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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2015‒09‒18
25 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Elisabetta Trevisan (Department of Economics and Management, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Francesca Zantomio (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the consequences of experiencing an acute health shock, namely the first onset of myocardial infarction, stroke or cancer, on the labour supply of older workers in Europe. Despite its policy relevance to social security sustainability, the question has not yet been empirically addressed in the European context. We combine data from the the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and cover sixteen European countries, representative of different institutional settings, in the years spanning from 2002 to 2013. The empirical strategy builds on the availability of an extremely rich set of health and labour market information as well as of panel data. To remove the potential confounding bias, a selection on observables strategy is adopted, while the longitudinal dimension of data allows controlling for time invariant unobservables. Implementation is based on a combination of stratification and propensity score matching methods. Results reveal that experiencing an acute health shock on average doubles the risk of an older worker leaving the labour market, and is accompanied by a deterioration in physical functioning and mental health, as well as by a reduction in perceived life expectancy. Men’s labour market response appears driven by the onset of impairment acting as a barrier to work. In in the case of women, preferences for leisure and financial constraints seem to play a prominent role. Heterogeneity in behavioural responses across countries – with the largest labour supply reductions observed in the Nordic and Eastern countries, and England – are suggestive of a relevant role played by social security generosity. |
| Keywords: | health shocks, labour supply, Europe, older workers, propensity score matching |
| JEL: | J22 J18 I10 C14 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2015:27&r=all |
| By: | Schwander, Hanna |
| Abstract: | This paper is concerned with the link between welfare state reforms and the rising labor market inequality between labor market insiders and outsiders. This labor market inequality represents one of biggest challenges to Europe, especially to Continental Europe. The paper starts with a review of the most important labor market and welfare state reforms in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, four continental European countries with strong insider-outsider divides. I then study the implications of welfare state reforms on labor market risks in Continental Europe, focusing on the risk for unemployment and temporary employment because these two forms of labor market risks have particularly strong effects on economic and social deprivation and are often linked to a permanently inferior labor market status. Relying on several waves from the EU-SILC (2005-2011) I examine patterns of labor market risks and their distribution between groups with different skill and age levels and the interaction of these two factors in four Continental European countries: Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The analysis reveals that the development of unemployment and temporary employment varies between the four countries. In Germany, labor market risks have become less unequally distributed since the implementation of the Agenda 2010 in 2005 while labor market inequality has remained constant in France. I relate this back to the rigid labor market and the lack of more than superficial labor market reforms in the last decade until very recently. Indeed, France is a case where we observe a clear effect of a non-event mostly at the cost of the younger generation, which is clearly confronted with higher labor market risks than individuals in their prime age of even elderly individuals. Consistent with the politics of 'selective flexibilization', we find pronounced levels of labor market inequality in Italy and Spain, which are only to increase over time. One might speak of a dualization of the Italian and Spanish labor market between young outsiders and older insiders. |
| Abstract: | In diesem Artikel wird der Zusammenhang zwischen Wohlfahrtsstaatsreformen und der steigenden Ungleichheit im Arbeitsmarkt in vier kontinentaleuropäischen Ländern (Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien und Spanien), in welchen die ungleiche Verteilung von Arbeitsmarktrisiken eine besondere Herausforderung darstellt, analysiert. Das Papier beginnt mit einem Überblick über die wichtigsten Arbeitsmarkt- und Sozialstaatsreformen in Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien und Spanien in den letzten 2 Jahrzehnten um dann die Auswirkungen dieser Reformen auf Arbeitsmarktungleichheit zu untersuchen. Der Fokus der Untersuchung liegt dabei auf dem Risiko für Arbeitslosigkeit und dem Risiko für befristete Beschäftigung, zwei Arbeitsmarktrisiken mit schwerwiegenden Auswirkungen auf die soziale und ökonomische Integration der Betroffenen, welche zudem oftmals mit einem dauerhaft