Political Institutionalisation and Economic Specialisation in Polycentric Metropolitan Regions – The Case of the East German ‚Saxony Triangle‘
Peter Franz, Christoph Hornych
Urban Studies,
2010
Abstract
The rising focus of politicians as well as scientists in the EU on the large urban agglomerations as centres of economic growth is accompanied by political efforts to identify and to demarcate such agglomerations under the label ‘metropolitan regions’. This study develops a theoretical framework broaching the issue of cooperation between municipalities from the perspective of regional economics as well as political science. The framework is applied to the empirical case of the polycentric metropolitan region of the ‘Saxony triangle’ in east Germany. The results show that various intervening factors prevent intense co-operation between the actors in the region. Policy implications and conclusions for future research are discussed.
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The Productivity Effect of Temporary Agency Work: Evidence from German Panel Data
Boris Hirsch, Steffen Müller
Economic Journal,
No. 562,
2012
Abstract
This study investigates the effect of temporary agency work on the user firm’s productivity. We hypothesise that using temporary agency work to enhance numerical flexibility and to screen job candidates may increase productivity, whereas temporary workers’ lower firm-specific human capital and spillover effects on the user’s permanent employees may adversely affect productivity. Other than the sparse existing literature on this issue, we exploit a large panel data set and control for time-invariant and time-varying unobserved heterogeneity by using the system GMM estimator. We find a robust hump-shaped effect of the extent of temporary agency work on the user firm’s productivity.
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Competition, Risk-shifting, and Public Bail-out Policies
Reint E. Gropp, H. Hakenes, Isabel Schnabel
Review of Financial Studies,
No. 6,
2011
Abstract
This article empirically investigates the competitive effects of government bail-out policies. We construct a measure of bail-out perceptions by using rating information. From there, we construct the market shares of insured competitor banks for any given bank, and analyze the impact of this variable on banks' risk-taking behavior, using a large sample of banks from OECD countries. Our results suggest that government guarantees strongly increase the risk-taking of competitor banks. In contrast, there is no evidence that public guarantees increase the protected banks' risk-taking, except for banks that have outright public ownership. These results have important implications for the effects of the recent wave of bank bail-outs on banks' risk-taking behavior.
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Determinants of the Efficiency of Regional Innovation Systems
Michael Fritsch, Viktor Slavtchev
Regional Studies,
No. 7,
2011
Abstract
Determinants of the efficiency of regional innovation systems, Regional Studies. This paper analyses differences in the efficiency of regional innovation systems. Alternative measures for the efficiency of regional innovation systems based on the concept of a knowledge production function are discussed. The empirical findings suggest that spillovers from within the private sector as well as from universities and other public research institutions have a positive effect on the efficiency of private sector research and development. It is particularly the intensity of interactions between private and public sector research and development that increases the efficiency. It is found that regions dominated by large establishments tend to be less efficient than regions with a lower average establishment size.
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Non-union Worker Representation, Foreign Owners, and the Performance of Establishments
U. Jirjahn, Steffen Müller
Oxford Economic Papers,
No. 1,
2014
Abstract
Using German establishment data, this study provides the first econometric analysis on the interaction of establishment-level codetermination and foreign owners. Works councils are associated with higher productivity in domestic-owned establishments while they are associated with lower productivity in foreign-owned establishments. Our results conform to the notion that foreign ownership can involve strong tensions with the institutional patterns of the host country.
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Effects of Incorrect Specification on the Finite Sample Properties of Full and Limited Information Estimators in DSGE Models
Sebastian Giesen, Rolf Scheufele
Journal of Macroeconomics,
June
2016
Abstract
In this paper we analyze the small sample properties of full information and limited information estimators in a potentially misspecified DSGE model. Therefore, we conduct a simulation study based on a standard New Keynesian model including price and wage rigidities. We then study the effects of omitted variable problems on the structural parameter estimates of the model. We find that FIML performs superior when the model is correctly specified. In cases where some of the model characteristics are omitted, the performance of FIML is highly unreliable, whereas GMM estimates remain approximately unbiased and significance tests are mostly reliable.
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Women Move Differently: Job Separations and Gender
Boris Hirsch, Claus Schnabel
Journal of Labor Research,
No. 4,
2012
Abstract
Using a large German linked employer–employee data set and methods of competing risks analysis, this paper investigates gender differences in job separation rates to employment and nonemployment. In line with descriptive evidence, we find lower job-to-job and higher job-to-nonemployment transition probabilities for women than men when controlling for individual and workplace characteristics and unobserved plant heterogeneity. These differences vanish once we allow these characteristics to affect separations differently by gender. When additionally controlling for wages, we find that both separation rates are considerably lower and also significantly less wage-elastic for women than for men, suggesting an interplay of gender differences in transition behaviour and the gender pay gap.
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Finance and Growth in a Bank-Based Economy: Is It Quantity or Quality that Matters?
Michael Koetter, Michael Wedow
Journal of International Money and Finance,
No. 8,
2010
Abstract
Most finance–growth studies approximate the size of financial systems rather than the quality of intermediation to explain economic growth differentials. Furthermore, the neglect of systematic differences in cross-country studies could drive the result that finance matters. We suggest a measure of bank’s intermediation quality using bank-specific efficiency estimates and focus on the regions of one economy only: Germany. This quality measure has a significantly positive effect on growth. This result is robust to the exclusion of banks operating in multiple regions, controlling for the proximity of financial markets, when distinguishing different banking sectors active in Germany, and when excluding the structurally weaker East from the sample.
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The Impact of Psychic Distance on Subsidiary Autonomy - Theory and Evidence from Central and Eastern European Countries
Gjalt de Jong, D. van Vo, Philipp Marek
Journal of International Management,
2012
Abstract
The key objective of this study is to determine whether or not psychic distance between home and host countries influences the decision-making autonomy of subsidiaries. Theoretical arguments for the relationship between psychic distance and subsidiary autonomy go in both directions with some predicting a negative relationship and others predicting a positive one. We test these conflicting hypotheses with a unique multi-country and multi-industry database reporting survey evidence of 809 subsidiaries located in five Central and Eastern European countries that serve headquarters in 44 different nation states. Psychic distance is a multidimensional construct and measured in terms of linguistic, religious, economic, institutional and geographic distance. The empirical results of 103 country pairs suggest that psychic distance – in terms of religious and economic distance – is positively related to autonomy.
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Size, Productivity, and International Banking
Claudia M. Buch, C. T. Koch, Michael Koetter
Journal of International Economics,
No. 2,
2011
Abstract
Heterogeneity in size and productivity is central to models that explain which manufacturing firms export. This study presents descriptive evidence on similar heterogeneity among international banks as financial services providers. A novel and detailed bank-level data set reveals the volume and mode of international activities for all German banks. Only a few, large banks have a commercial presence abroad, consistent with the size pecking order documented for manufacturing firms. However, the relationship between internationalization and productivity also yields two inconsistencies with recent trade models. First, virtually all banks hold at least some foreign assets, irrespective of size or productivity. Second, some fairly unproductive banks maintain commercial presences abroad.
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