| Market design, or the art of actively shaping well-functioning markets. How can this be achieved? This is the central focus of the “Market Design” Research Unit at ZEW Mannheim, which explores how the performance of existing markets can be improved through the active design of market rules.
What may sound abstract at first has very tangible effects in daily life: From allocating nursery places more quickly, fairly, and transparently, to optimising electricity markets, ensuring better distribution of food through food banks, and promoting eco-friendly products like cargo or e-bikes – market design plays a crucial role in maximising prosperity and efficiency in our economy. With its focus on “Market Design”, this ZEW Monthly edition provides current insights into ZEW’s work in this field.
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| | | | RESEARCH ON MARKET DESIGN | |
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↗ FASTER, FAIRER AND MORE TRANSPARENT ACCESS TO DAYCARE PLACES
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| Successful pilot projects have shown that the allocation of daycare places can be significantly improved using freely accessible software. Additionally, the process reveals the actual shortage of places in local areas. To simplify the independent implementation of the software for interested youth welfare offices and daycare providers, a comprehensive step-by-step guide is now available. Municipalities like the city of Kaiserslautern in Rhineland-Palatinate and the district of Steinfurt in North Rhine-Westphalia demonstrate how the allocation of places can be made more transparent and fair. Since 2019, they have been using the algorithm-based software “KitaMatch” developed by ZEW Mannheim.
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| More about KitaMatch
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↗ COMBATING FOOD WASTE WITH DIGITALISATION
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| In Germany, a staggering 710,000 tonnes of food are discarded each year. Approximately one-third of this is salvaged by the voluntary helpers at food banks and distributed to those in need. However, due to an inefficient food allocation system, the full potential for avoiding food waste is not yet being realised. In a project supported by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, researchers from ZEW Mannheim, in collaboration with Tafel Deutschland e.V., show how the allocation of food can be made fairer and more efficient using an assignment algorithm so that more food is saved.
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| More about the project
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↗ TESTING THE IMPATIENCE OF CONSUMERS
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| While subsidies help boost the sale of eco-friendly products such as cargo bikes or e-bikes, they are often given out in an untargeted way. This often benefits those who do not need subsidies and excludes those who genuinely do. Researchers at ZEW Mannheim show how to reduce these negative effects in a new theoretical study. In it, they exploit the impatience of consumers to crowd out financially stronger buyers who would have bought the product even without the subsidy while keeping administrative costs constant.
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| More about the ZEW study
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| | ↗ WHAT IS THE TOTAL CONSUMPTION IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR?
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| A broad subsidisation of industrial electricity prices, as with the German “Brückenstrompreis”, reduces the incentive to save energy, makes innovations less attractive, and jeopardises the transformation of the German economy towards carbon-neutral production. Recent research conducted by ZEW Mannheim and the University of Mannheim reveals that the industrial sector responds to increasing electricity prices by reducing its power consumption. At the same time, the study results do not provide empirical evidence that higher electricity prices have harmed competitiveness, as measured by revenues and employment. Despite emissions trading and the EEG levy, these sectors have actually increased their energy consumption in recent years up until 2017, rather than reducing it.
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| | | | CURRENT ZEW RESEARCH | |
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↗ DOWNTURN FOR CRYPTOCURRENCIES AND REAL ESTATE
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| Financial market experts surveyed by ZEW Mannheim hold a markedly negative outlook on cryptocurrencies and real estate as investment options. Regarding the real estate markets in the eurozone, the monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB) is seen as a decisive factor for this pessimism. However, economic developments, political conditions, and market valuations also contribute to the respondents’ sceptical stances. These are the result of the special question in the ZEW Financial Market Survey conducted in June 2023, in which financial experts were asked to give their assessments of various asset classes.