Verminderung des Arbeitsmarktstatus verbunden ist. Anhand mehrerer Wellen des EU-SILC (2005-2011) wird die Verteilung von Arbeitsmarktrisiken zwischen Gruppen mit unterschiedlichen Qualifikationen und Altersstufen und das Zusammenspiel dieser beiden Risikofaktoren untersucht. Die Analyse zeigt, dass die Entwicklung der Arbeitsmarktrisiken zwischen den vier Ländern unterschiedlich verläuft. In Deutschland hat sich die Ungleichheit im Arbeitsmarkt aufgrund der Agenda 2010 seit 2005 reduziert, während das Risiko für Arbeitslosigkeit und befristete Beschäftigung in Frankreich konstant ungleich verteilt geblieben ist. Dies kann mit dem starren Arbeitsmarkt und dem Fehlen von tiefgreifenden Arbeitsmarktreformen erklärt werden. Frankreich demonstriert damit, dass auch "Nicht-Ereignisse" deutliche Auswirkungen auf Ungleichheit haben können: Das Festhalten an bestehenden Strukturen ging auf Kosten der jüngeren Generation, die deutlich höheren Arbeitsmarktrisiken ausgesetzt sind als ältere Individuen. Eine ausgeprägte und steigende Ungleichheit in Italien und Spanien finden wir im Einklang mit der Reformstrategie der "selektiven Flexibilisierung", auch in Italien und Spanien. Entsprechend kann die Entwicklung in Südeuropa als Dualisierung zwischen jungen Outsidern und älteren Insider bezeichnet werden. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:sfb597:192&r=all |
| By: | M. Lippi Bruni; I. Mammi |
| Abstract: | Geographical clusters in health expenditures are well documented and accounting for spatial interactions may contribute to properly identify the factors affecting the use of health services the most. As for hospital care, spillovers may derive from strategic behaviour of hospitals and from patients’ preferences that may induce mobility across jurisdictions, as well as from geographically-concentrated risk factors, knowledge transfer and interactions between different layers of care. Our paper focuses on a largely overlooked potential source of spillovers in hospital expenditure: the heterogeneity of primary care providers’ behaviour. To do so, we analyse expenditures associated to avoidable hospitalisations separately from expenditures for highly complex treatments, as the former are most likely affected by General Practitioners, while the latter are not. We use administrative data for Italy’s Region Emilia Romagna between 2007 and 2010. Since neighbouring districts may belong to different Local Health Authorities (LHAs), we employ a spatial contiguity matrix that allows to investigate the effects of geographical and institutional proximity and use it to estimate Spatial Autoregressive and Spatial Durbin Models. |
| JEL: | I11 R12 C23 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1027&r=all |
| By: | Ludovico Carrino (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Cristina Elisa Orso (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Giacomo Pasini (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari, Networks for Studies on Pensions, Aging and Retirement, The Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | In the context of an unprecedented aging process, the role of domiciliary care for older adults is becoming increasingly essential. In order to design effective and proactive policies of formal elderly-care, it is crucial to understand how vulnerable elderly individuals would adjust their informal long-term care utilization to changes in the formal-care provision. Although theoretical frameworks have been proposed, showing that a positive relationship could arise when the elderly exhibit an excess demand of care, empirical evidence is scant, due to the lack of credible instruments to account for the endogenous nature of formal-care decisions. We propose a novel instrument, an index that capture individuals’ eligibility status to the LTC domiciliary programmes implemented in their own nation or region. That is, a dummy variable - being eligible or not - which is grounded on the LTC regulation context at national or regional level, but still has individual within region variation due to differences in health conditions and vulnerability assessment. We estimate an IV two-part model using a representative sample of the over 60 population for non-institutionalised individuals in Austria, Germany, France and Belgium. Our results, which are robust to a number of different specifications, point at the lack of crowding-out of the informal- by the formal-care, thus suggesting the existence of a substantial unmet demand of LTC among the elderly. |
| Keywords: | home care, instrumental variables, unmet demand, SHARE data |
| JEL: | C36 I13 J14 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2015:26&r=all |
| By: | Ferrando, Annalisa; Ruggieri, Alessandro |
