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Von der Intention zur Gründung - Gründerwettbewerbe in Deutschland

N. Waldmann, Michael Schwartz, Claus Michelsen
List Forum für Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik, No. 4, 2010
Abstract
Die Realisierung von positiven Effekten technologieorientierter Existenzgründungen wird in vielen Fällen dadurch unterbunden, dass Unternehmensgründungen speziell in diesen Wirtschaftszweigen zwar geplant, aber zu selten tatsächlich umgesetzt werden. Um angehenden Unternehmensgründern den Schritt von der Intention hin zur tatsächlichen Umsetzung der Gründungsidee am Markt zu erleichtern, haben sich seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre vielfältige Gründerwettbewerbe etabliert. Gründerwettbewerbe sind im Kontext potentieller Gründer das wohl wichtigste Förderinstrument. Sie setzen an wesentlichen Aspekten einer geplanten Unternehmensgründung an und tragen zur kritischen Beurteilung und Verbesserung geplanter Geschäftskonzepte bei. Gegenwärtig können 61 Gründerwettbewerbe in Deutschland identifiziert werden. Ungeachtet ihrer Bedeutung in der Gründungspraxis wird sich bislang kaum damit auseinandergesetzt. Insbesondere zum Aspekt, inwiefern Gründerwettbewerbe potentiellen Unternehmensgründern signifikante Unterstützung zur langfristig erfolgreichen Umsetzung ihres Geschäftsmodells im Markt leisten, liegen gegenwärtig kaum belastbare Erkenntnisse vor. Der vorliegende Beitrag greift diese Themenstellung auf und legt erste Ergebnisse einer umfassenden Erhebung von Gründerwettbewerben in Deutschland vor, zeigt deren Entwicklung im Zeitablauf sowie die regionale Verteilung und stellt Auswertungen zu zentralen Wettbewerbscharakteristika dar. Darauf aufbauend erfolgt eine kritische Diskussion der wichtigsten, noch unbeantworteten, Fragen zur Beurteilung der Effektivität von Gründerwettbewerben, insbesondere im Hinblick auf ihren potentiellen Beitrag, eine geplante Unternehmensgründung auch tatsächlich umzusetzen.
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Central Banks, Trade Unions and Reputation – Is there Room for an Expansionist Manoeuvre in the European Union?

Toralf Pusch, A. Heise
Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 2010
Abstract
Seit der Gründung der Europäischen Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion hat sich am Problem der hohen Arbeitslosigkeit in der Eurozone wenig geändert. Der überwiegenden Sichtweise zufolge ist dies vor allem auf dysfunktionale Arbeitsmärkte zurückzuführen. In diesem Beitrag gehen wir der Frage nach, welche Änderungen sich ergeben können, wenn Gewerkschaften und Zentralbank in einem Klima der Unsicherheit zwischen verschiedenen Optionen wählen können. Das wahrscheinlichste Ergebnis im einstufigen Spiel ist eine hohe Arbeitslosenquote. Bei einer Wiederholung des Spiels können sich die Ergebnisse deutlich ändern. Dies wird allerdings dann unwahrscheinlich, wenn die Zentralbank ein außerordentlich hohes Gewicht auf Preisstabilität legt. Zweitens erfordert ein Vollbeschäftigungs-Gleichgewicht ein Mindestmaß an Kooperationsbereitschaft bzw. Koordinierungspotential auf Seiten der Gewerkschaften.
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Regulation and Taxation: A Complementarity

Benjamin Schoefer
Journal of Comparative Economics, No. 4, 2010
Abstract
I show how quantity regulation can lower elasticities and thereby increase optimal tax rates. Such regulation imposes regulatory incentives for particular choice quantities. Their strength varies between zero (laissez faire) and infinite (command economy). In the latter case, regulation effectively eliminates any intensive behavioral responses to taxes; a previously distortionary tax becomes a lump sum. For intermediate regulation (where some deviation is feasible), intensive behavioral responses are still weaker than under zero regulation, and so quantity regulation reduces elasticities, thereby facilitating subsequent taxation. I apply this mechanism to labor supply and present correlational evidence for this complementarity: hours worked in high-regulation countries are compressed, and these countries tax labor at higher rates.
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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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On the Look-out for a White Knight: Options-based Calculation of Probability and Expected Value of Increased Bids in Hostile Takeover Battles

Stefan Eichler, Dominik Maltritz
Applied Economics Letters, No. 11, 2010
Abstract
Takeover bids provide an option right to the target's shareholders; they guarantee the offered price but maintain the chance of higher offers. Using Option Pricing Theory (OPT) we estimate the probability and expected value of higher bids from target stock prices.
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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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Interest Rate Convergence in the Euro-Candidate Countries: Volatility Dynamics of Sovereign Bond Yields

Hubert Gabrisch, Lucjan T. Orlowski
Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, 2010
Abstract
We argue that a “static“ specification of the Maastricht criterion for long-term bond yields is not conducive to assessing stability of financial systems in euro-candidate countries. Instead, we advocate a dynamic approach to assessing interest rate convergence to a common currency that is based on the analysis of financial system stability. Accordingly, we empirically test volatility dynamics of the ten-year sovereign bond yields of the 2004 EU accession countries in relation to the eurozone yields during the January 2, 2001-January 22, 2009, sample period. Our results show a varied degree of the relationship between domestic and eurozone sovereign bond yields, the most pronounced for the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Poland, and weaker for Hungary and Slovakia. We find some divergence of relative bond yields since the EU accession.
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Environmental Protection and the Private Provision of International Public Goods

Martin Altemeyer-Bartscher, Dirk T. G. Rübbelke, E. Sheshinski
Economica, 2010
Abstract
International environmental protection like the combat of global warming exhibits properties of public goods. In the international arena, no coercive authority exists that can enforce measures to overcome free-rider incentives. Therefore decentralized negotiations between individual regions serve as an approach to pursue efficient international environmental protection. We propose a scheme which is based on the ideas of Coasean negotiations and Pigouvian taxes. The negotiating entities offer side-payments to counterparts in order to influence their taxation of polluting consumption. Side-payments, in turn, are self-financed by means of externality-correcting taxes. As we show, a Pareto-efficient outcome can be attained.
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Works Councils and Separations: Voice, Monopoly, and Insurance Effects

Boris Hirsch, Thorsten Schank, Claus Schnabel
Industrial Relations, No. 4, 2010
Abstract
Using a large linked employer–employee data set for Germany, we find that the existence of a works council is associated with a lower separation rate to employment, in particular for workers with low tenure. While works council monopoly effects show up in all specifications, clear voice effects are only visible for low tenured workers. Works councils also reduce separations to nonemployment, and this impact is more pronounced for men. Insurance effects only show up for workers with tenure of more than 2 years. Our results indicate that works councils to some extent represent the interests of a specific clientele.
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Worker Remittances and Capital Flows to Developing Countries

Claudia M. Buch, A. Kuckulenz
International Migration, No. 5, 2010
Abstract
Worker remittances constitute an increasingly important channel for the transfer of resources to developing countries. Behind foreign direct investment, remittances are the second-largest source of external funding for developing countries. Yet, literature on worker remittances has traditionally focused on the impact of remittances on income distribution within countries, on the determinants of remittances at a micro-level, or on the effects of migration and remittances for specific countries or regions. Macroeconomic determinants and effects of remittances have received more attention only recently. Hence, the focus of this paper is on the macroeconomic determinants of remittances and on differences in these determinants between remittances and other capital flows. We find that remittances respond more to demographic variables while private capital flows respond more to macroeconomic conditions.
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