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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2011‒07‒27
seventeen papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta University of Modena and Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Georg Zachmann; Anta Ndoye; Jan Abrell |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of the European Unionâ??s Emission Trading System (EU ETS) at a firm level. Using panel data on the emissions and performance of more than 2000 European firms from 2005 to 2008, we are able to analyse the effectiveness of the scheme. The results suggest that the shift from the first phase (2005-2007) to the second phase (2008-2012) had an impact on the emission reductions carried out by firms. The initial allocation also had a significant impact on emission reduction. This challenges the relevance for the ETS of Coaseâ??s theorem (Coase, 1969), according to which the initial allocation of permits is irrelevant for the post-trading allocation of marketable pollution permits. Finally, we found that the EU ETS had a modest impact on the participating companiesâ?? performance. We conclude that a full auctioning system could help to reduce emissions but could also have a negative impact on the profits of participating companies. |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bre:wpaper:579&r=eur |
| By: | Rudolf Winter-Ebmer; Mario Schnalzenberger (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria); Nicole Schneeweis; Martina Zweimüller |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between job quality and retirement using panel data for European countries (SHARE). While previous studies looked at the impact of bad working conditions on retirement intentions, we can use the panel dimension to study actual retirement as well as other pathways out of a job. As indicators for job quality we use three different approaches: overall job sat- isfaction, over- and undereducation for a particular job as well as effort-reward imbalance which measures the imbalance between a worker's effort and the re- wards he or she receives in turn. |
| Keywords: | retirement, job quality, job satisfaction, educational mismatch, effort- reward imbalance, SHARE |
| JEL: | J14 J18 J26 J28 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2011_08&r=eur |
| By: | Geranda Notten; Keetie Roelen; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre |
| Abstract: | Recent years have witnessed widespread acknowledgement in both academic and policy circles that children deserve a special focus in poverty measurement. It is now generally accepted that children have different basic needs from adults and are harder hit, both in the short- and long-term, when their basic needs are not met. The European Union (EU) has acknowledged the need for child-focused indicators in monitoring poverty and social exclusion and is currently in the process of developing, testing and comparing single indicators of child well-being across member states. This paper aims to add to this debate by providing a micro-analysis of the breadth of child poverty in the European Union, considering both the degree of overlap and accumulation of deprivations across monetary and multidimensional indicators of poverty. Using the 2007 wave of the EU-SILC data, the European Union (EU) monetary 'at-risk-of-poverty' indicator is compared with a range of child deprivation indicators at domain level in four EU Member States (Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). Overall, the paper’s findings provide a strong call for the need to take a multidimensional approach towards the measurement of child poverty in the EU context. |
| Keywords: | child poverty; measurement; poverty alleviation; |
| JEL: | C1 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa636&r=eur |
| By: | Geranda Notten; Keetie Roelen; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre |
| Abstract: | This paper describes and empirically tests a number of candidate measures of cumulative deprivation to monitor child well-being in the EU.The authors posit that the ideal measure should be sensitive to changes in the depth of cumulative deprivation and, given its broad use in the policy community, has an intuitive interpretation. Using the 2007 wave of the EU-SILC data, the authors constructed several measures of cumulative deprivation from a set of 13 deprivation indicators for Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. |
| Keywords: | child poverty; poverty reduction; |
| JEL: | C0 C12 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa635&r=eur |
| By: | Frigyes Ferdinand Heinz (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.); Desislava Rusinova (European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, D-60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we estimate the degree of real wage flexibility in 19 EU countries in a wage Phillips curve panel framework. We find evidence for a reaction of wage growth to unemployment and productivity growth. However, due to unemployment persistence, over time the real wage response weakens substantially. Our results suggest that the degree of real wage flexibility tends to be larger in the central and eastern European (CEE) countries than in the euro area; weaker in downturns than during upswings. Moreover, there exists an inflation threshold, below which real wage flexibility seems to decrease. Finally, we find that part of the heterogeneity in real wage flexibility and unemployment might be related to differences in the wage bargaining institutions and more specifically the extent of labour market regulation in different country groups within the EU. JEL Classification: J31, J38, P5. |