| Abstract: | In this paper we consider the relation between firms’ financial structure, access to external finance and labor productivity using a large dataset of firm-level data for Euro-area countries during the period 1995-2011. Our empirical strategy is twofold. First we develop an indicator of financial constraints at firm level using a classification based on specific firm characteristics and various measures of financial pressure and liquidity. Second we apply this indicator to a firm-level production equation to assess the direct impact of access to finance to firm-level productivity. We estimate the impact of financial constraints on a measure of labor productivity and we find significant and negative effects in the majority of sectors across countries. The impact appears to be significantly higher in sectors like Energy, Gas and Water Supply and R&D, Communication and Information, for small and micro firms, while it is slightly smaller for firms with positive investment rates. From a cross-country perspective, while Germany and Netherlands are the least one, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal are the most affected by financial constraints, with an estimated loss of around 10% of their average real value added due to limited access to finance. JEL Classification: D24, G32, O16 |
| Keywords: | cross-country, financial constraints, productivity, sectoral analysis, SMEs |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20151823&r=all |
| By: | C. Ascherl; W. Schaefers |
| Abstract: | The widely known phenomenon of “underpricing†is frequently observable during the IPO process and has been researched extensively. Underpricing refers to the systematically negative difference between the offer price and the first trading price in the secondary market, implying that the issuing company collects less money than would have been possible in a fully efficient market. Whereas underpricing in the real estate sector is has been investigated in considerable depth in the USA, Australia and Asia, European studies in this field are scarce. Yet, the motivation to conduct a pan-European analysis on the underpricing of property IPOs is twofold. First, as stated above there is, to the best of our knowledge, no European study about underpricing differences in the real estate sector. Second, due to a growing number of listed real estate companies in most European countries, a pan-European study should provide clear evidence of IPO pricing in Europe. To investigate the underpricing phenomenon in the European real estate sector, this study uses a pan-European sample of listed property companies and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Specifically, our sample comprises ten REITs and 92 listed property companies over the period 1999-2014. The study is based on the methodology of Beatty and Ritter (1986) concerning ex-ante uncertainty, for which we use such proxies as gross proceeds, offer price, market capitalization at the IPO date and the age of the company at the issuing date. In addition, we include a dummy variable for the two years before the financial crisis, in order to take into account the high number of IPOs during this period. Finally, the study considers whether there is a significant difference between the initial returns of listed property company and REIT IPOs. |
| Keywords: | Ex-Ante Uncertainty; Ipo; Listed Real Estate; Pan-European Study; Underpricing |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2015_180&r=all |
| By: | P.Taltavull de La Paz; F. Juarez |
| Abstract: | This paper reconstruct the long term serie of housing prices in Spain (aggregate) using statistical methods based on ARIMA models. It build the data for sixties until eighties period in quarterly basis, of weighted house prices for the Spanish aggregate and some selected regions. The method uses 2 proxies for house prices reconstruction, the GDP and Mortgage units, and base the built series on the housing market fundamentals. After that, the paper compare the Spanish housing prices with other long term series available like the UK, France, US, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Japan. The reconstruction shows the different effect that the inflation process occurs during seventies had on housing prices and the similarities of global cycles among European countries. |
| Keywords: | Arima Models; Housing Prices; Spain |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2015_239&r=all |
| By: | Stefan Bach; Andreas Thiemann; Aline Zucco |
| Abstract: | We analyze the top tail of the wealth distribution in Germany, France, Spain, and Greece based on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). Since top wealth is likely to be underrepresented in household surveys we integrate the big fortunes from rich lists, estimate a Pareto distribution, and impute the missing rich. Instead of the Forbes list we mainly rely on national rich lists since they represent a broader base for the big fortunes. As a result, the top percentile share of household wealth in Germany jumps up from 24 percent in the HFCS alone to 33 percent after top wealth imputation. For France and Spain we find only a small effect of the imputation since rich households are better captured in the survey. The results for Greece are ambiguous since the data do not show clear concentration patterns. |
| Keywords: | Wealth distribution, missing rich, Pareto distribution |
| JEL: | D31 C46 C81 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1502&r=all |
| By: | Y. Essafi; A. Simon |
