Press releases

In the United States, the average time spent working from home is 1.4 days per week. In the United Kingdom, employees work from home for 1.5 days per week on average. In Australia, the average is 1.3 days. The leader among the English-speaking countries is Canada, at 1.7 days per week. In other Western countries, people spend much less time working from home. The average in Germany is 1.0 days, while in France and Italy, it is just 0.6 and 0.7 days per week. This is the finding of a survey of full-time employees conducted by the ifo Institute in a total of 34 countries.

Deutschland liegt mit durchschnittlich 1,0 Tagen Homeoffice pro Woche im Mittelfeld in Europa. In Österreich sind es 0,8 Tage. Mehr von zuhause wird in Unternehmen im Vereinigten Königreich gearbeitet (1,5 Tage), Frankreich und Italien liegen mit 0,6 und 0,7 Tagen deutlich darunter. In anderen westlichen Ländern liegt Kanada mit 1,7 Tagen vorne, gefolgt von den USA mit 1,4 Tagen. In Australien arbeiten die Beschäftigte durchschnittlich 1,3 Tage von zuhause.

ifo trade expert Lisandra Flach recommends quickly concluding the free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur in Latin America. “Ratification of the agreement is key for both Europe and Mercosur to broaden their supply chains and reduce dependence on China,” Flach says ahead of the EU-Latin America summit. China is now Mercosur’s most important trading partner, she adds, while the EU has become a great deal less important in recent years.

Debt and fiscal rules do not generally lead to countries investing less. This has been shown by an evaluation conducted by researchers at the ifo Institute for EconPol Europe. The European Commission is currently planning to soften the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact. According to the Commission, these rules have a negative impact on government investment. “But our findings show that fiscal rules, such as the EU’s Maastricht criteria, are not a fundamental barrier to public investment,” says Florian Dorn, coauthor of the study.

En cas de hausse importante du chômage, l’État social en France rattrape les baisses de revenus globales des demandeurs d'emploi dans une fourchette de 38 à 73 %. En Belgique, c’est entre 52 et 73 %, au Luxembourg entre 43 et 52 %.  C’est ce qui ressort d’une étude d’EconPol sur les systèmes de protection sociale des pays membres de l’Union Européenne. « Les systèmes de prévoyance scandinaves et d’Europe de l’Ouest offrent la meilleure protection contre les conséquences financières du chômage.