| Keywords: | real wage flexibility, bargaining institutions, central and eastern Europe, euro area, panel heterogeneity. |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20111360&r=eur |
| By: | Kager, Rebekka; Niemann, Rainer |
| Abstract: | The internationalisation of financial accounting and the European Commission's ambition to harmonise corporate taxation have raised the question whether IFRS accounts could be used for tax purposes. In order to quantify the effect of an IFRS-based taxation on corporate tax burdens in different EU member states, we estimate firms' tax equity using notes on income taxes in IFRS financial statements of companies listed in Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands. The difference between estimated tax equity and IFRS-equity, adjusted for the effect resulting from the recognition of deferred taxes, indicates the effect of using IFRS as a tax base on corporate tax burden. We find that estimated tax equity is mostly lower than IFRSequity, indicating that an IFRS-based taxation would often increase the corporate tax burden. The median of estimated tax equity is 5.6% (Austria), 6.4% (Germany) and 9.0% (the Netherlands) below IFRS-equity. Our results suggest that using IFRS for the determination of taxable income would often increase corporate tax burden. However, an IFRS-based taxation does not always induce higher equity as often argued in the literature. In 307 of 1.113 totally analysed firm-years, estimated tax equity exceeds IFRS-equity. Analysing IFRS-tax differences on a balance sheet caption level, we find that the most important differences can be observed for intangibles and provisions. We find for all three analysed countries that IFRS-tax differences relating to inventories, receivables, and liabilities are typically small. We also approximate the total stock of unused tax losses and the amount of useable tax losses which can provide additional information about the management's estimates of future earnings. We find that deferred tax assets for unused tax losses are depreciated to a substantial extent, indicating that companies often assume insufficient future taxable income to utilise the total stock of tax loss carry-forwards. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:arqudp:120&r=eur |
| By: | Alessandro Antimiani; Anna Carbone; Valeria Costantini; Roberto Henke |
| Abstract: | This paper explores agri-food export dynamics in New Member States (NMS) and Old Member States (OMS) of the European Union during the enlargement process. A quality-oriented survey is conducted by developing an original analytical framework which combines information from trade similarity analysis with elements from the sophistication literature. Country and sector specific features seem to emerge, revealing a more complex picture than that produced by aggregated trade analysis. While for some NMS agri-food exports, patterns converge towards OMS with regard to size, competitiveness and quality improvement process, for other NMS, a low-quality trap seems to prevail. |
| Keywords: | Agri-food sector, export dynamics, EU enlargement, quality upgrading |
| JEL: | F14 F15 Q17 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtr:wpaper:134&r=eur |
| By: | Julien, François; Lamla, Michael |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at presenting the support schemes promoting the development of renewable energies in five major European countries, namely Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. At first the reader will find brief country profiles, followed by a comparison of their competitiveness with regard to the type of public support available for project developers, the current level of feed-in tariffs, the stability of the regulatory framework, the quality of the wind or solar resource available, etc. Finally, a mapping will give a quick overview of the competitiveness of the five countries for each renewable energy reviewed in this study. The paper focuses on four technologies generating electricity from renewable sources: Onshore wind, Offshore wind, Photovoltaic solar energy and Concentrating solar power ('CSP', also known as solar thermoelectric power). -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:euvwdp:302&r=eur |
| By: | Pietro Moncada-Paterno-Castello (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | One of the main objectives of the new European research and innovation policy agenda is to favour the positive demographics (creation and growth) of EU companies operating in new/knowledge-intensive industries, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). These companies play an important role in shaping the dynamism of the economy’s sectoral composition, favouring the transition towards more knowledge-intensive activities (smart growth) and in contributing to the overall economic growth objectives and more and better jobs. But which kind of companies should be helped by policy? And how? This paper presents a literature review on the economics of research, innovation and competitiveness, focusing on the evidence available regarding the determinants for new and existing company creation and growth and the role played by Research, Development (R&D) and innovation. Furthermore, based on this, it draws a number of policy implications to design future research and innovation support instruments targeting innovative company growth in Europe. The result of this work indicates that: a) EU needs support policies to foster R&D investment in some specific typology of innovative companies and only where there are market failures and clear high social returns; b) the establishment of any targeted support instruments should take into account an integrated set of criteria including: firms' age and size, the sectors where firms operate, the involved risks in and potential for their innovative and commercial activities, the country/techno-economic environment, and the degree of internationalisation; c) to be successful, no matter the new targeted policies and supporting instruments, they should be designed using policy experimentation and its results should be regularly measured and evaluated using appropriate indicators and analyses. |
