Filtern
Dokumenttyp
- Research Paper (35) (entfernen)
Sprache
- Englisch (35) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Export (4)
- Produktivität (4)
- insurance (4)
- Biodiversität (3)
- Deutschland (3)
- Germany (3)
- Versicherung (3)
- ecosystem services (3)
- productivity (3)
- Ökonomie <Begriff> (3)
- Ökosystem (3)
- Arbeitsproduktivität (2)
- Betriebsrat (2)
- Discrimination (2)
- Diskriminierung (2)
- Elfter September (2)
- Exports (2)
- Forschung und Entwicklung (2)
- Geographie (2)
- Gewerkschaft (2)
- Haftpflichtrisiko (2)
- New Economic Geography (2)
- R&D (2)
- September 11th (2)
- Umweltpolitik (2)
- Umweltökonomie (2)
- adjustment costs (2)
- agri-environmental policy (2)
- agro-biodiversity (2)
- congested public inputs (2)
- ecosystem management (2)
- risk-aversion (2)
- union membership (2)
- wages (2)
- Agrarplanung (1)
- Agrarökosystem (1)
- Anpassungskosten (1)
- Arbeitslosigkeit (1)
- Armut (1)
- Art (1)
- Auktion (1)
- Ausfuhrüberschuss (1)
- Auslandsinvestition (1)
- Ballungsraum (1)
- Beschäftigung (1)
- Biologische Landwirtschaft (1)
- Biologischer Landbau (1)
- Deregulierung (1)
- Deutsche <Bundesrepublik> (1)
- Eductive Stability (1)
- Efficiency (1)
- Effizienz (1)
- Einkommensunterschied (1)
- Eisenbahn (1)
- Emission (1)
- Energieweltwirtschaft (1)
- Erwartung (1)
- Exit from unemployment (1)
- Export entry (1)
- Export-sales ratio (1)
- Fiscal and institutional policy (1)
- Fiskalpolitik (1)
- Flow-Shop-Problem (1)
- Flow-Shop-Scheduling (1)
- Freier Beruf (1)
- German Socio-Economic Panel (1)
- German Time Use Surveys (1)
- German unions (1)
- Gewerkschaftsmitglied (1)
- Globalisierung (1)
- Governmental activity (1)
- Heterogenität (1)
- Informatics (1)
- Integration (1)
- Interdisziplinarität (1)
- Internationaler Wettbewerb (1)
- Islam (1)
- Islamistic terror (1)
- Konvergenz (1)
- Labor productivity (1)
- Learning (1)
- Lernen (1)
- Liberal professions (Freie Berufe) (1)
- Lineares Regressionsmodell (1)
- Lohn (1)
- Lohndifferenzierung (1)
- Lohnniveau (1)
- Lokales Suchverfahren (1)
- Machado/Mata decomposition (1)
- Maschinenbelegungsplanung (1)
- Monopolistic Competition (1)
- Monopolistische Konkurrenz (1)
- Nachhaltigkeit (1)
- Nanotechnologie (1)
- Natürliches Monopol (1)
- New Economy (1)
- Personenbezogene Daten (1)
- Politische Verfolgung (1)
- Politisches Handeln (1)
- Product Differentiation (1)
- Produktdifferenzierung (1)
- Produktionsplanung (1)
- Railway Industry (1)
- Rational Expectations (1)
- Reality (1)
- Reihenfolgeplanung (1)
- Risiko (1)
- Risikoausschluss (1)
- Selbstständiger (1)
- Selbständigkeit (1)
- Simulated Annealing (1)
- Sozioökonomisches Panel (1)
- Staatstätigkeit (1)
- Stabilität (1)
- Stochastische Dominanz (1)
- Transdisziplinarität (1)
- Unsicherheit (1)
- Vertical Differentiation (1)
- Vertical Integration (1)
- Vertical Linkages (1)
- Vertikale Produktdifferenzierung (1)
- Verwaltung (1)
- Verwaltungsinformatik (1)
- Verwaltungsreform (1)
- Virtuality (1)
- Wage dispersion (1)
- Wertpapieremission (1)
- Wirtschaftswachstum (1)
- Wissenschaftsphilosophie (1)
- Wissensproduktion (1)
- Works councils (1)
- Zeitbudgetforschung (1)
- Zerfall (1)
- agglomeration (1)
- agro-ecosystem management (1)
- biodiversity (1)
- continuous treatment (1)
- converging institutions (1)
- converging technologies (1)
- decline in German unionism (1)
- decomposition (1)
- deregulation (1)
- discriminatory-price auction (1)
- dose-response function (1)
- dynamic economy-environment interaction (1)
- earnings differential (1)
- ecological economics (1)
- ecological services (1)
- ecological-economic systems (1)
- ecosystem quality (1)
- employment (1)
- endogenous environmental risk (1)
- entrepreneurs (1)
- export exit (1)
- exporter wage premium (1)
- exports (1)
- foreign direct investment (1)
- free-riding (1)
- globalization (1)
- heterogeneous firms (1)
- integration (1)
- interdisciplinarity (1)
- international comparison (1)
- knowledge production function (1)
- labor productivity (1)
- labour productivity (1)
- micro data (1)
- multi-pollutant emissions (1)
- multi-unit auction (1)
- nanotechnologies (1)
- natural monopoly (1)
- non-monotonic control (1)
- optimal scale (1)
- philosophy of science (1)
- plant biodiversity (1)
- poverty (1)
- power industry (1)
- public good (1)
- public inputs (1)
- quantile regression decomposition (1)
- quantile regressions (1)
- regional growth (1)
- self-employment (1)
- stochastic dominance (1)
- stock pollution (1)
- sustainability (1)
