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In research into higher education, the evaluation of completion and dropout rates has generated a steady stream of interest for decades. While most studies only calculate quotes using student and graduate numbers for both phenomena, we propose to additionally consider the budget available to universities. We transfer the idea of the excellence shift indicator [1] from the research to the teaching area, in particular to the completion rate of educational entities. The graduation shift shows the institutions' ability to produce graduates as measured against their basic academic teaching efficiency. It is an important advantage of the graduation shift that it avoids the well-known heterogeneity problem in efficiency measurements. Our study is based on German universities of applied science. Given their politically determined focus on education, this dataset is well-suited for introducing and evaluating the graduation shift. Using a comprehensive dataset covering the years 2008 to 2013, we show that the graduation shift produces results, which correlate closely with the results of the well-known graduation rate and standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Compared to the graduation rate, the graduation shift is preferable because it allows to take the budget of institutions into account. Compared to the DEA, the computation of the graduation shift is easy, the results are robust, and non-economists can understand them results. Thus, we recommend the graduation shift as an alternative method of efficiency measurement in the teaching area.

The ifo Business Climate Index for industry and trade will be replaced by the ifo Business Climate for Germany. This now also includes the service sector and will form the basis for the ifo Institute’s monthly press release as of April 2018. The ifo Business Climate Index for industry and trade (excluding the service sector) will still be calculated, but no longer commented on by the ifo Institute. The base year for the index calculation will be changed from 2005 to 2015. The aggregation procedure will be changed in detail, whereby the basic method of calculation (balance methodology) remains unchanged. Company responses (micro data) are now assigned differently to the hierarchy levels in some cases. This change means that all of the time series have been recalculated using the adjusted methodology. In this recalculation of all of the time series, responses from companies were also taken into account which in the past were only submitted after the survey deadline and thus excluded from the aggregations.

PurposeDifferences in annual publication counts may reflect the dynamic of scientific progress. Declining annual numbers of publications may be interpreted as missing progress in field-specific knowledge.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, we present empirical results on dynamics of progress in economic fields (defined by Journal of Economic Literature (JEL), codes) based on a methodological approach introduced by Bornmann and Haunschild (2022). We focused on publications that have been published between 2012 and 2021 and identified those fields in economics with the highest dynamics (largest rates of change in paper counts).FindingsWe found that the field with the largest paper output across the years is “Economic Development”. The results reveal that the field-specific rates of changes are mostly similar. However, the two fields “Production and Organizations” and “Health” show point estimators which are clearly higher than the estimators for the other fields. We investigated the publications in “Production and Organizations” and “Health” in more detail.Originality/valueUnderstanding how a discipline evolves over time is interesting both from a historical and a recent perspective. This study presents results on the dynamics in economic fields using a new methodological approach.

Die Stimmung unter den deutschen Firmenchefs trübt sich weiter ein. Der ifo Geschäftsklimaindex ist im Oktober auf 102,8 Punkte gefallen, nach 103,7 Punkten im September. Die Unternehmen waren mit ihrer aktuellen Geschäftslage weniger zufrieden. Auch der Optimismus mit Blick auf die kommenden Monate nahm ab. Die weltweiten Unsicherheiten bremsen die deutsche Wirtschaft aus.

While output and impact assessments were initially at the forefront of institutional research evaluations, efficiency measurements have become popular in recent years. Research efficiency is measured by indicators that relate research output to input. The additional consideration of research input in research evaluation is obvious, since the output depends on the input. The present study is based on a comprehensive dataset with input and output data for 50 US universities. As input, we used research expenses, and as output the number of highly-cited papers. We employed Data Efficiency Analysis (DEA), Free Disposal Hull (FDH) and two more robust models: the order-m and order-α approaches. The results of the DEA and FDH analysis show that Harvard University and Boston College can be called especially efficient compared to the other universities. While the strength of Harvard University lies in its high output of highly-cited papers, the strength of Boston College is its small input. In the order-α and order-m frameworks, Harvard University remains efficient, but Boston College becomes super-efficient. We produced university rankings based on adjusted efficiency scores (subsequent to regression analyses), in which single covariates (e.g., the disciplinary profile) are held constant.

Am 1. September 2018 veröffentlichte die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ihr neues Ökonomenranking. Der vorliegende Artikel macht einige Anmerkungen zur Methodik und Interpretation. Zudem werden kritische Punkte diskutiert. Abschließend wird ein Vergleich zum Ökonomenranking der RePEc-Website gezogen.

Das ifo Beschäftigungsbarometer ist ein wichtiger Frühindikator für den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt. Aufgrund einiger Umstellungen beim ifo Geschäftsklimaindex ergeben sich auch Anpassungen beim Beschäftigungsbarometer. Das Aggregationsverfahren wurde leicht modifiziert und das Basisjahr für die Indexberechnung von 2005 auf 2015 angepasst. Diese Anpassungen erfordern eine Neuberechnung aller Zeitreihen, die im Rahmen der ifo Konjunk­turumfragen gebildet werden. Die grundsätzlichen Konjunkturaussagen und -interpretationen des Beschäftigungsbarometers bleiben insgesamt weitestgehend unverändert.

Der Fachkräftemangel in Deutschland ist immer mehr zum flächendeckenden Problem gewachsen, das nahezu alle Wirtschaftsbereiche und Regionen betrifft. Knapp die Hälfte aller Unternehmen melden derzeit eine Beeinträchtigung ihrer Geschäfte aufgrund fehlenden Fachpersonals. Der Fachkräftemangel hat in nahezu allen Ländern deutlich angezogen. Dies gilt insbesondere für die letzten beiden Jahre. Dabei zeigt sich, dass Deutschland im europäischen Vergleich besonders stark vom Fachkräftemangel betroffen ist.

Die ifo Kapazitätsauslastung der Gesamtwirtschaft ist im Oktober 2019 von zuvor 86,8% auf 86,1% gesunken. Dies ergab eine Auswertung von ca. 7 000 Meldungen von Unternehmen im Rahmen der regelmäßigen ifo Konjunkturumfragen.