Mission, Motivation, and the Active Decision to Work for a Social Cause
Sabrina Jeworrek, Vanessa Mertins
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly,
No. 2,
2022
Abstract
The mission of a job affects the type of worker attracted to an organization but may also provide incentives to an existing workforce. We conducted a natural field experiment with 246 short-term workers. We randomly allocated some of these workers to either a prosocial or a commercial job. Our data suggest that the mission of a job has a performance-enhancing motivational impact on particular individuals only, those with a prosocial attitude. However, the mission is very important if it has been actively selected. Those workers who have chosen to contribute to a social cause outperform the ones randomly assigned to the same job by about half a standard deviation. This effect seems to be a universal phenomenon that is not driven by information about the alternative job, the choice itself, or a particular subgroup.
Read article
Offshoring, Domestic Employment and Production. Evidence from the German International Sourcing Survey
Wolfhard Kaus, Markus Zimmermann
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 14,
2022
Abstract
This paper analyses the effect of offshoring (i.e., the relocation of activities previously performed in-house to foreign countries) on various firm outcomes (domestic employment, production, and productivity). It uses data from the International Sourcing Survey (ISS) 2017 for Germany, linked to other firm level data such as business register and ITGS data. First, we find that offshoring is a rare event: In the sample of firms with 50 or more persons employed, only about 3% of manufacturing firms and 1% of business service firms have performed offshoring in the period 2014-2016. Second, difference-in-differences propensity score matching estimates reveal a negative effect of offshoring on domestic employment and production. Most of this negative effect is not because the offshoring firms shrink, but rather because they don’t grow as fast as the non-offshoring firms. We further decompose the underlying employment dynamics by using direct survey evidence on how many jobs the firms destroyed/created due to offshoring. Moreover, we do not find an effect on labour productivity, since the negative effect on domestic employment and production are more or less of the same size. Third, the German data confirm previous findings for Denmark that offshoring is associated with an increase in the share of ‘produced goods imports’, i.e. offshoring firms increase their imports for the same goods they continue to produce domestically. In contrast, it is not the case that offshoring firms increase the share of intermediate goods imports (a commonly used proxy for offshoring), as defined by the BEC Rev. 5 classification.
Read article
Sovereign Default Risk, Macroeconomic Fluctuations and Monetary-Fiscal Stabilisation
Markus Kirchner, Malte Rieth
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 22,
2020
Abstract
This paper examines the role of sovereign default beliefs for macroeconomic fluctuations and stabilisation policy in a small open economy where fiscal solvency is a critical problem. We set up and estimate a DSGE model on Turkish data and show that accounting for sovereign risk significantly improves the fit of the model through an endogenous amplication between default beliefs, exchange rate and inflation movements. We then use the estimated model to study the implications of sovereign risk for stability, fiscal and monetary policy, and their interaction. We find that a relatively strong fiscal feedback from deficits to taxes, some exchange rate targeting, or a monetary response to default premia are more effective and efficient stabilisation tools than hawkish inflation targeting.
Read article
Disentangling Covid-19, Economic Mobility, and Containment Policy Shocks
Annika Camehl, Malte Rieth
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 2,
2021
Abstract
We study the dynamic impact of Covid-19, economic mobility, and containment policy shocks. We use Bayesian panel structural vector autoregressions with daily data for 44 countries, identified through sign and zero restrictions. Incidence and mobility shocks raise cases and deaths significantly for two months. Restrictive policy shocks lower mobility immediately, cases after one week, and deaths after three weeks. Non-pharmaceutical interventions explain half of the variation in mobility, cases, and deaths worldwide. These flattened the pandemic curve, while deepening the global mobility recession. The policy tradeoff is 1 p.p. less mobility per day for 9% fewer deaths after two months.
Read article
The Impact of Active Aggregate Demand on Utilisation-adjusted TFP
Konstantin Gantert
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 9,
2022
Abstract
Non-clearing goods markets are an important driver of capacity utilisation and total factor productivity (TFP). The trade-off between goods prices and household search effort is central to goods market matching and therefore drives TFP over the business cycle. In this paper, I develop a New-Keynesian DSGE model with capital utilisation, worker effort, and expand it with goods market search-and-matching (SaM) to model non-clearing goods markets. I conduct a horse-race between the different capacity utilisation channels using Bayesian estimation and capacity utilisation survey data. Models that include goods market SaM improve the data fit, while the capital utilisation and worker effort channels are rendered less important compared to the literature. It follows that TFP fluctuations increase for demand and goods market mismatch shocks, while they decrease for technology shocks. This pattern increases as goods market frictions increase and as prices become stickier. The paper shows the importance of non-clearing goods markets in explaining the difference between technology and TFP over the business cycle.
Read article
ekordschulden gegen Corona-Folgen sind finanzierbar – schuldenfinanzierte Konsumstimulierung aber nicht zielführend
Oliver Holtemöller
ifo Schnelldienst,
No. 8,
2020
Abstract
Auf große Wirtschaftskrisen reagiert die Finanzpolitik häufig mit einer massiven Ausweitung der öffentlichen Verschuldung, so auch in der gegenwärtigen Coronakrise. In diesem Beitrag wird gezeigt, dass die deutsche Schuldenbremse die Tragfähigkeit der öffentlichen Finanzen auch dann gewährleistet, wenn im Abstand von zehn Jahren Krisen auftreten, in denen die Neuverschuldungsgrenze außer Kraft gesetzt wird. Die Tragfähigkeit zusätzlicher Staatsschulden begründet jedoch nicht deren Sinnhaftigkeit. Diskretionäre Finanzpolitik zur Stimulierung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Nachfrage leistet insgesamt einen eher kleinen Anteil zur Stabilisierung der realwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung. Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung der Corona-Epidemie, für den Ausgleich tatsächlicher sozialer und wirtschaftlicher Schäden und für die Aufrechterhaltung des Bildungsbetriebs unter den Bedingungen einer Epidemie könnten einen wichtigeren Beitrag zur Krisenbekämpfung leisten als kurzfristige Nachfragestimulierung.
