Ökonomische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland
Die Gruppe untersucht mit innovativen Methoden, warum die Wirtschaft in Ostdeutschland bis heute hinter der westdeutschen zurückbleibt und welche Rolle die Treuhandanstalt dabei spielt.
In ihrem Hauptprojekt untersucht die Gruppe den Prozess der Privatisierung der DDR-Wirtschaft durch die Treuhandanstalt. Inwiefern spielte die Qualifizierung der ausgewählten Managerinnen und Manager und deren Netzwerk zu anderen Entscheidern eine Rolle? In Form eines Benchmark-Modells soll auf Basis von Mikrodaten (Firmen, Manager, Patente, Ideen) herausgefunden werden, wie die ostdeutschen Betriebe heute daständen, wenn sie ausschließlich von talentierten Unternehmerpersönlichkeiten übernommen worden wären. Das zweite Projekt analysiert, warum besonders innovative Firmen seltener in Ost- als in Westdeutschland entstehen und welche Rolle Migrantinnen und Migranten für das Wirtschaftswachstum und die Wissensproduktion in Deutschland spielen. Das dritte Projekt verwendet CompNet-Daten, um nach Gründen für die schwindende Produktivitätsdynamik in Europa zu suchen.
Forschungscluster
Gesamtwirtschaftliche Dynamik und StabilitätIhr Kontakt
Mitglied - Abteilung Strukturwandel und Produktivität
Referierte Publikationen
Ten Facts on Declining Business Dynamism and Lessons from Endogenous Growth Theory
in: American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Nr. 1, 2021
Abstract
In this paper, we review the literature on declining business dynamism and its implications in the United States and propose a unifying theory to analyze the symptoms and the potential causes of this decline. We first highlight 10 pronounced stylized facts related to declining business dynamism documented in the literature and discuss some of the existing attempts to explain them. We then describe a theoretical framework of endogenous markups, innovation, and competition that can potentially speak to all of these facts jointly. We next explore some theoretical predictions of this framework, which are shaped by two interacting forces: a composition effect that determines the market concentration and an incentive effect that determines how firms respond to a given concentration in the economy. The results highlight that a decline in knowledge diffusion between frontier and laggard firms could be a significant driver of empirical trends observed in the data. This study emphasizes the potential of growth theory for the analysis of factors behind declining business dynamism and the need for further investigation in this direction.
Lack of Selection and Limits to Delegation: Firm Dynamics in Developing Countries
in: American Economic Review, Nr. 1, 2021
Abstract
Delegating managerial tasks is essential for firm growth. Most firms in developing countries, however, do not hire outside managers but instead rely on family members. In this paper, we ask if this lack of managerial delegation can explain why firms in poor countries are small and whether it has important aggregate consequences. We construct a model of firm growth where entrepreneurs have a fixed time endowment to run their daily operations. As firms grow large, the need to hire outside managers increases. Firms’ willingness to expand therefore depends on the ease with which delegation can take place. We calibrate the model to plant-level data from the U.S. and India. We identify the key parameters of our theory by targeting the experimental evidence on the effect of managerial practices on firm performance from Bloom et al. (2013). We find that inefficiencies in the delegation environment account for 11% of the income per capita difference between the U.S. and India. They also contribute to the small size of Indian producers, but would cause substantially more harm for U.S. firms. The reason is that U.S. firms are larger on average and managerial delegation is especially valuable for large firms, thus making delegation efficiency and other factors affecting firm growth complements.
Does Low-pay Persist across Different Regimes? Evidence from the German Unification
in: Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, Nr. 3, 2020
Publikation lesen
History, Microdata, and Endogenous Growth
in: Annual Review of Economics, 2019
Abstract
The study of economic growth is concerned with long-run changes, and therefore, historical data should be especially influential in informing the development of new theories. In this review, we draw on the recent literature to highlight areas in which study of history has played a particularly prominent role in improving our understanding of growth dynamics. Research at the intersection of historical data, theory, and empirics has the potential to reframe how we think about economic growth in much the same way that historical perspectives helped to shape the first generation of endogenous growth theories.
Innovation and Top Income Inequality
in: Review of Economic Studies, Nr. 1, 2019
Abstract
In this article, we use cross-state panel and cross-U.S. commuting-zone data to look at the relationship between innovation, top income inequality and social mobility. We find positive correlations between measures of innovation and top income inequality. We also show that the correlations between innovation and broad measures of inequality are not significant. Next, using instrumental variable analysis, we argue that these correlations at least partly reflect a causality from innovation to top income shares. Finally, we show that innovation, particularly by new entrants, is positively associated with social mobility, but less so in local areas with more intense lobbying activities.
Arbeitspapiere
Police Reorganization and Crime: Evidence from Police Station Closures
in: German Council of Economic Experts Working Paper, Nr. 7, 2019
Abstract
Does the administrative organization of police affect crime? In answering this question, we focus on the reorganization of local police agencies. Specifically, we study the effects police force reallocation via station closures has on local crime. We do this by exploiting a quasi-experiment where a reform substantially reduced the number of police stations. Combining a matching strategy with an event-study design, we find no effects on total theft. Police station closures, however, open up tempting opportunities for criminals in car theft and burglary in residential properties. We can rule out that our effects arise from incapacitation, crime displacement, or changes in employment of local police forces. Our results suggest that criminals are less deterred after police station closures and use the opportunity to steal more costly goods.
