COVID-19 hit firms by surprise. In a high frequency, representative panel of German firms, the business outlook declined and business uncertainty increased only when the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic led to domestic policy changes: The announcement of nation-wide school closures on March 13...

COVID-19 hit firms by surprise. In a high frequency, representative panel of German firms, the business outlook declined and business uncertainty increased only when the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic led to domestic policy changes: The announcement of nation-wide school closures on March 13...

This paper studies the price and employment response of firms to the introduction of a nation-wide minimum wage in Germany. In line with previous studies, the estimated employment effect is only modestly negative and statistically insignificant. In contrast, affected firms increased prices much...

We survey samples of German firms and households to document novel stylized facts about the extent of information frictions among the two groups. First, firms' expectations about macroeconomic variables are closer to expert forecasts and less dispersed than households', consistent with higher...

Die Stimmung in der deutschen Wirtschaft hat sich in den vergangenen Monaten spürbar eingetrübt. Nahezu kein Wirtschaftsbereich blieb davon verschont. Anders als noch im Sommer erwartet, dürfte daher die Erholung in der zweiten Jahreshälfte ausbleiben und sich die konjunkturelle Abkühlung...

Attention to the economy plays a key role in canonical macro models, yet its empirical properties are not well understood. We collect novel measures of attention to the economy based on open-ended survey questions. Our measures are included in tailored panel surveys of German firms and...

Die Anzahl der Kurzarbeitenden in Deutschland ist in den vergangenen Monaten erheblich gesunken. Nach der aktuellsten Schätzung des ifo Instituts, die sich auf Ergebnisse der ifo Konjunkturumfragen sowie Zahlen der Bundesagentur für Arbeit stützt, dürften im Mai noch etwa 277 000 Menschen in...