issue by...

In response to an imbalance between the demand and supply of permits within the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), the European Commission has proposed the introduction of a Market Stability Reserve (MSR). The MSR represents a quantity based automatic adjustment mechanism, which...