2018 A n n u a l R e p o r t Presented at the 70th ifo Annual Meeting on 6 June 2019 Published in 2019 for the ifo Institute Poschingerstr. 5, 81679 Munich, Postbox 860460, 81631 Munich, Germany Phone: +49/(0)89/9224-0, Fax: +49/(0)89/985369 Internet: http://www.cesifo-group.de; email: [email protected] ISSN: 2194-928X Editor: Marga Jennewein Translations: Lisa Giani Contini Printing: ifo Institute ifo Annual Report 2018 Page The Goals and Tasks of the ifo Institute . 7 Report of the Executive Board . 10 Research and Service Departments ifo Center for Public Finance and Political Economy . 23 ifo Center for Labour and Demographic Economics . 30 ifo Center for the Economics of Education . 33 ifo Center for Industrial Organisation and New Technologies . 44 ifo Center for Energy, Climate and Resources . 56 ifo Center for International Economics . 64 ifo Center for Macroeconomics and Surveys . 74 ifo Center for International Institutional Comparisons and Migration Research . 89 ifo Center of Excellence for Migration and Integration Research – CEMIR . 95 Research Group Taxation an Fiscal Policy . 96 Library . 101 Press, Publications, Conferences . 102 Dresden Branch . 113 Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research – CESifo GmbH . 125 Conferences, Publications and External Relations of the ifo Institute . 131 Personnel, Finances and Organisational Bodies Personnel Development . 137 Financial Development . 143 Organisation of the ifo Institute . 146 ifo Annual Report 2018 3 The ifo Institute 2018 The Goals and Tasks of the ifo Institute Information and Research: Since its foundation in the context of this topic, the ifo Institute deals with the January 1949 ifo has provided both information and following fi ve fi elds of research: research, hence its name ifo = Information and For- 1. Economic growth and sustainability schung (research). Its legal form is that of a registered, non-profi t association. As a member of the Leibniz As- 2. Equal opportunities and integration sociation, the ifo Institute – formally the Leibniz Insti- 3. Public tasks, taxation and political economy tute for Economic Research at the University of Munich e.V. – is an institution that receives public funding from 4. Digitalisation of the economy the federal and state governments pursuant to Article 5. European integration, globalisation and “third system 91b of the German Constitution. A cooperation agree- competition” ment links ifo closely with Ludwig Maximilian Univer- sity of Munich (LMU), and in 2002 ifo was officially pro- The ifo Institute, CES at the LMU and CESifo GmbH claimed an “Institute at the University of Munich”. pool their resources as the CESifo Group to form an internationally active research association. The aim The ifo Institute is one of the leading economic re- is to enrich the public debate on the basis of excellent search institutes in Europe. Through its fi ve fi elds of economic research, to support economic policy deci- action – research, the promotion of junior economists, sion-making processes with high-quality policy advice, policy advice, participation in public debates, and in- and to support the public with high-profi le economic formation/services – it helps maintain and increase information, such as the ifo Business Climate Index. sustainable economic prosperity and social participa- The ifo Institute cooperates closely with the LMU, es- tion under constantly changing conditions. pecially in the promotion of young researchers and through the joint Economics and Business Data Center The ifo Institute works on economically and politically (EBDC). The department heads and the president occu- Recommendations relevant issues at the highest scientifi c level and with an py nine professorships at the LMU, making up part of of action for international reputation, developing research-based the Faculty of Economics. government, business recommendations for action for government, business and society and society. Economic data and information collected The CESifo Group focuses on the ifo Institute’s nation- systematically and over long time horizons provide al, European and international scientifi c networking impetus for political and public debates, which in turn and on economic research at the LMU. At the heart of generate new research tasks. In this way, ifo plays an these activities is its research network, consisting of important part in the development of appropriate eco- former guest researchers at CES and the ifo Institute. nomic policy decisions as a basis for innovation and EconPol Europe – The European Network for Econom- social development. ic and Fiscal Policy Research is also of central impor- tance for European networking. EconPol Europe is The ifo Institute’s economic policy model is the social a unique network of policy-oriented university and market economy, i.e. the combination of economic suc- non-university research institutes from various Euro- cess with social balance as championed by Ludwig Er- pean countries that combine their expertise to build hard, who was one of ifo’s founders. The central topic of bridges between