Press releases

The ifo Institute proposes work visa agreements between the EU and safe third countries as a way to reduce the number of asylum applications and irregular immigration. “This would enable legal and controlled immigration. One reason the European asylum system is overloaded is the lack of opportunities to enter the EU legally. Especially for low-skilled people, the chances of obtaining work visas in Europe are vanishingly small,” says Panu Poutvaara, Director of the ifo Center for International Institutional Comparisons and Migration Research.  

Joint energy and climate action policy in the EU could save European countries EUR 248 billion between 2024 and 2050, with Germany alone saving EUR 66 billion. This is according to a study conducted by the ifo Institute in Munich on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Munich and Upper Bavaria to calculate the cost of making Europe climate neutral by 2050. “Having every country in Europe pursue energy climate action policy alone leads to huge additional costs.

Fewer companies in Germany say they are dependent on intermediate products from China. This is the finding of an ifo Institute survey, according to which 37 percent of all manufacturing companies in Germany are currently dependent on important intermediate products from China. In February 2022, immediately before the start of the war in Ukraine, the figure was 46 percent. “At the same time, we see that fewer companies are looking to reduce their imports from China in the future,” says Lisandra Flach, Director of the ifo Center for International Economics.

A report by a group of economists from France, Germany, and Italy criticizes the EU’s innovation policy and the direction of spending on research and development in Europe and calls for changes. “The EU is losing the innovation race, thereby giving up on economic well-being and surrendering regulatory and geopolitical influence. Its complete absence in the group of top-20 tech companies and top-20 start-ups is ominous. It spends too little on R&D and focuses on mi-tech,” says Nobel laureate Jean Tirole from the Toulouse School of Economics.

Voters of right-wing populist parties are increasingly in favor of dismantling the welfare state in order to be able to compete with other countries. This is according to a survey of 12,000 voters in Germany, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. “The right-wing populist spectrum sees the welfare state as a form of redistribution towards immigrants,” says Marcel Thum, Director of the ifo Institute’s Dresden Branch.