- systemic risks (1)
- transdisciplinarity (1)
- uncertainty (1)
- union density (1)
- viability (1)
- virtual (1)
- works councils (1)
- Öffentliches Gut (1)
- Ökologie (1)
Institut
Works Councils, Labor Productivity and Plant Heterogeneity: First Evidence from Quantile Regressions
(2006)
Using OLS and quantile regression methods and rich cross-section data sets for western and eastern Germany, this paper demonstrates that the impact of works council presence on labor productivity varies between manufacturing and services, between plants that are or are not covered by collective bargaining, and along the conditional distribution of labor productivity. No productivity effects of works councils are found for the service sector and in manufacturing plants not covered by collective bargaining. Besides demonstrating that it is important to look at evidence based on more than one data set, our empirical findings point to the efficacy of supplementing OLS with quantile regression estimates when investigating the behavior of heterogeneous plants.
This paper discusses a model of vertical and horizontal product differentiation within the Dixit-Stiglitz framework of monopolistic competition. Firms compete not only in prices and horizontal attributes of their products, but also in the quality that can be controlled by R&D activities. Based upon the results of a general equilibrium model, intra-sectoral trade and the welfare implications of public intervention in terms of research promotion are considered. The analysis involves a numerical application to ten basic European industries.
This paper discusses the interdependencies that exist between vertically-linked industries in the (Spence-)Dixit-Stiglitz model of monopolistic competition. The main objective is to develop a concept for quantifying the magnitude of sectoral coherence in models of the New Economic Geography. It is motivated by the suggestion, by Venables (1996), that 'strategic industries' be identi®ed in terms of their agglomeration potential. Using a partial-analytic approach, we focus on inter-industrial relations in a closed economy to draw conclusions regarding international trade. We ascertain that two factors have an impact upon the strength of industrial linkages: 1) the monopolistic scope of intermediate suppliers, in terms of (technical) substitution elasticity; and the share in downstream costs for intermediates. Within a simulation study, this paper applies this new theoretical concept to eight basic industries across ten European countries.
Abstract. The ecological literature suggests that biodiversity reduces the variance of ecosystem services. Thus, conservative biodiversity management has an insurance value to risk-averse users of ecosystem services. We analyze a conceptual ecological-economic model in which such management measures generate a private benefit and, via ecosystem processes at higher hierarchical levels, a positive externality on other ecosystem users. We find that ecosystem management and environmental policy depend on the extent of uncertainty and risk-aversion as follows: (i) Individual effort to improve ecosystem quality unambiguously increases. The free-rider problem may decrease or increase, depending on the characteristics of the ecosystem and its management; in particular, (ii) the size of the externality may decrease or increase, depending on how individual and aggregate management effort influence biodiversity; and (iii) the welfare loss due to free-riding may decrease or increase, depending on how biodiversity influences ecosystem service provision.
An empirical analysis of various waves of the ALLBUS social survey shows that union density fell substantially in western Germany from 1980 to 2004 and in eastern Germany from 1992 to 2004. Such a negative trend can be observed for men and women and for different groups of the workforce. Regression estimates indicate that the probability of union membership is related to a number of personal and occupational variables such as age, public sector employment and being a blue collar worker (significant in western Germany only). A decomposition analysis shows that differences in union density over time and between eastern and western Germany to a large degree cannot be explained by differences in the characteristics of employees. Contrary to wide-spread perceptions, changes in the composition of the workforce seem to have played a minor role in the fall in union density in western and eastern Germany.
