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Scientific Publications of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research: IW-Trends, IW policy papers, IW-Analysen, IW-Studien, IW-Reports, IW-Kurzberichte and Expertises. Read more about our Approach to Research.

IW-Policy Paper

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IW-Policy Paper No. 5 23. July 2024

Trump or Harris or ...? What Europe must prepare for

Hubertus Bardt

A few months before the presidential election in the USA, Donald Trump has a good chance of being re-elected. On the Democratic side, the incumbent president has withdrawn his candidacy after a long period of hesitation, while Vice President Kamala Harris is highly likely to run for the Democrats. This means very different policy scenarios for economic policy and international policy issues that are particularly relevant for Europe.

IW-Policy Paper No. 3 4. June 2024

Strategic autonomy and economic security achieve efficiently

Jürgen Matthes

In this study an analytical scheme is developed to operationalise the objective of strategic autonomy in a cost-effective way.

IW-Policy Paper No. 2 14. May 2024

Challenges for the debt brake

Sebastian Dullien* / Simon Gerards Iglesias / Michael Hüther / Katja Rietzler*

In 2019, Bardt et al. (2019) initially presented a comprehensive estimate of the unmet public investment needs in Germany not covered in household planning at the time, totaling around €460 billion over ten years.

IW-Policy Paper No. 11 8. December 2023

Collective bargaining autonomy in a crisis of legitimacy?

Hagen Lesch / Helena Bach / Sandra Vogel

In Germany, the employers recognised the trade unions as the appointed representatives of the employees in November 1918.

IW-Policy Paper No. 10 22. November 2023

Green Nudging – a key against littering?

Jennifer Potthoff

The demand for cleanliness in cities is increasing: "Littering" - the illegal littering of public spaces - does not only cause costs for the environment and society, but also has significant financial consequences through increased cleaning costs.

IW-Policy Paper No. 8 21. September 2023

Nothing to do with data?: Data utilisation potentials for companies

Barbara Engels

If companies want to survive on the market in the long term, they cannot avoid the topic of data.

IW-Policy Paper No. 7 17. September 2023

Industrial policy at the turn of the times

Michael Hüther / Hubertus Bardt / Cornelius Bähr / Jürgen Matthes / Klaus-Heiner Röhl / Christian Rusche / Thilo Schaefer

The current debate on industrial policy vacillates between the extreme positions of an orthodoxy of rejecting state action and a naive belief in the state's ability to control structural change.

IW-Policy Paper No. 5 30. May 2023

The future of natural gas: how much more do we need and what comes next?

Michael Hüther / Malte Küper / Thilo Schaefer

Natural gas has become increasingly important for Germany in the last three decades, be it for heating buildings, providing process heat in industry or generating electricity. At the same time, the dependence on imports of natural gas has risen to almost 100 percent in recent decades, with most of the imports coming from Russia.

IW-Policy Paper No. 4 27. March 2023

Europe must take the next step: Plan Delors 2.0

Michael Hüther / Simon Gerards Iglesias / Melinda Fremerey / Sandra Parthie

In the coming years, the world order of exchange and multilateralism, which has so far been shaped by the West, will lose power, and global institutions will find it increasingly difficult to fulfil their mission of balancing interests and promoting international cooperation and development.

IW-Policy Paper No. 3 24. March 2023

This time is different but still risky: Banking crisis instead of financial crisis

Michael Hüther

The current crisis of some American and European banks inevitably triggers fears that an international banking crisis could lead to a new financial crisis. But things in 2023 are very different from those in 2007.

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