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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2018‒05‒07
34 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Briglauer, Wolfgang; Gugler, Klaus |
| Abstract: | The literature on the effects of telecommunications infrastructure investments find positive macroeconomic effects, however, it is severely constrained because it could hitherto only analyze investment up to "basic" broadband but not up to the newer generations of "fast" and "ultra-fast" broadband; in particular there is no such evidence available at the EU level so far. Utilizing a comprehensive panel dataset of EU27 member states for the period from 2003-2015, we estimate a small but significant effect of fiber-based ultra-fast broadband over and above the effects of basic broadband on GDP. Adoption of hybrid-fiber fast broadband is incrementally to basic broadband insignificant. Our cost-benefit analysis implies that policy intervention - as foreseen by the European Commission in its public policy targets - is only justified for coverage and adoption levels of around 50% of fast or ultra-fast broadband, whereas for 100% coverage levels we find net losses to society. Thus, it appears that - for the time being and according to the policy principle of "technological neutrality" - a combination of basic broadband, fast and ultra-fast broadband entails the largest economic net benefits to society. |
| Keywords: | new broadband networks,broadband speed,economic growth,EU-panel data |
| JEL: | O47 L96 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:18020&r=eur |
| By: | Amedeo Argentiero; Bruno Chiarini; Elisabetta Marzano |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of tax evasion on criminal activities in Italy. Specifically, we consider three types of crime that are related to economic determinants: property crimes (including robbery, theft and car theft), fraud and usury. We estimate a dynamic panel using annual data from the Italian provinces (NUTS-3) for the 2006-2010 period and show that tax evasion positively affects economic crimes. Notably, the elasticity of tax evasion to fraud is related to the size of the tax burden; in addition, these crimes demonstrate different levels of persistence over time, reflecting different adjustment costs. Finally, we find that property crimes, fraud and usury are not influenced by deterrence or clearing-up variables. |
| Keywords: | property crime, usury, fraud, tax evasion, deterrence effect |
| JEL: | C33 H26 K42 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6957&r=eur |
| By: | Alexander Konon; Michael Fritsch; Alexander S. Kritikos |
| Abstract: | We analyze whether start-up rates in different industries systematically change with business cycle variables. Using a unique data set at the industry level, we mostly find correlations that are consistent with counter-cyclical influences of the business cycle on entries in both innovative and non-innovative industries. Entries into the largescale industries, including the innovative part of manufacturing, are only influenced by changes in the cyclical component of unemployment, while entries into small-scale industries, like knowledge intensive services, are mostly influenced by changes in the cyclical component of GDP. Thus, our analysis suggests that favorable conditions in terms of high GDP might not be germane for start-ups. Given that both innovative and non-innovative businesses react counter-cyclically in ‘regular’ recessions, business formation may have a stabilizing effect on the economy. |
| Keywords: | New business formation, entrepreneurship, business cycle, manufacturing, services, innovative industries |
| JEL: | E32 L16 L26 R11 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1732&r=eur |
| By: | Massimo Baldini; Elizabeth J. Casabianca; Elena Giarda; Lorenzo Lusignoli |
| Abstract: | In 2017, Italy’s government introduced a minimum income scheme, the so-called Income inclusion programme (REI, Reddito di inclusione). REI is a selective, means-tested and conditional scheme that aims at supporting incomes of those more in need. Its structure was recently modified to reach a larger percentage of the poor. In this paper, we simulate the impact of REI on household incomes and evaluate its effects with respect to poverty alleviation and inequality reduction. The analysis is based on the 2015 wave of IT-SILC, the Italian module of European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Our results show that, under full take-up, REI will reach 45.8% of households in absolute poverty and 22.5% of those in relative poverty. However, it has a mild impact on the incidence of both types of poverty, while it is more successful in reducing their intensity. We also estimate that REI would contribute to raising GDP by 0.14 percentage points through an increase in private consumption. |
| Keywords: | microsimulation, minimum income schemes, poverty, Italy |
| JEL: | D31 I32 I38 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:cappmo:0162&r=eur |
| By: | Carole Bonnet; Bertrand Garbinti; Anne Solaz |
