The ifo Business Survey in the Insurance Industry

The ifo Business Survey in the insurance industry was launched in 1999 and is a joint project of the German Insurance Association (GDV) and the ifo Institute. The decision to implement the survey was made after a pre-test showed that the survey results had a significant correlation with the respective reference statistics of GDV. Since its inception, the survey has undergone several developments. The number of response choices for the questions has been scaled down from five to three to be in line with the monthly ifo Business Survey. The types of insurance covered by the survey and the list of questions have also slightly changed over time. From the summer of 2017 to 2020, companies were able to submit their answers via an online questionnaire as an alternative to the previously used paper questionnaire. Since 2020, the online questionnaire has been the only option to participate in the survey. Meanwhile, the time series of the survey results are long enough that they can also be seasonally adjusted.