> Newsletter online      
  Newsletter September 2015
Featured Paper From the Editor Economic Indicators
The Original 
Publications of Interest
The Chart Outstanding Event People Ifo News Bulletin Board
Facebook Twitter More...
  Featured Publication

I'll check my grammar first

Languages with No Future

It's not that some languages are doomed to extinction. It is only that people native to languages without a strong future tense, such as German, tend to be more responsible about planning for the future: they save more for retirement, smoke less, exercise more and eat more healthily. English, in contrast, has a strong future tense, and thus determines a different set of behaviours. Outlandish? Not really: a new CESifo study examines a natural experiment that appears to confirm this deterministic effect of languages.

Other CESifo Working Papers
Working Paper Submission Form

  The Original Sinn

On to the unlikely promised land

Germany, Here We Come

It speaks for German redemption that, after having caused so much destruction and grief in the past and having been itself destroyed in the process, generating huge refugee flows keen to get as far away from it as possible, it should now have become a sort of promised land for just about every refugee flooding today into the EU. But, open-armed as it may be, the German welcome will perforce face some limits, as Hans-Werner Sinn explains.

More from and about Hans-Werner Sinn:
Ifo President Favours Interest Rate Hike in the US

   From the Editor

Out to devour you

Those Ugly Germans

Talk about getting a bad press. Germans just don't seem to get it right. Clobbered for their current account surplus, their stance in the euro crisis, their handling of the refugee crisis, or the bungling of the [fill in blank here] crisis, they could at least point to superb road machines that everyone dreams of laying their hands on. Now that has also gone up in smoke. Literally. Just what we needed.

   Economic Indicators

A long-haul flight, hopefully

Ifo Business Climate Index Edges Upwards

Weakening Chinese growth does not appear to be depriving the German economy of fuel, nor the unexpected load of refugees to be unduly weighing it down: the Ifo Business Climate Index remained at cruising altitude in September. While companies assessed their current business situation slightly less favourably than in August, they are more optimistic about the future. (At least, until a certain industrial behemoth shot itself in the foot.)

Other Economic Indicators:
Credit Constraints Drop to Historical Low
German Companies Continue to Recruit New Staff
Confidence in Abroad Remains Stable
Ifo Architects Survey: Business Climate Remains Good
German Industry Still Expects Slow Growth in Exports
German Service Sector: Ifo Business Climate Indicator Falls Slightly
Germany's Net Capital Exports Rise to Hit New Record

   Ifo News

BrIEFing Brussels

Ifo BrIEF 2015: Europe, the Energy Union and Innovation

The 8th annual Ifo Brussels International Economic Forum (Ifo BrIEF), organised by the Ifo Institute and hosted by the European Committee of the Regions, will focus on the opportunities and pitfalls of the Energy Union and strategies for overcoming the innovation divide in Europe. Mark the day: November 5.

Other Ifo News:
New in the DICE Database
ifo Branchen-Dialog (Ifo Industry Colloquium) 2015
Use Unexpected Budget Surpluses to Pay for Refugees

  The Chart

Competitive and dynamic, indeed

Gross domestic expenditure on R&D, 1981-2013

Back in 2010, the European Union grandly announced that it intended to become "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion" by 2010. Not one single bit of that procession of lofty goals ever came close to being accomplished. To kick-start it anew, increasing research and development (R&D) spending would be a good place to try. A new interactive DICE chart shows how the EU countries, and others, are doing in this regard.

   Publications of Interest

Latest in the CESifo Seminar Series

Political Economy and Instruments of Environmental Politics

Environmental taxes and emission trading systems are profusely touted as the best way to target the negative effects of pollution. Yet there is no agreement about whether they are sufficient or efficiently deployed, or whether they have had any significant effect on climate change mitigation. The latest CESifo-MIT volume not only identifies their shortcomings, but also point to ways in which more effective policy design can help solve one of the most pressing problems of our time. You can get the book here.

Other Publications of Interest:
CESifo Forum
CESifo Economic Studies
CESifo DICE Report
CESifo World Economic Survey
CESifo Working Papers

  Outstanding Event

Public Finance's grandest gathering

CESifo and the 2015 IIPF Congress

CESifo has long been associated with the International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF). Its headquarters is located at the Ifo Institute in Munich. And its 2015 Congress was organised scientifically by Panu Poutvaara, a prolific CESifo Research Network Fellow and Director of the Ifo Centre for International Institutional Comparisons and Migration Research, together with long-time CESifo Network Fellow Dhammika Dharmapala. Among other things, a novel way of taxing corporations was put forth.

Check out also:
CESifo Area Conference on Energy and Climate Economics
Other Forthcoming Academic Conferences

   People

Faces of the Month

Guests and Locals

The CESifo Group is hosting a number of scholars during October. See what they are working on and get to know their research focus and other aspects of interest.

  Bulletin Board

 

News and things of interest to CESifo Network members

The Max Planck Institute will hold a talk on the effects of minimum wage introduction in Germany. Check it out. For new postings on the Bulletin Board, please contact Yvonne Maldener.


© 2015 CESifo GmbH | Poschingerstr. 5, 81679 Munich, Germany
   www.cesifo.org

All texts are the responsibility of the editor and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Ifo, CES or CESifo, or of the researchers mentioned
Published by CESifo GmbH, Poschingerstraße 5, 81679 Munich, Germany
Tel.: +49 (89) 9224-1425, Fax: +49 (89) 9224-1409
Editor: Julio C. Saavedra
Your data will be used solely for the purpose of sending you the CESifo Newsletter. In no case will your data be made available in any way to third parties. For further details, see our privacy policy.