Supplementary Questions in the ifo Business Survey

In addition to the ifo Business Survey’s monthly, quarterly, bi-annual, or annual questions, its supplementary questions further increase the potential for economic research. These questions are either collected on a one-time basis or at irregular intervals, and typically relate to current economic topics or company-specific information that is of interest for ongoing research projects.

In recent years, supplementary questions have become a larger part of the ifo Business Survey, with the motivation of obtaining an ad hoc picture of the impact of certain economic policy or global economic developments on German companies and their reactions to them (e.g., the Covid-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine). Another aim is to collect company-specific data for research projects: Since the ifo Business Survey is a panel survey, the answers to these questions can also be linked to other survey variables. In addition, they can serve as control groups or variables in statistical or econometric analyses. Supplementary questions both provide information on the current survey period and offer the possibility of ex post evaluations.