| Keywords: | Firm demographics and growth, Small and Medium Enterprises, economic dynamics, corporate research and innovation, EU competitiveness, EU policy. |
| JEL: | O31 L25 R38 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201103&r=eur |
| By: | Bassanini, Andrea (OECD); Caroli, Eve (University Paris Dauphine); Rebérioux, Antoine (University Paris Ouest-Nanterre); Breda, Thomas (Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We study compensation packages in family and non-family firms. Using matched employer-employee data for a representative sample of French establishments, we first show that family firms pay on average lower wages to their workers. We find that part of this wage gap is due to differences in unobserved characteristics of workers across family and non-family firms. However, we also find evidence that company wage policies differ according to ownership status, so that workers staying in the same firm enjoy on average a 3% pay increase when a family firm becomes non-family owned and suffer a similar pay drop when the ownership transition occurs the other way round. In contrast, we find evidence that family firms are characterised by lower job insecurity, as measured by dismissal rates and by the subjective risk of dismissal perceived by workers. In addition, family firms appear to rely less on dismissals – and more on hiring reductions – than non-family firms when they downsize. We show that compensating wage differentials account for a substantial part of the inverse relationship between the family/non-family gaps in wages and job security. |
| Keywords: | family firms, wages, job security, compensating wage differentials, linked employer-employee data |
| JEL: | G34 J31 J33 J63 L26 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5842&r=eur |
| By: | Hirte, Georg; Tscharaktschiew, Stefan |
| Abstract: | Germany like many other European countries subsidize commuting by granting the right to deduct commuting expenses from the income tax base. This regulation has often been changed and has regularly been under debate during the last decades. The pros (e.g. causing efficiency gains with respect to the spatial allocation of labor) and cons (e.g. causing urban sprawl) are well documented. Nonetheless, there is need for further research. For reasons of tractability the few models applied in the tax deduction related literature are based on restrictive assumptions particularly concerning the design of the income taxation scheme and the structure of households (neglecting household heterogeneity) and, most importantly, they do not integrate labor supply and location decision problems simultaneously. Here, for the first time, those and more features are taken into account in a full spatial general equilibrium simulation approach calibrated to an average German city. This model is applied to calculate the impacts of tax deductions on an urban economy thereby considering different funding schemes. Our results suggest that the tax deduction level currently chosen is below the optimal level in the case of income tax funding. If a change in the tax base occurs, e.g. toward consumption tax or energy tax funding, the optimal size of the subsidy should be even higher. Furthermore, the different policy packages cause a very differentiated pattern regarding welfare distribution, environmental (CO2 emissions) and congestion effects. We also find surprisingly small effects on urban sprawl characterized by suburbanization of residences and jobs, increasing commuting distances and spatial city growth. -- |
| Keywords: | urban general equilibrium model,commuting subsidies,income tax deduction |
| JEL: | C68 R12 R13 R14 R20 R51 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuddps:0211&r=eur |
| By: | Riccardo Crescenzi; Fabrizio De Filippis; Fabio Pierangeli |
| Abstract: | The paper looks at the overall structure of the European Union’s regional, agricultural and rural development policies in order to assess their coordination and synergies at the territorial level and their degree of compatibility with the objective of territorial cohesion. The regression analysis - covering the 20-year period 1994-2013, and approximately 90% of total Community expenditure - reveals that the compatibility of the various areas of Community policy in terms of the objectives of territorial cohesion has not progressed in a linear fashion over time. Shifting resources in the Community budget from one policy area to another does not, by itself, appear capable of guaranteeing virtuous paths in terms of territorial cohesion. The increase in the territorial ‘vocation’ of overall Community spending will, therefore, crucially depend upon the definition of appropriate allocative mechanisms and interventions, based upon the characteristics of each region and its ‘local’ needs |
| Keywords: | Regional Policy, Regional Development, Rural Development, European Union |
| JEL: | O18 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtr:wpaper:132&r=eur |
| By: | De Beaufort, Viviane (ESSEC Business School) |