This paper examines whether the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001 have influenced the job prospects of Arabs in the German labor market. Using a large, representative database of the German working population, the attacks are treated as a natural experiment that may have caused an exogenous shift in attitudes toward persons who are perceived to be Arabs. Evidence from regression-adjusted difference-in-differences-estimates indicates that 9/11 did not cause a severe decline in job prospects. This result is robust over a wide range of control groups and several definitions of the sample and the observation period. Several explanations for this result, which is in line with prior evidence from Sweden, are offered.
Reviewing the development of network access charges in the German electricity market since 2002 reveals significant variation. While some firms continually increased or decreased their access charges, a variety of firms exhibited discontinuous behavior with price changes in both directions. From an economic viewpoint this price setting turbulence is astonishing because grid operators are non-contestable natural monopolists, which in this time period were regulated by Negotiated Third Party Access (NTPA). Depending on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of NTPA, expected behavior would be either regulated average cost prices or monopoly prices, but not the observed turbulence. Although in 2005 NTPA scheme was replaced by a Regulated Third Party Access (RTPA) scheme with a regulator, an analysis of the factors influencing the price setting behavior within this period offers valuable information for the new regulator and the still discussed new incentive regulation, which is expected to start in 2009. Using multivariate estimations based on firm data covering the years 2000-2005, we test the hypotheses that asymmetric influence of regulatory threat, different cost and price calculation knowledge, strategic use of structural features and the obligation to publish specific access charges have influenced the electricity network access charges in Germany.
This paper traces the profound decline in German unionism over the course of the last three decades. Today just one in five workers is a union member, and it is now moot whether this degree of penetration is consistent with a corporatist model built on encompassing unions. The decline in union membership and density is attributable to external forces that have confronted unions in many countries (such as globalization and compositional changes in the workforce) and to some specifically German considerations (such as the transition process in postcommunist Eastern Germany) and sustained intervals of classic insider behavior on the part of German unions. The ‘correctives’ have included mergers between unions, decentralization, and wages that are more responsive to unemployment. At issue is the success of these innovations. For instance, the trend toward decentralization in collective bargaining hinges in part on the health of that other pillar of the dual system of industrial relations, the works council. But works council coverage has also declined, leading some observers to equate decentralization with deregulation. While this conclusion is likely too radical, German unions are at the cross roads. It is argued here that if they fail to define what they stand for, are unable to increase their presence at the workplace, and continue to lack convincing strategies to deal with contemporary economic and political trends working against them, then their decline may become a rout.
We develop a comprehensive multi-level approach to ecological economics (CML-approach) which integrates philosophical considerations on the foundations of ecological economics with an adequate operationalization. We argue that the subject matter and aims of ecological economics require a specific combination of inter- and transdisciplinary research, and discuss the epistemological position on which this approach is based. In accordance with this understanding of inter- and transdisciplinarity and the underlying epistemological position, we develop an operationalization which comprises simultaneous analysis on three levels of abstraction: concepts, models and case studies. We explain these levels in detail, and, in particular, deduce our way of generic modeling in this context. Finally, we illustrate the CML-approach and demonstrate its fruitfulness by the example of the sustainable management of semi-arid rangelands.
This paper analyzes the growth impact of fiscal and institutional governmental policies in a regional context. The government provides a productive input that is complementary to private capital. Institutional policies include the decision about the type of public input as well as on the size of the region as determined by the number of firms. Fiscal policies decide on the extent of the public input. Private capital accumulation incurs adjustment costs that depend upon the ratio between private and public investment. After deriving the decentralized equilibrium, fiscal and institutional policies as well as their interdependencies and welfare implications are discussed. Due to the feedback effects both policies may not be determined independently. It is also shown that depending on the region’s size different types of the public input maximize growth.
Combinatorial optimization is still one of the biggest mathematical challenges if you plan and organize the run-ning of a business. Especially if you organize potential factors or plan the scheduling and sequencing of opera-tions you will often be confronted with large-scaled combinatorial optimization problems. Furthermore it is very difficult to find global optima within legitimate time limits, because the computational effort of such problems rises exponentially with the problem size. Nowadays several approximation algorithms exist that are able to solve this kind of problems satisfactory. These algorithms belong to a special group of solution methods which are called local search algorithms. This article will introduce the topic of simulated annealing, one of the most efficient local search strategies. This article summarizes main aspects of the guest lecture Combinatorial Optimi-zation with Local Search Strategies, which was held at the University of Ioannina in Greece in June 1999.