| Abstract: | Worldwide variations in the population structure are taking place over the next century, and this is expected to have impacts on the whole economic systems, and particularly on the housing market (i.e. price of homes, ownership structure, and supply and demand of residential properties). In this paper, we empirically investigate how the French real estate is affected by both economic and demographic factors. Starting from the theoretical benchmark model of Takˆts (2012), we fist investigate the relationship between collective and individual housing prices dynamics and GDP, total population and old age dependency ratio. Results from fixed effect regressions on 94 French departments on the period 2000-2013 show that real estate prices are significantly and positively affected by the total population number and the total GDP, while they are significantly and negatively affected by the old age dependency ratio (ratio of population aged 60+ to the working population). This study, to our knowledge, is conducted for the first time across departments in France. Furthermore, obtained results and the particular case of France have motivated further research by enriching the baseline model with various financial, real estate, economic and demographic explanatory variables and analyzing our panel in a more segmented way. In all cases, economic impact on real estate market is significant and around the unit_ i.e. 1% increase in GDP leads a 1% increase in housing prices_ while demographic factors seem to have a greater impact on housing market prices. |
| Keywords: | Demographic Factors; Economic Factors; Fixed Effect; Housing Market Prices; Panel Data |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2015_165&r=all |
| By: | Simon Søbstad Bensnes (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Bjarne Strøm (Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | Many countries have recently removed or relaxed restrictions on shop opening hours. If deregulation increases job opportunities for unskilled young people it may affect incentives to make education investments. This paper studies the impact of deregulation of shop opening hours on youth employment, schooling decisions and subsequent earnings. We use a national reform in shop opening hour restrictions in Norway in 1985 to provide quasiexperimental evidence by exploiting that the bite of the reform varied considerably across municipalities. We find that increased potential opening hours substantially reduced the average probability to graduate from high school and especially so for the group of students with less educated parents. These students also experienced a reduction in completed years of education and some earnings reduction in adulthood. Combined with the finding that deregulation increased employment of 16-24 year old workers in the retail sector by 12% on average, the evidence is consistent with the view that opportunity cost of study time is an important determinant of human capital investments. |
| Keywords: | high school graduation, earnings, employment, deregulation, opening hours |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2015–07–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nst:samfok:16515&r=all |
| By: | P. Parlasca; B. Marola |
| Abstract: | When the crisis occurred the existing sets of national house price indices (HPIs) were often based on private sources outside official statistics. These indicators could differ widely, in particular with respect to the type of price data, coverage and quality adjustment. Due to sustained efforts from Eurostat and the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), the situation has dramatically improved since then.Building on a pilot project launched in early 2000’s to develop price indices for Owner Occupied Housing, Eurostat and the NSIs released the first experimental HPIs at the end of 2010. After a period of consolidation in 2011-2012, the official harmonised HPIs were released in the beginning of 2013. The quarterly data started in 2005.Official European statistics need to abide to the highest standards of quality and harmonisation across countries. To arrive at this level, the most important issue has been the availability of data on the price of the transactions. A second key challenge has been associating the price to the dwelling characteristics. A third key challenge has been the quality adjustment from one time period to the next.The European project produced an international Handbook on Residential Property Price Indices complemented by practical guidelines for the compilation of harmonised HPIs. A reference legal framework has been set up targeting the years to come without any obligation to provide back data.Today HPIs published by Eurostat are used for several policy purposes: for monetary policy, for financial stability and also to monitor macroeconomic imbalances in EU Member States: The development of real house prices (nominal HPI deflated by the final consumption deflator) is one of the eleven MIP Scoreboard indicators used in the European Semester Monitoring.While the policy uses rely mainly on a swift dissemination of current data, the analysis of the housing market requires also longer data series. Eurostat has been working on this issue and today it is possible to disseminate longer data for most EU countries going back to 2000.This longer series have the advantage that, in addition to the post-crisis period, they capture the pre-crisis period. Moreover, they are available in one place for all EU countries on the Eurostat website.The publication of HPIs for EU countries going back to 2000 offers thus a reliable and easy-to-use source of data for those interested in better understanding the evolution of housing markets. |