national and European economic research at ifo is the importance of government action policy debates and contribute to the further develop- for maintaining and increasing economic prosperity, ment of the European Union. economic stability and social cohesion. Government action should promote the creation of wealth, support ifo’s eight research centers – for Public Finance and stability and sustainability of economic development, Political Economy, for Labour and Demographic Eco- ensure social security, and ensure that as many people nomics, The Economics of Education, for Industrial as possible are able to take advantage of the opportuni- Organisation and New Technologies, for Energy, Cli- ties available to them in an open and free society. mate and Resources, for International Economics, for International Institutional Comparisons and Migra- The central topic of research at ifo is the analysis of the tion Research, and for Macroeconomics and Surveys role of government action in sustainably maintaining and – cover research topics that are also highly relevant increasing economic prosperity and social cohesion. In for policy advice. The ifo Dresden Branch, founded ifo Annual Report 2018 7 THE GOALS AND TASKS OF THE IFO INSTITUTE in 1993, works in areas that are of special interest to the ifo World Economic Survey (WES) in 2002. Since its the Free State of Saxony, from which it receives its launch in 1999, the Database for Institutional Compari- funding. sons in Europe (DICE), which currently contains around 3,800 tables, graphs and short reports, has grown sig- ifo’s junior research staff benefi t tremendously from nifi cantly and enriched the range of services provided network eff ects within the CESifo Group. ifo employs by the ifo Institute. more than 40 doctoral students, most of whom par- ticipate in the Institute’s graduate programme and are ifo also off ers a broad range of information via the in- also members of the Munich Graduate School of Eco- ternet, available in German and English, and publishes nomics (MGSE) at the LMU. ifo’s doctoral programme several journals and book series. International publica- is particularly attractive thanks to the fact that it com- tions are becoming increasingly important. bines academic research with the Institute’s practical policy orientation. Every year the CESifo Group organises a number of in- ternational conferences at the ifo Institute, and has be- The economic research carried out at the ifo Institute is come the second largest economics research network subject to the “Rules of good scientifi c practice” draft - worldwide with over 1,500 researchers in 43 countries. ed by the German Research Foundation (DFG), as well The CESifo Working Papers written by members of this as to the gender equality standards also established research network again took top places among all eco- by the DFG. The ifo Institute is seeking to gradually nomic research institutions in a worldwide comparison address the ongoing under-representation of women of downloads from the Social Science Research Net- among its researchers by placing a particular emphasis work website. on supporting young female academics. ifo’s work is characterised by its cooperation with Politics and the general public benefi t from the close universities and renowned researchers in Germany link between the ifo Institute and the LMU, as this link and abroad. Its cooperation with the LMU occupies a Expert opinions on reinforces the Institute’s academic performance and special place in ifo’s work. ifo and the LMU jointly cre- current economic fi rst-class research is the foundation for the policy ated the “Economics & Business Data Center” (EBDC), policy issues work that the Institute sees as its core task. As part of whose main task is to supply a continuously updated its policy advice, ifo produces a large number of expert dataset of German companies to feed new areas of re- opinions on current economic policy issues on behalf search in economics and business administration. The of public and private clients. ifo was among the insti- EBDC provides researchers with corporate data, a com- tutes to submit a successful bid for the joint economic bination of ifo survey data and other corporate data forecast tender, issued for the fi rst time at a European sources, and is the main contact and coordinator for level in 2007; and bid successfully again in all subse- scientifi c datasets on companies. In December 2013, a quent tenders, most recently in 2018. In the context Research Data Center branch of the Bavarian Federal of international consultancy projects, the ifo Institute Statistics Office was opened in the EBDC. Consequent- also makes its expertise available to the public sector ly, researchers can now access German federal statis- institutions of other countries. tics survey data on the EBDC premises. In addition to its research and policy advice, the ifo In- The Institute aims to off er ifo scientists an ideal setup stitute also provides the public with data, information that is conducive to achieving top results in research ifo Business and other services.