This strength also reflects a deep commitment to service. While in 2025, 84% of authors rated their publishing experience with Springer Nature as excellent or good, the figure was 93% among JOPE authors. JOPE authors also stated:

• “The editors managed the peer review process well” (93%).
• “The editorial advice and comments throughout the process helped to improve the paper” (100%).

According to the ABDC’s 2025 Journal Quality List released on March 26, 2026, the Journal of Population Economics (JOPE) has been upgraded from A to A*. This is not a marginal move….

*****

The Editor-in-Chief and the Board of Editors are proud to announce that the Journal of Population Economics has been upgraded from A to A* on the ABDC Journal Quality List, the highest ranking a journal can achieve, reserved for a select group of journals demonstrating truly exceptional global impact.

This recognition is especially timely, reflecting the journal’s commitment to high-quality research. JOPE has been firing on all cylinders for some time, including:

606,400+ downloads in 2025 with over 1,200 submissions and a final acceptance rate of 7%.

Ranked 2nd out of 140 journals in demography (CiteScore 2024, Scopus) and in the top 10% of all economics journals worldwide

Over 50% of articles published in 2025 were linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: evidence of research that matters beyond academia!

44% (2024) and 79% (2023) greater citation impact than the average journal in its category

An h-index of 91 (reported by Scopus in 2025) meaning that 91 of all published articles have each been cited more than 91 times

A five-year Impact Factor of 4.3 and a CiteScore of 8.7 (both measured in 2025 for 2024) further underscore the journal’s standing.

The A* designation places the Journal of Population Economics among the most elite publications across all business and economics disciplines globally. It is the culmination of decades of rigorous, policy-relevant research on the forces that shape human societies, namely fertility, migration, ageing, labour markets, health, and beyond.

To our authors, reviewers, editorial board, and readers: this is your achievement. Thank you for making this journal a home for the world’s best population economics research.

The bar is high. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

A literary “random walk” in the face of fate: Premiere of “Jacques the Fatalist and His Master” based on Denis Diderot at the Bonn Theater on February 28, 2026. Reading and performance were so much fun…..

Rechts: General-Anzeiger Bonn, 2. 3. 2026, S. 8.

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Expanding EU-level issuance is justifiable
by Klaus F. Zimmermann

Public debt in the euro area is high and continues to rise significantly, necessitating a cautious, rules-based approach. Eurostat has reported that the euroarea’s debt ratio stood at 88 percent of GDP in early 2025, with the entire European Union at about 82 percent. There is considerable variation among member countries. Given the current global economic, financial, and political climate, it is anticipated that aggregate debt will increase substantially over the medium term under various plausible scenarios. Consequently, it is essential to rebuild fiscal buffers while simultaneously prioritizing investments that enhance potential growth and maintain support for Ukraine as a European public good.

A novel approach to fiscal management and market liquidity is achievable, though it should remain narrowly focused in the short term. Under the European Commission’s “unified funding” model, the European Union issues pooled “EU-Bonds” under a single label and adheres to semi-annual funding plans. Eurex, the main European derivatives exchange owned by Deutsche Börse, has recently introduced physically deliverable futures on EU-Bonds, offering investors a standardized method to hedge against fluctuations in EU-Bond yields. Provided that issuance remains predictable and transparent, these contracts are expected to enhance secondary market liquidity by connecting cash, repo, and derivatives markets.

Legally, EU-issued securities are obligations of the Union that are used to finance EU programs. The EU budget must be in balance, Article 310 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union requires that revenue and expenditure match. While short-term borrowing on capital markets has been authorized, these liabilities must be repaid in full and in sequence. This approach is distinct from taking on member state legacy debts, highlighting the importance of keeping EU borrowing tied to specific programs and time-limited. Deviating from this approach would not align with European treaties.

Germany has not abolished its debt brake but has constitutionally narrowed it. In March 2025, the Bundestag and Bundesrat approved exemptions for defense expenditures exceeding roughly 1 percent of GDP and established a substantial, multi-year infrastructure special fund. From a conservative standpoint, this approach heightens execution risk and necessitates credible medium-term consolidation. Current experiences already reveal displacement effects: transfers from the core budget into the new fund have created space for non-investment consumption items, effectively crowding out net new public infrastructure efforts and undermining the reform’s stated intent. This dynamic highlights the significant risks associated with the chosen approach and underscores the importance of firm guardrails.

Therefore, expanding EU-level issuance is justifiable for well-defined European public goods, such as defense readiness (including ongoing support for Ukraine), energy security, single-market deepening, and climate-critical infrastructure, as long as it is grounded in transparent program law, strict conditionality, and repayment plans within the European Union’s seven-year long-term budget. With these safeguards, deeper EU issuance and the new futures market can enhance liquidity and resilience without obscuring sovereign-risk pricing; without them, mutualization would invite moral hazard and undermine market credibility.

Expanding EU-level issuance is justifiable. in: The International Economy. The magazine of international economic policy, With EU-Bonds, Is Europe Playing With Fire?, Summer 2025, pp. 46-47. Contribution by Klaus F. Zimmermann. LINK to the complete published material.

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In the famous Bundestag debate on the ratification of the Germany Treaty on December 3, 1952, when I was just one day old, he said: “We are faced with a choice between slavery and freedom. We choose freedom. (Wir stehen vor der Wahl zwischen Sklaverei und Freiheit. Wir wählen die Freiheit.) ”

On the Petersberg near Bonn on December 14, 2025.

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Drachenburg Castle near Bonn, December 20, 2025

The academic conference is on November 1-2, 2025; it is the 8th Renmin University & GLO Annual Conference (see detailed program).

Some impressions from the trip:

The full event program is available here: https://www.leopoldina.org/en/events/event/event/3237/ 

First Call for Papers. The Global Labor Organization (GLO), a large international network of economists and related disciplines, invites contributed papers on all areas of applied human resources issues to its annual hybrid global GLO-JOPE 2025 conference (3-5 December 2025). Supported by the Journal of Population Economics (JOPE), it organizes online sessions for this period, and on December 4-5 a connected in-person event in the Science Center Bonn. Submissions are open, and the submission deadline is October 23, 2025. For further details (continuously updated) see 

https://glabor.org/global-glo-jope-conference-2025-december-3-5-bonn/

As the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Population Economics (JOPE), Klaus F. Zimmermann was invited to speak on September 19, 2025 at the Springer Nature Editor Summit in Heidelberg about the success story of the journal. On January 2024, JOPE introduced Continous Article Publishing (CAP) to ensure fast and efficient publication of accepted manuscripts. At the same time, it started a larger number of article Collections to signal topics of interest to generate extra high quality submissions. Recently, Zimmermann had received the Springer Nature Editor of Distinction Awards 2025. Below see number of submissions to the journal, 2011 to 2025.

Note: 2020/2021: Larger number of transfer desk submissions. 2025: Predicted based on actual numbers on September 17, 2025.

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