| Keywords: | House Price Indices; Housing As Investment Asset; Official Statistics |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2015_153&r=all |
| By: | Berton, Fabio; Migheli Matteo (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that workers have a strong preference for job security. Building on this, the empirical research focused so far on the analysis of the “port-of-entry hypothesis” – namely on testing whether temporary jobs may act as a springboard towards standard employment relationships – underexploring the issue of what would make workers indifferent between the two options. This is the aim of the present paper. Using a dedicated survey on a random sample of workers from the Italian public employment service, we find that: i) workers actually require a monetary compensation to trade a non-standard job for a standard one; ii) moreover, they display lexicographic preferences over contracts, inasmuch as when they have to compare an open-ended contract to a freelance contract (chosen as the epitome of precariousness in Italy), the compensation they ask for does not depend on contract duration; on the opposite, when they compare open-ended jobs to fixed-term jobs (where only expected duration actually matters) the required compensation does not depend on the type of contract, but only on its planned duration; iii) the estimated MRS between wage and contract duration is 257 more Euros per month to accept a one-year shorter employment relationship. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201529&r=all |
| By: | Moritz Kuhn (University of Bonn); Philip Jung (Bonn University) |
| Abstract: | The Hartz reforms in the early 2000s have reshaped the German labor market and have led to what many observers call the "German labor market miracle". This paper closes a gap in the evaluation of the reforms by providing a macroeconomic analysis of the effects of the reform on worker flows. We use SIAB micro data to construct worker flow series between employment and unemployment for the period from 1980 to 2010. To disentangle cyclical from long-run effects, we construct a new data series using unemployment benefit claims to extend worker flow series until 2014. Using this new data, we show that 40 % of the decrease in unemployment is accounted for by cyclical movements in the separation rate. The remaining 60 % are accounted for by the reversed secular decline in Germany's job finding rate. We complete our analysis by a structural analysis based on a search and matching model of the German labor market. We estimate the effects of each of the four reform steps (Hartz I - IV) to provide an answer to the question which part of the reform has been most important in generating Germany's labor market miracle. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:614&r=all |
| By: | Chaminade , Cristina (CIRCLE, Lund University); Plechero , Monica (DEAMS – University of Trieste, Italy & CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | The paper provides an overview of the international knowledge flows in Europe particularly looking at the drivers and consequences of such flows as well as the general trend. It distinguishes between different types of mechanisms for the acquisition and transfer of knowledge from trade to research and technological collaboration, mobility of human capital and FDI. The paper is empirical in nature and targeted to a wider audience. The analysis reveals that proximity matters significantly for the mobility of human capital as well as for the establishment of collaborative networks. In both cases, intra-Europe knowledge flows are more important that extra-Europe knowledge flows, thus pointing to the role of the European market facilitating these forms of exchange. The patterns of offshoring of R&D as well as trade networks are rather different- more global than intra-European. In other words, trade and investment networks are more dispersed globally than mobility of human capital and research and technological networks. |
| Keywords: | Exports of high tech products; international research collaboration; international mobility of researchers; offshoring of R&D; Europe |
| JEL: | F20 O30 |
| Date: | 2015–09–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2015_030&r=all |
| By: | Giovanni Marin (IRCrES-CNR, Milano (Italy)); Alessandro Palma (IEFE-Bocconi, Milano (Italy)) |
