Studying The German Economy?

Question

I am currently in a college economics seminar and part of the assignment this semester is to choose a country and study their economy. Some of questions being why some nations are wealthy or poor, or why these nations take their positions. Or, whether there's an economic incentive which play into both of these factors. Other things they'd liked talk about would be stuff like MB and MC, and just in general developing a view on why these nations think what they think.

The country that I chose was Germany. However, if anyone much more versed than I am in this (which is many, I'm sure), then it would be a huge help to hear some suggestions on, based on the information I've given you, what things about the German economy would be great aspects to study or certain events or things that you think would be beneficial to learn about for this paper. Or perhaps certain controversial issues. Anything that you can think of would be great and worth looking into. Thanks!

Answer 1

That would be an interesting study, go for it. Some things I seem to think I know about Germany that would be worth exploring are:

- the affect of shrinking population on consumer demand, labor force etc (their population is shrinking, or soon will be)

- compared to other countries it has a very oversized export sector. Most people would think that's grand, but I just keep thinking what the hell is wrong with their domestic economy that exports could even constitute such a large portion of output?

- They seem to have a problem with emigration of Germans with skills, going after better opportunities elsewhere.

- related to shrinking population, will their future demographics be able to support their social models? If not, what options do they have?

- Why is their unemployment chronically so high?

... anyway, good luck!

Answer 2

In a class on sociological aspects of economy we had to compare :
- how americans tend to spend more money than they actually
have, based on the assumption of a majority that their personal
financial situation will improve in the next 12 months, thus
boosting their own economy but accepting a high personal risk
versus

- how germans tend to rather save money and assume their
personal financial situation will worsen the next 12 months.This
behaviour is nicknamed "Angstsparen" (=saving out of fear) and
has its roots in the hyperinflation between the wars.

Answer 3

Germany's extensive welfare system spends 31 percent of the country's GDP for entitlement programs operated by the government sector.

No less than 41 percent of the voting-age adult population lives primarily on government transfers such as state pensions, full-scale public stipends, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, and social assistance. (In East Germany, the figure is a whopping 47 percent.)