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| More about the ZEW Financial Market Survey
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↗ LEVERAGING LABOUR MARKET POTENTIALS OF IMMIGRANTS IN GERMANY
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| Since the first recruitment of foreign workers almost 70 years ago, Germany has become the world’s second most important destination for international migrants, after the United States. Despite this fact, there has been a long-standing reluctance among policymakers and in public discourse to acknowledge Germany’s status as an immigration country. Yet, a proactive integration and immigration policy is more important than ever, given the stagnant employment opportunities for newly arrived migrant cohorts over the last two decades. Ukrainian refugees, in particular, possess considerable untapped potential in the job market, as a study conducted by ZEW Mannheim reveals, based on microcensus data.
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↗ ZEW IS PART OF THE LÄND
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| As one of Germany’s leading economic research institutes, ZEW Mannheim is continuously on the lookout for talented individuals to support its politically relevant economic research and science-based policy advice. We are seeking individuals who can bring a fresh perspective to economic issues and contribute to enriching the economic policy debate, whether as a researcher in one of our nine research units, as a science-supporting colleague in our communications or general services units, as an apprentice, or as a student assistant. Located in Mannheim, ZEW combines all of Baden-Württemberg’s advantages and takes pride in being part of THE LÄND.
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| More about the ‘THE LÄND’ campaign at ZEW
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The German health care system is heading for turbulent times, marked by premium hikes, a shortage of nursing staff, and a health care reform that German Health Minister Lauterbach says will “revolutionise the system.” According to Lauterbach, the reform is necessary because the “balance between medicine and economics has been lost.” In this case, however, “more economics” is the solution, not the problem.
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| Read the full opinion piece
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| | | 21ST CONFERENCE ON THE ECONOMICS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
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| On 6 and 7 July 2023, the ZEW Research Unit “Digital Economy” hosted the 21st Conference on the “Economics of Information and Communication Technologies”. Held at ZEW Mannheim, the event attracted international scholars who presented and discussed their latest empirical and theoretical research findings in two parallel sessions. The annual conference was organised by Professor Irene Bertschek, Francesco Clavorà Braulin, PhD, and Dr. Dominik Rehse, and has been regarded as one of the most important scientific conferences in the field of digital economy for many years. This is evident from the submission of over 100 scientific papers and the registration of around 85 participants for this year’s edition.
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| Read the full event report
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| | | | UPCOMING | |
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| | | TENTH ANNUAL MANNHEIM TAXATION CONFERENCE
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| The tenth anniversary edition of the Annual MannheimTaxation Conference will take place on 7 and 8 September 2023 in Mannheim, Germany. The conference focuses particularly on applied and empirical papers related to business taxation, tax avoidance and evasion, behavioural responses to taxation, tax harmonisation in the European Union, political economy of taxation, international taxation, and tax law. We are happy to announce that Rebecca Lester (Stanford University) and Joel Slemrod (University of Michigan) will be this year’s keynote speakers.
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| | | THE FUTURE OF FINANCIAL EDUCATION: AIMING FOR EFFECTIVITY, SUSTAINABILITY, AND INCLUSION
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| Financial education is on the rise and in many places it is receiving the attention it needs in view of the current challenges. But what does effective, sustainable, and inclusive financial education for all population groups look like? What content should be addressed, when, to whom, and by whom? What teaching-learning arrangements should be used? What educational policy and contextual conditions are needed? These and other questions on financial education of the future will be discussed at the 3rd MIFE Annual Conference on 20 November, 2023 in Mannheim with high-ranking representatives from science, politics, and practice. Interested researchers are encouraged to submit their full papers by 15 September 2023.
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| More about the event
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| | | | → CONTACT FOR QUESTIONS OR SUGGESTIONS ON THE CONTENT | |
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| | | ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research
L7, 1 · 68161 Mannheim
Phone: +49 (0)621/1235-01
E-mail: zewmonthly@zew.de
Website: www.zew.de
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Professor Achim Wambach, PhD; Thomas Kohl
Chair of the ZEW Supervisory Board:
Ministerial Director Dr. Hans Reiter
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