| Abstract: | Traditional large appliances absorb a large share of residential electricity consumption and represent important targets of energy policy strategies aimed at achieving energy security. Despite being characterized by rather mature technologies, this group of appliances still offers large potential in terms of efficiency gains due to their pervasive diffusion. In this paper we analyse the electricity consumption of a set of four traditional ‘white goods’ in a panel of ten EU countries observed over 21 years (1990-2010), with the aim of disentangling the amount of technical efficiency from the overall energy saving. The technical efficiency trend is modelled through a set of technology components representing both the invention and adoption process by the means of specific patents weighted by production and bilateral import flows, which allows to overcome the rigid Stochastic Frontier framework in modelling the effect of technical change. Our results show that the derived energy demand and inefficiency trends are both related to changes in the amount of available technology embodied in energy efficient appliances. The effect is significant both in its domestic and international components and suggests an active role of innovation and trade policies for achieving efficiency targets which directly impact the amount of electricity consumed by households. |
| Keywords: | energy efficiency, technological diffusion, electrical appliances, stochastic frontier analysis, residential sector |
| JEL: | O33 Q55 Q41 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:1415&r=all |
| By: | N. Braun; P. Schäfer |
| Abstract: | Airbnb (ABB) offers short-term rentals for tourists via an online-market platform. In contrast to traditional holiday lodgings the flats are usually residential apartments or rooms, offer fewer services and are therefore mostly cheaper. The phenomenon of ABB can nevertheless also trigger spillovers to non-participants and is currently being debated extensively in several German cities. The prevailing view: The urban housing markets are concerned with a diminution of housing supply and increasing rents. The central point thereby is, that due to ABB a large part of residential flats is removed from the housing market. Several providers divert their flats illegally into permanent holiday flats and do not just offer the flats occasionally as is intended by the share economy. Berlin is the largest ABB-market in Germany and especially here individual buyers have discovered the conversion from rental flats into holiday flats as a specific investment scheme. This paper aims to analyse the coherence between the ABB-density and housing rents in the different neighbourhoods of Berlin with a simple 1-W ANOVA. Furthermore, the web data of ABB is analysed with respect to illegal usage. |
| Keywords: | Airbnb; Housing Rent; Short-Term-Rental; Urban Tourism |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2015_80&r=all |
| By: | Ferrando, Annalisa; Altomonte, Carlo; Blank, Sven; Meinen, Philipp; Iudice, Matteo; Felt, Marie-Hélène; Neugebauer, Katja; Siedschlag, Iulia |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an encompassing description of the various indicators compiled in the financial module of CompNet using balance sheet information of European firms. We investigate whether and to which extent the heterogeneous financial positions of firms have affected firms’ investment decisions, especially during the recent crisis. Our results confirm the relevance of leverage for investment, in addition to other common determinants, such as cash flow or sales growth. In particular, we find evidence that higher levels of indebtedness act as a drag on investment. We investigate cash holding policies and find significant differences across firm sizes and degrees of financial constraints. Furthermore, our data confirm the pro-cyclicality of firm profitability and its negative association with financial constraints. Finally, we exploit the richness of this new dataset to document the relationships between firms’ financial and financing conditions and their productivity. JEL Classification: D22, D24, D92, G32 |
| Keywords: | firm financing conditions and constraints, firm heterogeneity, productivity |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20151836&r=all |
| By: | Vincent Corluy (Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid Herman Deleeck – Universiteit Antwerpen; Centrum voor Economische Studiën – KU Leuven); Joost Haemels (Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid Herman Deleeck – Universiteit Antwerpen); Ive Marx (Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid Herman Deleeck – Universiteit Antwerpen); Gerlinde Verbist (Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid Herman Deleeck – Universiteit Antwerpen) |
| Abstract: | Belgium has one of the largest gaps in labour market outcomes between natives and individuals of foreign origin. One might expect that the children of migrants (the so-called second generation) would perform better than the first generation, as they ought to have a better knowledge of the local language, better educational qualifications and greater opportunities for work experience in the domestic labour market. On the basis of data from the ad hoc module of 2008 Labour Force Survey (LFS) we find that employment rates for generation migrants in Belgium are hardly better than those for first generation migrants. This finding stands in marked contrast what is found in neighbouring countries. Using a unique combination of data sources, we examine the labour market position of second-generation migrants in more depth. We find considerable variation in labour market outcomes by country of origin and a Fairlie decomposition yields that education is an important explanatory factor of the employment rate gap. Yet there still remains a large unexplained part. |
