Subsidized Vocational Training: Stepping Stone or Trap? – Assessing Empirical Effects using Matching Techniques
Eva Dettmann, Jutta Günther
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics,
No. 4,
2013
Abstract
Using replacement matching on the basis of a statistical distance function we try to answer the question of whether subsidized vocational training is related to a negative image effect for the graduates. The results show that young people with equal qualifications acquired during subsidized vocational training are disadvantaged solely due to the kind of education they have received. The probability of finding adequate employment is lower than in the control group. Besides the 'general effect' of support we also find less favorable job opportunities for those who attended 'external' as compared to 'workplace-related' training.
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Flight Patterns and Yields of European Government Bonds
Gregor von Schweinitz
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 10,
2013
Abstract
The current European Debt Crisis has led to a reinforced effort to identify the sources of risk and their influence on yields of European Government Bonds. Until now, the potentially nonlinear influence and the theoretical need for interactions reflecting flight-to-quality and flight-to-liquidity has been widely disregarded. I estimate government bond yields of the Euro-12 countries without Luxembourg from May 2003 until December 2011. Using penalized spline regression, I find that the effect of most explanatory variables is highly nonlinear. These nonlinearities, together with flight patterns of flight-to-quality and flight-to-liquidity, can explain the co-movement of bond yields until September 2008 and the huge amount of differentiation during the financial and the European debt crisis without the unnecessary assumption of a structural break. The main effects are credit risk and flight-to-liquidity, while the evidence for the existence of flight-to-quality and liquidity risk (the latter measured by the bid-ask spread and total turnover of bonds) is comparably weak.
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Do Banks Benefit from Internationalization? Revisiting the Market Power–Risk Nexus
Claudia M. Buch, C. T. Koch, Michael Koetter
Review of Finance,
No. 4,
2013
Abstract
We analyze the impact of bank internationalization on domestic market power (Lerner index) and risk for German banks. Risk is measured by the official declaration of regulatory authorities that a bank is distressed. We distinguish the volume of foreign assets, the number of foreign countries, and different modes of foreign entry. Our analysis has three main results. First, higher market power is associated with lower risk. Second, holding assets in many countries reduce market power at home, but banks with a higher share of foreign assets exhibit higher market power. Third, bank internationalization is only weakly related to bank risk.
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Network Formation: R&D Cooperation Propensity and Timing Among German Laser Source Manufacturers
Muhamed Kudic, Andreas Pyka, Marco Sunder
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 9,
2013
Abstract
Empirical evidence on the evolution of innovation networks within high-tech industries is still scant. We investigate network formation processes by analyzing the timing of firms to enter R&D cooperations, using data on laser source manufacturers in Germany, 1990-2010. Network measures are constructed from a unique industry database that allows us to track both the formation and the termination of ties. Regression results reveal that a firm's knowledge endowment (and cooperation experience) shortens the duration to first (and consecutive) cooperation events. The previous occupation of strategic network positions is closely related to the establishment of further R&D cooperations at a swift pace. Geographic co-location produces mixed results in our analysis.
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Competitiveness Research Network – First Year Results
Filippo di Mauro
CompNet Report,
June
2013
Abstract
This interim report summarises the main findings of the Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet) after one year of existence. The Network is organized in three workstreams related to: (i) aggregate measures of competitiveness; (ii) firm-level studies; and (iii) global value chains (GVCs). The main objectives of the Network are to improve the existing frameworks and indicators of competitiveness across all dimensions (macro, micro and cross-border) and establish a more solid connection between identified competitiveness drivers and resulting outcomes (trade, aggregate productivity, employment, growth and essentially welfare), in order to support the design of adequate policies.
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Consumption Volatility and Financial Openness
Claudia M. Buch, S. Yener
Applied Economics,
2010
Abstract
Economic theory predicts that the integration of financial markets lowers the volatility of consumption. In this article, we study long-term trends in the consumption volatility of the G7 countries. Using different measures of financial openness, we find evidence that greater financial openness has been associated with lower consumption volatility. However, volatility of consumption relative to output has not declined.
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Effects of Specification Choices on Efficiency in DEA and SFA
Michael Koetter, Aljar Meesters
Efficiency and Productivity Growth: Modelling in the Financial Services Industry,
2013
Abstract
This chapter assesses the sensitivity of bank cost-efficiency scores obtained with stochastic frontier analysis and data envelopment analysis. We compare CE scores of either type for a large cross-country sample of EU banks from 1996 until 2010. The results show that CE measures differ considerably depending on specification choices across parametric and nonparametric methods. The chapter documents the reasons for these differences in terms of theoretical, sample, and further specification choices.
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Big Banks and Macroeconomic Outcomes: Theory and Cross-Country Evidence of Granularity
Franziska Bremus, Claudia M. Buch, K. Russ, Monika Schnitzer
NBER Working Paper No. 19093,
2013
Abstract
Does the mere presence of big banks affect macroeconomic outcomes? In this paper, we develop a theory of granularity (Gabaix, 2011) for the banking sector, introducing Bertrand competition and heterogeneous banks charging variable markups. Using this framework, we show conditions under which idiosyncratic shocks to bank lending can generate aggregate fluctuations in the credit supply when the banking sector is highly concentrated. We empirically assess the relevance of these granular effects in banking using a linked micro-macro dataset of more than 80 countries for the years 1995-2009. The banking sector for many countries is indeed granular, as the right tail of the bank size distribution follows a power law. We then demonstrate granular effects in the banking sector on macroeconomic outcomes. The presence of big banks measured by high market concentration is associated with a positive and significant relationship between bank-level credit growth and aggregate growth of credit or gross domestic product.
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Cooperation Events, Ego-Network Characteristics and Firm Innovativeness – Empirical Evidence from the German Laser Industry
Muhamed Kudic, Katja Guhr
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 6,
2013
Abstract
We study how firm innovativeness is related to individual cooperation events and the structure and dynamics of firms’ ego-networks employing a unique panel dataset for the full population of 233 German laser source manufactures between 1990 and 2010. Firm innovativeness is measured by yearly patent applications as well as patent grants with a two year time-lag. Network measures are calculated on the basis of 570 knowledge-related publicly funded R&D alliances. Estimation results from a panel data count model with fixed effects are suggestive of direct innovation effects due to individual cooperation events, but only as long as structural ego-network characteristics are neglected. Innovativeness is robustly related to ego-network size and ego-network brokerage whereas ego-network density reveals some surprising results.
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