Inequality in Life and Death
Martin S. Eichenbaum, Sergio Rebelo, Mathias Trabandt
Abstract
We argue that the Covid epidemic disproportionately affected the economic well-being and health of poor people. To disentangle the forces that generated this outcome, we construct a model that is consistent with the heterogeneous impact of the Covid recession on low- and high-income people. According to our model, two thirds of the inequality in Covid deaths reflect pre-existing inequality in comorbidity rates and access to quality health care. The remaining third, stems from the fact that low-income people work in occupations where the risk of infection is high. Our model also implies that the rise in income inequality generated by the Covid epidemic reflects the nature of the goods that low-income people produce. Finally, we assess the health-income trade-offs associated with fiscal transfers to the poor and mandatory containment policies.
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Worker Participation in Decision-making, Worker Sorting, and Firm Performance
Steffen Müller, Georg Neuschäffer
Abstract
Worker participation in decision-making is often associated with high-wage and high-productivity firm strategies. Using linked-employer-employee data for Germany and worker fixed effects from a two-way fixed effects model of wages capturing observed and unobserved worker quality, we find that establishments with formal worker participation via works councils indeed employ higher-quality workers. We show that worker quality is already higher in plants before council introduction and further increases after the introduction. Importantly, we corroborate previous studies by showing positive productivity and profitability effects even after taking into account worker sorting.
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Bank Risk Proxies and the Crisis of 2007/09: A Comparison
Felix Noth, Lena Tonzer
Applied Economics Letters,
No. 7,
2017
Abstract
The global financial crisis has again shown that it is important to understand the emergence and measurement of risks in the banking sector. However, there is no consensus in the literature which risk proxy works best at the level of the individual bank. A commonly used measure in applied work is the Z-score, which might suffer from calculation issues given poor data quality. Motivated by the variety of bank risk proxies, our analysis reveals that nonperforming assets are a well-suited complement to the Z-score in studies of bank risk.
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Relative Peer Quality and Firm Performance
Bill Francis, Iftekhar Hasan, Sureshbabu Mani, Pengfei Ye
Journal of Financial Economics,
No. 1,
2016
Abstract
We examine the performance impact of the relative quality of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO)’s compensation peers (peers to determine a CEO's overall compensation) and bonus peers (peers to determine a CEO's relative-performance-based bonus). We use the fraction of peers with greater managerial ability scores (Demerjian, Lev, and McVay, 2012) than the reporting firm to measure this CEO's relative peer quality (RPQ). We find that firms with higher RPQ earn higher stock returns and experience higher profitability growth than firms with lower RPQ. Learning among peers and the increased incentive to work harder induced by the peer-based tournament contribute to RPQ's performance effect.
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Quality of Work: An Investigation for East and West Germany for the Years 1994 and 2009
Herbert S. Buscher, S. Noack, M. Pelz
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 12,
2011
Abstract
Qualität der Arbeit – ein überwiegend subjektives Empfinden von Erwerbstätigen hat als qualitatives Merkmal in den letzten Jahren bei der Bewertung der Arbeitswelt an Bedeutung gewonnen. Im Gegensatz zu quantitativen Aspekten des Erwerbs- und Arbeitslebens ist die Qualität der Arbeit allerdings schwer messbar und setzt sich aus zahlreichen Indikatoren zusammen. Die hierbei erfassten Bereiche erstrecken sich von gesundheitlichen Aspekten des Arbeitslebens bis hin zu Möglichkeiten, die Arbeitszeit flexibel zu gestalten. Die vorliegende Studie leistet einen Beitrag zur Erweiterung dieses Indikatorensystems, indem weitere Aspekte der Qualität von Arbeit wie berufsbedingtes Pendeln, die Übereinstimmung von erworbener Qualifikation und ausgeübter Tätigkeit, betriebliche Karrierechancen sowie die allgemeine Einkommenszufriedenheit untersucht werden. Hierbei wird zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland sowie nach Altersklassen und Qualifikation der Befragten unterschieden. Ausgewertet werden die Ergebnisse auf der Basis des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) für die Jahre 1994 und 2009. Hierdurch sollen Erkenntnisse darüber gewonnen werden, ob insbesondere ostdeutsche Arbeitnehmer zu einem Zeitpunkt relativ kurz nach der politischen Wende die Qualität der Arbeit anders bewerteten als westdeutsche Arbeitnehmer und ob über die Zeit eine Angleichung in der Beurteilung stattgefunden hat.