| Keywords: | Second generation immigrants, labour market outcomes, decomposition methods, educational attainment |
| JEL: | J15 J21 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:201509-285&r=all |
| By: | M. Schier; M. Voigtländer |
| Abstract: | Real estate prices increased markedly in Germany, in particular in metropolitan areas. These increases lead to the conjecture/presumption that speculative bubbles are developing, similar to those in Spain or Ireland in 2007 and 2008. Based on a user cost of housing approach it is shown, that for most German districts the recent price changes can be ascribed to fundamental factors and are not driven by speculative behavior. The increasing prices can rather be interpreted as a catch-up process, especially because real estate prices did not rise the decade before. Modelling different price and interest rate scenarios support this explanation. Even a sudden and pronounced surge in interest rates would give scope for a sharp price correction, which is typical for a bursting bubble. Thus, the probability of an imminent real estate bubble is rather low. The low interest rate could rather change housing consumption in general and lead to fundamental structural changes in the German real estate market as homeownership becomes more attractive in comparison to renting. |
| Keywords: | Germany; Real Estate Bubbles; User Costs Of Housing |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2015_115&r=all |
| By: | Elina Vinberg; Rannveig Kaldager Hart; Torkild H. Lyngstad (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This study describes the association between having children and the risk of union disruption, and whether this association has changed over time. We expand upon previous research by including data on cohabiting as well as married couples, and by studying change over four decades. We use data from the Norwegian Gender and Generation Study (2007) (N = 14 892). Combining self-reported union histories with register data on fertility histories, we construct a data set of person months for all individuals at risk of union dissolution in the period 1970-2007. Results from the event history analysis confirm that couples with children have lower union dissolution risk. Union dissolution risk is lowest when children are young, and also varies by number of children. There is little change over historical time in the correlation between having children and the risk of union dissolution. However, the monthly risk of dissolving unions increases substantially over time among childless as well as among parental couples. |
| Keywords: | Union dissolution; Fertility; Demographic trends |
| JEL: | J11 J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:814&r=all |
| By: | Alessandro Santoro |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a panel of administrative data concerning 71,000 Italian small businesses observed in tax years 2005-2008. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the impact of a reform of audit rules implemented in 2006. The reform repealed a special audit exemption previously granted to businesses which adopted a stringent accounting standard. It is shown that the reform increased the level of economic activity, as measured by the value of inventory, for the generality of businesses involved. However, an increase in profits and turnover was reported only by the subset of businesses which were more likely to perceive it as an increase in the probability of an audit. This result is in line with the predictions of the Allingham-Sandmo model and it casts some doubts on the possibility to reduce evasion by limiting the opportunities of manipulating accounting books. |
| Keywords: | Tax Evasion by Small Businesses, Audit Probabil- ity, Accounting Standard |
| JEL: | H25 H26 H32 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:308&r=all |
| By: | Kenneth Aarskaug Wiik; Jennifer A. Holland (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Using register data from Norway and Sweden, this study addresses the relationship between partner choice and the timing of first marriage among all migrant- and non-migrant-background individuals born between 1972 and 1989, who were either native-born or who immigrated prior to age 18 (generation 1.5). In multivariate models, we analyze the differential hazards of marrying an individual of majority- or migrant-background within a competing risk framework, by migrant generation and number of foreign-born parents. Multivariate results confirmed that in both countries the marital timing patterns of migrant-background individuals who married exogamously were more similar to the majority populations than among those who married another migrant-background individual. Our findings thus suggest that the Scandinavian pattern of late marriage tends to dominate, even where the immigrant-background composition of the couple is mixed. These results are an important starting point for new insights into adaptation drawn from investigations into the family life courses of children of immigrants in Europe, a population sub group currently entering family formation ages. |
| Keywords: | Marriage timing; Partner choice; Exogamy; Endogamy; Sweden; Norway |
