Do Better Capitalized Banks Lend Less? Long-run Panel Evidence from Germany
Claudia M. Buch, Esteban Prieto
International Finance,
Nr. 1,
2014
Abstract
Higher capital features prominently in proposals for regulatory reform. But how does increased bank capital affect business loans? The real costs of increased bank capital in terms of reduced loans are widely believed to be substantial. But the negative real-sector implications need not be severe. In this paper, we take a long-run perspective by analysing the link between the capitalization of the banking sector and bank loans using panel cointegration models. We study the evolution of the German economy for the past 44 years. Higher bank capital tends to be associated with higher business loan volume, and we find no evidence for a negative effect. This result holds both for pooled regressions as well as for the individual banking groups in Germany.
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The Role of Uncertainty in the Euro Crisis - A Reconsideration of Liquidity Preference Theory
Toralf Pusch
Journal of Post Keynesian Economics,
2013
Abstract
With the world financial crisis came the rediscovery of the active role fiscal policy could play in remedying the situation. More recently, the Euro Crisis, with its mounting funding costs facing governments of a number of Southern EU member states and Ireland, has called this strategy into question. Opposing this view, the main point of this contribution is to elaborate on the link between rising sovereign risk premia in the Eurozone and a major feature of the financial crisis - elevated uncertainty after the Lehman collapse. Theoretically, this link is developed with reference to Keynes' liquidity preference theory. The high explanatory power of rising uncertainty in financial markets and the detrimental effects of fiscal austerity on the evolution of sovereign risk spreads are demonstrated empirically by means of panel regressions and supplementary correlation analyses.
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Seniorität, spezifisches Kapital und Beschäftigungsmobilität - Warum Ältere seltener wechseln
Lutz Schneider
T. Salzmann, V. Skirbekk, M. Weiberg (Hrsg.), Wirtschaftspolitische Herausforderungen des demografischen Wandels,
2010
Abstract
Der Beitrag untersucht den Zusammenhang von Alterung und Arbeitsmarktmobilität und beantwortet die Frage, ob Mobilität erstens einkommensorientiert erfolgt, ob ältere Beschäftigte zweitens qua Wechsel Lohnzuwächse realisieren können und ob drittens fehlende Lohnanreize den beobachtbaren Mobilitätsrückstand Älterer vollständig erklären können. Die Analyse beschränkt sich auf die betriebliche und berufliche Mobilität von Beschäftigten. Um die Fragen in einem einheitlichen Rahmen beantworten zu können, wird ein Mehrgleichungsmodell geschätzt, das in der empirischen Literatur als switching regression model with endogenous switching bekannt ist. Als Datenbasis fungiert der Regionaldatensatz der IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich erstens, dass erwartete Lohnzuwächse die betriebliche und berufliche Mobilität über alle Altersklassen hinweg positiv beeinflussen. Zweitens wird deutlich, dass ältere Beschäftigte sehr viel seltener wechselbedingte Lohnzuwächse realisieren können als jüngere, was einen zentralen Grund für die geringere Wechselneigung Älterer darstellt. Drittens belegt die Analyse jedoch ebenfalls, dass die fehlenden Lohnanreize den Mobilitätsrückstand Älterer nicht vollständig erklären können.
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Industry Concentration and Regional Innovative Performance – Empirical Evidence for Eastern Germany
Christoph Hornych, Michael Schwartz
Post-Communist Economies,
2009
Abstract
Regarding technological innovativeness, the transformed economy of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) clearly lags behind the western part of the country. To face this weakness a broad mixture of policy measures was carried out in recent years. Particular attention is drawn to the development of industry concentrations and economic ‘clusters’. However, little is known about the effectiveness of these policy measures regarding how industry concentrations in fact promote innovative performance in Eastern Germany. The present study tries to fill this gap by analysing the relationship between industry concentration in Eastern Germany and regional innovative performance. Our empirical analysis is based upon the number of patent applications of 22 manufacturing industries in 22 Eastern German planning regions. The estimated regression models indicate an inverted-U relationship between the degree of industry concentration and innovative performance. An exceedingly high degree of industry concentration in one region hampers regional innovative output. We discuss policy implications of our findings and give recommendations for future refinement of ‘cluster’-supporting policy schemes in Eastern Germany.
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Are there Gender-specific Preferences for Location Factors? A Grouped Conditional Logit-model of Interregional Migration Flows in Germany
Lutz Schneider, Alexander Kubis
IWH-Diskussionspapiere,
Nr. 5,
2009
Abstract
The article analyses the question whether women and men differ in their tastes for location factors. The question is answered by quantifying the impact of location characteristics on interregional migration flows across Germany. The analysis is based on a grouped conditional logit approach. We augment the framework by controlling for violation of the independence of irrelevant alternatives assumption and for overdispersion. As a result, we find no differences in terms of direction of impact. However, the regressions confirm gender differences in terms of intensity, particularly regarding regional wage levels and the availability of educational institutions.