We analyze the optimal dynamic scale and structure of a two-sectoreconomy, where each sector produces one consumption good and one specific pollutant. Both pollutants accumulate at di_erent rates to stocks which damage the natural environment. This acts as a dynamic driving force for the economy. Our analysis shows that along the optimal time-path (i) the overall scale of economic activity may be less than maximal; (ii) the time scale of economic dynamics (change of scale and structure) is mainly determined by the lifetime of pollutants, their harmfulness and the discount rate; and (iii) the optimal control of economic scale and structure may be non-monotonic. These results raise important questions about the optimal design of environmental policies.
In the face of uncertainty, ecosystems can provide natural insurance to risk averse users of ecosystem services. We employ a conceptual ecological-economic model to analyze the allocation of (endogenous) risk and ecosystem quality by risk averse ecosystem managers who have access to financial insurance, and study the implications for individually and socially optimal ecosystem management, and policy design. We show that while an improved access to financial insurance leads to lower ecosystem quality, the effect on the free-rider problem and on welfare is determined by ecosystem properties. We derive conditions on ecosystem functioning under which, if financial insurance becomes more accessible, (i) the extent of optimal regulation increases or decreases; and (ii) welfare, in the absence of environmental regulation, increases or decreases.
Managing increasing environmental risks through agro-biodiversity and agri-environmental policies
(2008)
Agro-biodiversity can provide natural insurance to risk-averse farmers by reducing the variance of crop yield, and to society at large by reducing the uncertainty in the provision of public-good ecosystem services such as e.g. CO2 storage. We analyze the choice of agro-biodiversity by risk-averse farmers who have access to financial insurance, and study the implications for agri-environmental policy design when on-farm agro-biodiversity generates a positive risk externality. While increasing environmental risk leads private farmers to increase their level of on-farm agro-biodiversity, the level of agro-biodiversity in the laissez-faire equilibrium remains inefficiently low. We show how either one of two agri-environmental policy instruments can cure this risk-related market failure: an ex-ante Pigouvian subsidy on on-farm agro-biodiversity and an ex-post compensation payment for the actual provision of public environmental benefits. In the absence of regulation, welfare may increase rather than decrease with increasing environmental risk, if the agroecosystems is characterized by a high natural insurance function, low costs and large external benefits of agro-biodiversity.
This paper examines whether the labor market prospects of Arab men in England are influenced by recent Islamistic terrorist attacks and the war on Iraq. We use data from the British Labour Force Survey from Spring 2001 to Winter 2006 and treat the terrorist attacks on the USA on September 11th, 2001, the Madrid train bombings on March 11th, 2004 and the London bombings on July 7th, 2005, as well as the beginning of the war on Iraq on March 20th, 2003, as natural experiments possibly having led to a change in attitudes toward Arab or Muslim men. Using treatment group definitions based on ethnicity, country of birth, current nationality, and religion, evidence from regression-adjusted di_erence-in-di_erences-estimators indicates that the real wages, hours worked and employment probabilities of Arab men were unchanged by the attacks. This finding is in line with prior evidence from Europe.
Economic theory suggests both positive and negative relationships between intra-firm wage inequality and productivity. This paper contributes to the growing empirical literature on this subject. We combine German employer-employee-data for the years 1995-2005 with inequality measures using the whole wage distribution of a firm and rely on dynamic panel-data estimators to control for unobserved heterogeneity, simultaneity problems and possible state dependence. Our results indicate a relative minor influence of intra-firm wage inequality on firm productivity. If anything, they provide some support for a view suggesting that some inequality may be beneficial, while too much leads to a detrimental effect on productivity.
Information technology and administrative reform : will the time after E-Government be different?
(2003)
Dieser Aufsatz wurde anlässlich eines Symposiums in einer Festschrift zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Heinrich Reichmann veröffentlicht. Es geht um seine Verdienste im Bereich Electronic Government (E-Government) und Verwaltungsreform.
While it is a stylized fact that exporting firms pay higher wages than nonexporting firms, the direction of the link between exporting and wages is less clear. Using a rich set of German linked employer-employee panel data we follow over time plants that start to export. We show that the exporter wage premium does already exist in the years before firms start to export, and that it does not increase in the following years. Higher wages in exporting firms are thus due to self-selection of more productive, better paying firms into export markets; they are not caused by export activities.