| Abstract: | Servir de révélateur aux différentes dimensions de la création d‘entreprises au féminin, tel est l’objectif de cette étude comparative qui intégrant une dimension de genre tente d’appréhender la question à échelle de l’Europe avec davantage de développements sur le contexte français particulièrement exemplaire. L’entreprenariat féminin est partout un réservoir de croissance insuffisamment exploité. Il s’agit alors de cerner les motivations des femmes qui créent ou reprennent une entreprise et leurs spécificités éventuelles, les particularités des modèles d’entreprises « au féminin 3 (taille, service,mode de développement). Et également les obstacles à cette dynamique. Dans quelle mesure sont ils particuliers ? Quelles mesures d’accompagnement spécifiques faut-il, dés lors, continuer à développer ? |
| Keywords: | entreprenariat au féminin; approche en Europe; approche comparée |
| Date: | 2011–07–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:essewp:dr-11005&r=eur |
| By: | Ragni Hege Kitterød, Marit Rønsen and Ane Seierstad (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Considering the high female part-time rates in Norway, one may envisage a sizeable additional labour supply if more part-time working women would switch to full time. In view of an ageing population and increased demand for labour in the future, we investigate this issue by studying married and cohabiting women’s transitions from part-time to full-time work based on panel data from 2003-2009. Contrary to evidence from other countries with well-established support for working mothers, we find that young children in the household still restrain Norwegian women’s mobility to full-time work. On the other hand, there is a strong trend of higher full-time transition rates over our study period, which may reflect a vast expansion of the day care sector with more and cheaper day care, as well as a booming economy. Part timers who work in typical female occupations such as nursing, and sales and services are also less likely to switch to full time. Whether this is a result of true preferences or constraints is difficult to say, but previous research suggest that involuntary part time may be substantial. Voluntariness may further be a matter of degree, and “chosen” part timers may also switch to full time if conditions were right. |
| Keywords: | Female labour supply; part-time; full-time transitions |
| JEL: | J21 J22 J24 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:658&r=eur |
| By: | Vincent Fromentin; (CEREFIGE); ; |
| Abstract: | This article examines the relationships of substitutability and complementarity between native workers and immigrants in France, depending on skill level, using a translog production function. We analyze the impact of immigrant workers on employment and wages of native workers by taking into account the interrelations between all factors. In general, there is a relationship of complementarity between immigrant workers and native workers, although high and intermediate-skilled migrant workers are respectively substitutable for intermediate and low-skilled native workers. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Substitutability, Production Function, Employment, Wages |
| JEL: | J61 C39 D24 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fie:wpaper:1105&r=eur |
| By: | Olympia Bover (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the methods of the third wave of the Spanish Survey of Household Finances (EFF2008), paying special attention to the innovations relative to the previous waves. The EFF2008 was designed to give continuity to the information on household finances collected through the EFF2002 and the EFF2005. A desirable characteristic present in all three waves is the oversampling of wealthy households. This is achieved on the basis of the wealth tax through a blind system of collaboration between the National Statistics Institute and the Tax Office which preserves stringent tax confidentiality. An additional important characteristic of the EFF is that the second and third waves have a full panel component. Further, a refreshment sample by wealth stratum has been incorporated in those two waves to preserve cross-sectional representativity and overall sample size. The EFF is the only statistical source in Spain that allows the linking of incomes, assets, debts, and consumption at the household level. The usefulness of the information contained in a survey such as the EFF has led to the decision from the European system of central banks to conduct a household wealth survey in all euro area countries following a methodology similar to the EFF. Therefore, the EFF2008 will allow harmonized comparisons with the new European wealth surveys. |
| Keywords: | wealth survey, oversampling of the rich, panel, refreshment sample, imputation |
| JEL: | C81 D31 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:opaper:1103&r=eur |
| By: | Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov (The Ratio Institute (RATIO)); Elert, Niklas (The Ratio Institute (RATIO)); Lang, Åsa (School of Technology and Business Studies) |
| Abstract: | Gibrat’s Law predicts that firm growth is a purely random effect and therefore should be independent of firm size. The purpose of this paper is to test Gibrat’s law within the retail industry, using a novel data-set comprising all Swedish limited liability companies active at some point between 1998 and 2004. Very few studies have previously investigated whether Gibrat’s Law seems to hold for retailing, and they are based on highly aggregated data. Our results indicate that Gibrat´s Law can be rejected for a large majority of five-digit retail industries in Sweden, since small retail firms tend to grow faster than large ones. |
| Keywords: | firm dynamics; firm size; firm growth; retail industry |
| JEL: | L11 L25 L81 |
| Date: | 2011–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:huiwps:0047&r=eur |