| JEL: | J12 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:810&r=all |
| By: | Peter J. Lambert; Runa Nesbakken; Thor O. Thoresen (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Which country is most redistributive? This question is often discussed in terms of comparisons of measures of redistribution when each country’s tax schedule is applied to its pre-tax income distribution. However, we believe that what most authors have in mind when referring to the “most redistributive country” is one in which the tax schedule is unanimously most redistributive across all pre-tax income distributions. A stronger identification of the most redistributive tax schedule therefore implies applying each tax schedule to all pre-tax income distributions and compare redistribution for all possible combinations. Given that this is practically complicated, we suggest applying the transplant-and-compare method of Dardanoni and Lambert (2002), which provides a tax progressivity ordering of schedules according to a common base. This paper shows how the transplant-and-compare approach can be utilized to approach an identification of the most redistributive country. The method and its implications are discussed by employing micro data from Luxembourg Income Studies, also contrasting results to those obtained using standard measures of redistribution. |
| Keywords: | Redistributive effect; Personal income tax; Cross-country comparison; Common base |
| JEL: | H11 H23 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:811&r=all |
| By: | P. Deschermeier |
| Abstract: | Demographic change is dramatically transforming the German society: the ratio of young to old and of the gainfully employed to pensioners is shifting in favor of older persons. In the coming decades this development causes a substantial macroeconomic structural transfor-mation affecting all of the important markets in Germany. For example the labor market will lack young workers, the product markets will have to adjust to structurally changed consumer demands and on the capital market, savings behavior and the demand for productive in-vestments will be changing. With respect to the real estate market the change in the age structure and the regional distribution of the population will affect the demand for personal living space. Besides the macroeconomic dimension, the demand for personal living space is determined by social factors (e.g. more “living apart together†relationships increase the demand for smaller flats in the metropolitan areas), demographic factors (old people demand other hous-ing as young) and individual preferences (buying vs. renting properties). The research pro-posal aims at providing forecasts of the age specific demand of personal living space for Germany until 2030. The analysis will use data of the German Socio-Economic Panel, a lon-gitudinal panel dataset of the population in Germany. The analysis will feature a functional data model with time series coefficients, which are used to model the age-specific demand for living space. This model will be forecasted up to the year 2030. The results provide an insight on the challenges of the demographic transition in Germany with respect to the real estate market. The presentation will focus especially on the economic consequences of the aging society in Germany on the demand for personal living space. |
| Keywords: | Demography; Forecasting; Germany; Personal Living Space |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2015_12&r=all |
| By: | G. Squires; N. Hutchison; A. Adair; S. McGreal; S. Organ |
| Abstract: | Following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the role of finance in real estate development for regeneration requires re-examination. The research presented in the conference paper draws on research funded by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which focused on how and whether real estate development has become more innovative following the GFC - with particular reference to regeneration from a pan-European perspective. The findings show key financial factors and emergent funding mechanisms, whilst a comparative analysis of three case studies based across Europe (London, UK; Leiden, The Netherlands; and Berlin, Germany) provide greater insight on the similarities and differences between projects that can be considered new and possibly innovative. Findings demonstrate that there has been growth in the blend of financial products used in real estate development for regeneration across Europe. This blend is set with greater equity financing, often sourced from institutional funds from domestic and foreign consortiums. Additionally, partnership structures adopting a collaborative-competitive ethos have been adopted - particularly by those beginning to use large-scale multi-bank finance. The emergence of project bonds also set the tone for a more infrastructure-specific nature of funding when uncovering innovative finance for real estate development in pan-European regeneration. |
| Keywords: | Equity; Finance; Innovative Finance; Real Estate; Regeneration |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2015–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2015_29&r=all |