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The Changing Process of the Quality of Work – 8th Joint Workshop of the IWH and IAB on Labor Market Policy
Herbert S. Buscher
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 11,
2011
Abstract
Am 20. und 21. Oktober 2011 fand zum achten Mal der gemeinsame Workshop des IWH und des Instituts für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB) in Halle (Saale) statt. Das diesjährige Leitthema befasste sich mit der Qualität der Arbeit im Wandel. Ein Grund für die Wahl des Schwerpunktthemas war, dass sich seit einiger Zeit auf dem Arbeitsmarkt ein Trend zu sinkenden Arbeitslosenzahlen abzeichnet. Dies wird oft als Beleg einer erfolgreichen Arbeitsmarktpolitik gewertet. Der Fokus auf rein quantitative Aspekte vernachlässigt allerdings die Qualität von Beschäftigung. In den letzten Jahren ist zugleich die Rede von einem Wandel der Arbeitswelt. Dabei wird (Erwerbs-)Arbeit in der Arbeitsmarktforschung nicht nur unter den Gesichtspunkten Einkommen,
Beschäftigungssicherheit und Aufstiegsmöglichkeiten betrachtet. Zunehmend rücken auch Aspekte wie die Sinnhaftigkeit von Tätigkeiten, Work-Life-Balance, Selbstverwirklichung, Autonomie und Arbeitszufriedenheit in den Mittelpunkt.
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The Impact of Government Procurement Composition on Private R&D Activities
Viktor Slavtchev, Simon Wiederhold
Abstract
This paper addresses the question of whether government procurement can work as a de facto innovation policy tool. We develop an endogenous growth model with quality-improving in-novation that incorporates industries with heterogeneous innovation sizes. Government demand in high-tech industries increases the market size in these industries and, with it, the incentives for private firms to invest in R&D. At the economy-wide level, the additional R&D induced in high-tech industries outweighs the R&D foregone in all remaining industries. The implications of the model are empirically tested using a unique data set that includes federal procurement in U.S. states. We find evidence that a shift in the composition of government purchases toward high-tech industries indeed stimulates privately funded company R&D.
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Firm-Specific Determinants of Productivity Gaps between East and West German Industrial Branches
Johannes Stephan
East-West Journal of Economics and Business,
2006
Abstract
This research assesses the firm-specific reasons for lower producitivity levels between West and East German firms. The study is based on a unique data-base generated by field-work in the two particularly important sectors of machinery manufacturers and furniture manufacturers. Our results suggest that the quality of human capital plays an important role in explaining lower productivity levels, as well as particularly networking activities, and the use of modern technologies for communication. Classifying those as management-functions beyond the organisation of the production process itself, we identify management deficits as the main specific determinants of productivity gaps between West and East German firms.
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Quality of Service, Efficiency, and Scale in Network Industries: An Analysis of European Electricity Distribution. EPRG Working Paper 05/04
Christian Growitsch, Tooraj Jamasb, Michael Pollitt
Externe Publikationen,
2005
Abstract
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Firm-Specific Determinants of Productivity Gaps between East and West German Industrial Branches
Johannes Stephan, Karin Szalai
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 183,
2003
Abstract
Industrial productivity levels of formerly socialist economies in Central East Europe (including East Germany) are considerably lower than in the more mature Western economies. This research aims at assessing the reasons for lower productivities at the firm level: what are the firm-specific determinants of productivity gaps. To assess this, we have conducted an extensive field study and focussed on a selection of two important manufacturing industries, namely machinery manufacturers and furniture manufacturers, and on the construction industry. Using the data generated in field work, we test a set of determinant-candidates which were derived from theory and prior research in that topic. Our analysis uses the simplest version of the matched-pair approach, in which first hypothesis about relevant productivity level-determinants are tested. In a second step, positively tested hypothesis are further assessed in terms of whether they also constitute firm-specific determinants of the apparent gaps between the firms in our Eastern and such in our Western panels. Our results suggest that the quality of human capital plays an important role in all three industrial branches assessed. Amongst manufacturing firms, networking activities and the use of modern technologies for communication are important reasons for the lower levels of labour productivity in the East. The intensity of long-term strategic planning on behalf of the management turned out to be relevant only for machinery manufacturers. Product and process innovations unexpectedly exhibit an ambiguous picture, as did the extent of specialisation on a small number of products in the firms’ portfolio and the intensity of competition.
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