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The Role of the Human Capital and Managerial Skills in Explaining the Productivity Gaps between East and West
Johannes Stephan, Wolfgang Steffen
Eastern European Economics,
Nr. 6,
2008
Abstract
Die Veröffentlichung beschäftigt sich mit den Determinanten von Produktivitätsgefällen zwischen Firmen in Europäischen Transitionsländern oder –regionen und Firmen in Westdeutschland. Die Analyse findet auf der Unternehmensebene statt und basiert auf einer einzigartigen Datenbank, welche durch Feldforschung erstellt worden ist. Die Determinanten werden in einer einfachen ökonometrischen Regression getestet und fokussieren auf Humankapital und modernes marktorientiertes Management. Die Ergebnisse sind insofern neu als sie eine Lösung anbieten, wie die widersprüchlichen Ergebnisse anderer Analysen zu formalen Qualifikationsmustern in Ost- und Westdeutschland zu erklären sind. Darüber hinaus ist es aufgrund der Analyse möglich eine Art Humankapital und Expertise zu entwickeln, welche meist in post-sozialistischen Firmen gebraucht wird und sich auf bestimmte Ansprüche an eine konkurrenzfähige marktbasierte ökonomische Umwelt bezieht. Letztendlich findet die Analyse auch empirische Beweise für die Rolle einer verbesserten Kapitalausstattung für den Produktivitätsausgleich sowie für das Argument, dass die Unterschiede in Arbeitsproduktivität bedeutend in einer größeren arbeitsintensiveren Produktion verwurzelt sind, was jedoch nicht zu einem wettbewerblichen Nachteil führt.
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Spillover Effects of Spatial Growth Poles - a Reconciliation of Conflicting Policy Targets?
Alexander Kubis, Mirko Titze, Joachim Ragnitz
IWH-Diskussionspapiere,
Nr. 8,
2007
Abstract
Regional economic policy faces the challenge of two competing policy goals - reducing regional economic disparities vs. promoting economic growth. The allocation of public funds has to weigh these goals particularly under the restriction of scarce financial re- sources. If, however, some region turns out to be a regional growth pole with positive spillovers to its disadvantaged periphery, regional policies could be designed to recon- cile the conflicting targets. In this case, peripheral regions could indirectly participate in the economic development of their growing cores. We start our investigation by defining and identifying such growth poles among German regions on the NUTS 3 administrative level based on spatial and sectoral effects. Using cluster analysis, we determine significant characteristics for the general identification of growth poles. Patterns in the sectoral change are identified by means of the change in the employment. Finally, we analyze whether and to what extent these growth poles ex- ert spatial spillover effects on neighbouring regions and thus mitigate contradictory in- terests in regional public policy. For this purpose, we apply a Spatial-Cross-Regressive- Model (SCR-Model) including the change in the secondary sector which allows to con- sider functional economic relations on the administrative level chosen (NUTS 3).
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Technology spillovers from external investors in East Germany: no overall effects in favor of domestic firms
Harald Lehmann, Jutta Günther
IWH-Diskussionspapiere,
Nr. 198,
2004
Abstract
The study deals with the question whether external (foreign and West German) investors in East Germany induce technological spillover effects in favor of domestic firms. It ties in with a number of other econometric spillover studies, especially for transition economies, which show rather mixed and inconclusive results so far. Different from existing spillover analyses, this study allows for a much deeper regional breakdown up to Raumordnungsregionen and uses a branch classification that explicitly considers intermediate and investment good linkages. The regression results show no positive correlation between the presence of external investors and domestic firms’ productivity, no matter which regional breakdown is looked at (East Germany as a whole, federal states, or Raumordnungsregionen). Technology spillovers which may exist in particular cases are obviously not strong enough to increase the domestic firms’ overall productivity.
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Uncovered Workers in Plants Covered by Collective Bargaining: Who Are They and How Do They Fare?
Boris Hirsch, Philipp Lentge, Claus Schnabel
Abstract
In Germany, employers used to pay union members and non-members in a plant the same union wage in order to prevent workers from joining unions. Using recent administrative data, we investigate which workers in firms covered by collective bargaining agreements still individually benefit from these union agreements, which workers are not covered anymore, and what this means for their wages. We show that about 9 percent of workers in plants with collective agreements do not enjoy individual coverage (and thus the union wage) anymore. Econometric analyses with unconditional quantile regressions and firm-fixed-effects estimations demonstrate that not being individually covered by a collective agreement has serious wage implications for most workers. Low-wage non-union workers and those at low hierarchy levels particularly suffer since employers abstain from extending union wages to them in order to pay lower wages. This jeopardizes unions' goal of protecting all disadvantaged workers.
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