Read article
Transport Costs and Urban Systems
Albrecht Kauffmann
Forschungs- und Sitzungsberichte der ARL, Bd. 238,
2012
Abstract
Die mittleren Kosten des Gütertransports in einer Volkswirtschaft gehören zu jenen Faktoren, die maßgeblich an der Ausformung ihres Städtesystems mit beteiligt sind. Der Beitrag geht der Frage nach, welche Effekte Transportkostenänderungen (hierbei kann es sich sowohl um einen Rückgang als auch um einen Anstieg handeln) auf das Städtesystem ausüben können. Dabei. finden unterschiedliche Modelle Anwendung, die auf Grundannahmen der Neuen Ökonomischen Geographie aufbauen. Die spezifischen Annahmen dieser Modelle werden miteinander verglichen, ihre Ergebnisse einander gegenübergestellt. Es zeigt sich, dass die auf teilweise sehr restriktiven Annahmen aufgebauten Modellergebnisse sich in ihren Aussagen scheinbar widersprechen bzw. dass eine Interpretation dieser Modelle nur im Hinblick auf ihre spezifischen Fragestellungen vorgenommen werden darf. Hierzu gehören Suburbanisierungstendenzen, die Erschließung peripherer Regionen und die Konzentration der Führungszentralen von Unternehmen.
Read article
State Aid in the Enlarged European Union. An Overview
Jens Hölscher, Nicole Nulsch, Johannes Stephan
Abstract
In the early phase of transition that started with the 1990s, Central and Eastern European Countries pursued economic restructuring of the enterprise sector that involved massive injections of state support. Also foreign investment from the West and facilitation of the development of a market economy involved massive injections of state support. With their accession to the European Union (EU), levels and forms of state aid came under critical review by the European Commission. This inquiry investigates whether the integration of the new member states operates on a level playing field with respect to state aid. Quantitative and qualitative analysis is relied upon to answer this key, as well as other, related questions. Findings suggest that in recent years a level playing field across the EU has indeed emerged. State aid in the new EU member countries is rather handled more strictly than laxer compared to the ‘old’ EU countries.
Read article
On the Determinants of the Cooperative Behavior of Firms in the German Photovoltaic Industry
Christoph Hornych, Matthias Brachert
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 20,
2010
Abstract
Wenn gleich die positiven Effekte von Kooperationen bereits in einer Vielzahl von Untersuchungen nachgewiesen werden konnten, erfährt die Frage nach den Determinanten der Neigung von Unternehmen, Kooperationsbeziehungen einzugehen, in der Forschung zu Unternehmenskooperationen bisher nur geringe Aufmerksamkeit. Dabei könnte die Kenntnis der relevanten Einflussfaktoren Aufschluss darüber geben, inwieweit sich unterschiedliche Kooperationsintensitäten in Regionen auf Unterschiede im Unternehmensbesatz zurückführen lassen. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht das Diskussionspapier, welche Einflussfaktoren die Anzahl der Kooperationspartner von Unternehmen in der Photovoltaik-Industrie bestimmen. Ausgehend von einem Überblick über die möglichen Effekte der Kooperation von Unternehmen mit Partnern innerhalb und außerhalb der eigenen Region werden Hypothesen über die Zusammenhänge zwischen sowohl unternehmensspezifischen als auch regionsspezifischen Variablen und der Kooperationsneigung von Unternehmen aufgestellt. Diese werden im Rahmen von Regressionsmodellen anhand eines Datensatzes zu 178 deutschen Photovoltaikunternehmen getestet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass insbesondere große Unternehmen sowie Unternehmen mit hohen absorptiven Fähigkeiten eine Vielzahl an Kooperationsbeziehungen unterhalten. Kooperationen innerhalb der eigenen Region gehen die Unternehmen vor allem dann ein, wenn eine Vielzahl potenzieller Partner am Standort vorhanden ist. Zudem kooperieren Niederlassungen ausländischer Unternehmen besonders häufig mit Partnern aus der Region, in der sie angesiedelt sind.
Read article
Sharing Competences: The Impact of Local Institutional Settings on Voter Turnout
Claus Michelsen, Peter Bönisch, Martin T. W. Rosenfeld
Abstract
Institutions are common predictors of voter turnout. Most research in this field focuses on cross-country comparisons of voting systems, like the impact of compulsory voting or registration systems. Fewer efforts have been devoted to understand the role of local institutions and their impact on political participation. Especially the impact of divided competences in relation to public good provision and its impact on voter turnout has been widely ignored. In the present paper, we analyze the effects of different institutional settings for inter-municipal cooperation on voter turnout. We use data from local elections in Germany, held in 2003 and 2004. Overall, we analyze aggregate voter turnout of 1661 municipalities and find strong evidence for our hypothesis that local institutional settings are influential in this context. Further, our results indicate that the better competences correspond to the spatial dimension of local public goods, the higher should be the voter turnout.
Read article
