Special Research Topic
Demographic Change

Mission Statement

It is a central objective in the research programme of RWI to analyse the effects of demographic change on the prosperity of individuals, firms and the state. It is the task of cross-sectional research into “demographic change“ to formulate recommendations to economic policy, showing possible scenarios of population development, which may differ from the well-known projections offered by the federal and state statistical offices. Work in the different research divisions aims at improving knowledge about demographic determinants of economic change.

Throughout recent years, progress in this research effort resulted in recommendations concerning various fields of economic policy, e.g. health, family, small business and regional policy. By the research programme of the Ruhr Graduate School in Economics, which focuses on demographic change in the forthcoming years, RWI – in cooperation with the universities of the Ruhr – encourages young researchers to attend to this topic already during their postgraduate university education.

Selected current research projects focus, e.g., on the economic resources of senior citizens, business and entrepreneurial dynamics in an ageing society, and the imlications of demographic change for the health and care sector, on the income distribution (with special respect on child poverty in Germany) and on the state's budget. Further more the effects on the labor market performance are on the agenda. Last but not least regional consequences of demographic change, with particular reference to North Rhine-Westphalia and the Ruhr are analysed icluding the effects of immigration and integration of immigrants.

Präsentation „Der demographische Wandel in Deutschland und NRW – Zahlen und Fakten“, erstellt anlässlich der Veranstaltung „Wissenswelten Metropole Ruhr“ des Wissenschaftsforums Ruhr am 15. Juli 2011 in der DASA Dortmund

• Demographischer Wandel