Can Korea Learn from German Unification?
Ulrich Blum
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 3,
2011
Abstract
We first analyze pre-unification similarities and differences between the two Germanys and the two Koreas in terms of demographic, social, political and economic status. An important issue is the degree of international openness. “Stone-age” type communism of North Korea and the seclusion of the population prevented inner-Korean contacts and contacts with rest of the world. This may create enormous adjustment costs if institutions, especially informal institutions, change. We go on by showing how transition and integration interact in a potential unification process based on the World Bank Revised Minimum Standard Model (RMSM) and on the Salter-Swan-Meade model. In doing so, we relate the macro and external impacts on an open economy to its macro-sectoral structural dynamics. The findings suggest that it is of utmost importance to relate microeconomic policies to the macroeconomic ties and side conditions for both parts of the country. Evidence from Germany suggests that the biggest general error in unification was neglecting these limits, especially limitations to policy instruments. Econometric analysis supports these findings. In the empirical part, we consider unification as an “investment” and track down the (by-and-large immediate to medium-term) costs and the (by-and-large long-term) benefits of retooling a retarded communist economy. We conclude that, from a South-Korean
perspective, the Korean unification will become relatively much more expensive than the German unification and, thus, not only economic, but to a much larger degree political considerations must include the tying of neighboring countries into the convergence process. We finally provide, 62 years after Germany’s division and 20 years after unification, an outlook on the strength of economic inertia in order to show that it may take much more than a generation to compensate the damage inflicted by the communist system.
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Die Entwicklung der Corporate Governance deutscher Banken seit 1950
R. H. Schmidt, Felix Noth
Bankhistorisches Archiv,
No. 2,
2011
Abstract
The present paper gives an overview of the development of Corporate Governance of German banks since the 1950s. The focus will be on economic analysis. The most striking changes in Corporate Governance occurred with the ownership structure of commercial banks, in particular with the major joint-stock banks. In addition to that, the capital market has become a core element of Corporate Governance in all major German banks, which have replaced their prior concentration on the interests of a broadly defined circle of stakeholders by a one-sided concentration on shareholders’ interests. In contrast, with savings banks and cooperative cooperative banks, Corporate Governance has remained unchanged for the most part. Exceptions to this are the regional state banks: in their case, after they had turned away from traditional business models and in particular following the discontinuation of the guarantee obligation, the problems of their Corporate Governance, which were already discernible beforehand, became quite obvious. If you include the financial crisis, beginning in 2007, in the analysis, it becomes evident that it was precisely a Corporate Governance unilaterally geared to shareholders’ interest and the efficiency of the capital market that materially contributed to the evolution and widening of the crisis.
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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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Regionale Migration in Abhängigkeit von Humankapital und sektoraler Struktur. Eine empirische Analyse am Beispiel von Deutschland und Polen
Alexander Kubis
IWH-Sonderhefte,
No. 2,
2010
Abstract
Die vorliegende Promotionsschrift von Dipl.-Volkswirt Alexander Kubis über deutsch-polnische Migrationsmuster und die Möglichkeiten, künftiges Wanderungsverhalten regional differenziert zu prognostizieren, ordnet sich in die Tradition der Arbeiten des IWH ein, die sich mit der Interdependenz transformationsökonomischer Entwicklungen und der europäischen Integration befassen. Die Verzahnung beider Aspekte ist bei Wanderungen besonders explizit, weil der Umbau von staatlich gelenkten Planwirtschaften zu Marktwirtschaften regional und sektoral mit unterdurchschnittlichen Geschwindigkeiten ablief, weshalb eine erhebliche Dynamik in den Veränderungen dessen, was man als Chancenverteilung im Raum bezeichnen möchte, konstatiert werden kann – und genau auf diese reagiert Migration. Insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund ursprünglicher Zuwanderungsbeschränkungen und eines nunmehr tatsächlich vorhandenen, aber auch im Bewusstsein präsent werdenden erhöhten Fachkräftebedarfs gewinnt die Analyse regionaler und sektoraler Bestimmungsgründe der Migration eine herausragende Bedeutung.
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FDI and Domestic Investment: An Industry-level View
C. Arndt, Claudia M. Buch, Monika Schnitzer
B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy,
2010
Abstract
Previous empirical work on the link between domestic and foreign investment has provided mixed results. This may partly be due to the level of aggregation of the data. In this paper, we argue that the impact of FDI on the domestic capital stock depends on the structure of industries. Using industry-level data on the stock of German FDI, we test our predictions. We use panel cointegration methods which address the potential endogeneity of FDI. We find evidence for a positive long-run impact of FDI on the domestic capital stock.
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Russia: Overcoming the Effects of Economic Crisis Takes Time
Martina Kämpfe
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 6,
2010
Abstract
The last year's decline of Gross Domestic Product in Russia was harder than in most big economies of the world. The financial crisis has revealed specific circumstances of growth in Russia: The situation deteriorated not only by the downfall of crude oil prices, but especially by the Russian banking sector not being able to satisfy financing demand of the private sector enterprises. So foreign liabilities of enterprises had increased and the dependence of the enterprises on the international financial markets had strengthened. In that way impacts of the global financial crisis affected Russia harder. Although external conditions for the Russian economy improved in the last months due to the rise of world oil prices and global demand for commodities, domestic demand still suffers from small revenues and bad financing conditions for enterprises. Because of its structural weakness it will take Russia longer than other transformation countries to overcome the crisis. Economic growth in the near future will expand much smaller than on last years’ average.
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Going Public to Acquire? The Acquisition Motive in IPOs
Ugur Celikyurt, Merih Sevilir, Anil Shivdasani
Journal of Financial Economics,
No. 3,
2010
Abstract
Newly public firms make acquisitions at a torrid pace. Their large acquisition appetites reflect the concentration of initial public offerings (IPOs) in mergers and acquisitions-(M&A-) intensive industries, but acquisitions by IPO firms also outpace those by mature firms in the same industry. IPO firms' acquisition activity is fueled by the initial capital infusion at the IPO and through the creation of an acquisition currency used to raise capital for both cash- and stock-financed acquisitions along with debt issuance subsequent to the IPO. IPO firms play a bigger role in the M&A process by participating as acquirers than they do as takeover targets, and acquisitions are as important to their growth as research and development (R&D) and capital expenditures (CAPEX). The pattern of acquisitions following an IPO shapes the evolution of ownership structure of newly public firms.
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Taxing Banks: Do it properly or not at all
Ulrich Blum, Diemo Dietrich
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 5,
2010
Abstract
Taxing banks in favor of a mutual fund to safeguard future financial stability has been subject to an intensive public debate. The currently proposed solution, however, will not provide any protection against systemic risks. We argue that using tax revenues to reduce public debt would bring down the risk premium that government has to pay and thereby improves the capability of economic policy to stabilize the economy in future times of distress. Anything else is associated with the risk that bank capital is devastated which would hamper the economic recovery.
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Government Interventions in Banking Crises: Assessing Alternative Schemes in a Banking Model of Debt Overhang
Diemo Dietrich, Achim Hauck
Abstract
We evaluate policy measures to stop the fall in loan supply following a banking crisis. We apply a dynamic framework in which a debt overhang induces banks to curtail lending or to choose a fragile capital structure. Government assistance conditional on new banking activities, like on new lending or on debt and equity issues, allows banks to influence the scale of the assistance and to externalize risks, implying overinvestment or excessive risk taking or both. Assistance granted without reference to new activities, like establishing a bad bank, does not generate adverse incentives but may have higher fiscal costs.
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