News

App developers are increasingly being criticized for keeping people tied to their apps for too long. In a new study, researchers Christina Timko and Maja Adena (WZB) empirically investigated whether the app producers' goal of increasing user retention is compatible with greater transparency and user choice. To this end, they conducted an experiment: in a field setting, 141 students used a news app developed specifically for this experiment with news content from Germany. The result: behavioral design can keep people using apps for longer. However, if they receive transparent information and choice, they use the app for shorter periods of time and feel more autonomous.

Around one-third of the pay gap between men and women can be attributed to how companies pay their employees. This is the conclusion of an analysis of data on income and working hours for all employees in the private sector in ten European countries and the US state of Washington for the years 2010 to 2019. Germany stands out negatively in this international comparison: nowhere else is the contribution of companies to the gender wage gap so high, as an international team of researchers, including WZB researcher Anne Sophie Lassen found out. 

Demography, Identity, and Putin’s War in Ukraine

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace varies significantly from country to country. This is shown by a new study conducted by WZB President Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln and Jonas Jessen, postdoctoral researcher at the WZB, in collaboration with U.S. researchers. The United States leads the way in both the scope and intensity of AI use in the workplace. Germany ranks in the middle of the pack among European countries. The researchers recently presented the study at the Spring 2026 Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) Conference in Washington, D.C., under the title “Mind the Gap: AI Adoption in Europe and the US.”