| Abstract: | Though shared custody arrangements after divorce are more and more frequent in many countries, little is known about their economic consequences for parents. By relaxing family time constraints, does shared custody help divorced mothers return to work more easily? This article analyses to what extent the type of child custody arrangement affects mothers' labour market behaviours after divorce. Using a large sample of divorcees from an exhaustive French administrative income-tax database, and taking advantage of the huge territorial discrepancies observed in the proportion of shared custody, we correct for the possible endogeneity of shared custody. As it turns out, the probability of being employed is 16 percentage points higher for mothers with shared custody arrangements compared to those having sole physical custody, with huge heterogeneous effects: larger positive effects are observed for previously inactive women, for those belonging to the lowest income quintiles before divorce, for those with a young child, and for those who have three or more children. Shared custody is particularly helpful for women who are far removed from the labour market. |
| Keywords: | Divorce, Child custody, Shared custody, Labour supply |
| JEL: | J12 J18 J22 K36 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:/209&r=eur |
| By: | Benjamin Montmartin (Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques); Marcos Herrera (National University of Salta (Argentine) (CONICET)); Nadine Massard (Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)) |
| Abstract: | Based on a spatial extension of an R&D investment model, this paper measures the macroeconomic impact of the French R&D policy mix on business R&D using regional data. Our measure takes into account not only the direct effect of policies but also indirect effects generated by the existence of spatial interaction between regions. Using a unique database containing information on the levels of various R&D policy instruments received by firms in French NUTS3 regions over the period 2001-2011, our estimates of a spatial Durbin model with structural breaks and fixed effects reveal the existence of a negative spatial dependence among R&D investments in regions. In this context, while a-spatial estimates would conclude that all instruments have a crowding-in effect, we show that national subsidies are the only instrument that is able to generate significant crowding-in effects. On the contrary, it seems that the design, size and spatial allocation of funds from the other instruments (tax credits, local subsidies, European subsidies) lead them to act (in the French context) as beggar-thy-neighbor policies. |
| Keywords: | Policy mix evaluation; R&D investment; Spatial panel; French Nuts3 regions |
| JEL: | H25 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7rrsl07p559bjr85tr7hsft1o9&r=eur |
| By: | Maxime Le Bihan (Univ Lyon, Université Lyon 2, GATE UMR 5824, F-69130 Ecully, France); Benjamin Monnery (EconomiX-CNRS, University Paris Nanterre) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of sanctions on the behavior of deputies in the French National Assembly. In 2009, the Assembly introduced small monetary sanctions to prevent absenteeism in weekly standing committee meetings (held on wednesday mornings). Using a rich monthly panel dataset of parliamentary activity for the full 2007-2012 legislature, we study the reactions of deputies to (i) the mere eligibility to new sanctions, (ii) the actual experience of a salary cut, and (iii) the public exposure of sanctioned deputies in the media. First, our diff-in-diff estimates show very large disciplining effects of the policy in terms of committee attendance, and positive or null effects on other dimensions of parliamentary work. Second, exploiting the timing of exposure to actual sanctions (monthly salary cuts versus staggered media exposure), we find that deputies strongly increase their committee attendance both after the private experience of sanctions and after their public exposure. These results suggest that monetary and reputational incentives can effectively discipline politicians without crowding out intrinsic motivation. |
| Keywords: | political economy, political accountability, sanctions, reputation |
| JEL: | D72 D78 K42 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1808&r=eur |
| By: | Gorodnichenko, Yuriy; Revoltella, Debora; Svejnar, Jan; Weiss, Christoph |
| Abstract: | Using a new survey, we show that the dispersion of marginal products across firms in the European Union is about twice as large as that in the United States. Reducing it to the US level would increase EU GDP by more than 30 percent. Alternatively, removing barriers between industries and countries would raise EU GDP by at least 25 percent. Firm characteristics, such as demographics, quality of inputs, utilization of resources, and dynamic adjustment of inputs, are predictors of the marginal products of capital and labor. We emphasize that some firm characteristics may reflect compensating differentials rather than constraints and the effect of constraints on the dispersion of marginal products may hence be smaller than has been assumed in the literature. We also show that cross-country differences in the dispersion of marginal products are more due to differences in how the business, institutional and policy environment translates firm characteristics into outcomes than to the differences in firm characteristics per se. |
| Keywords: | economic growth.; firm-specific factors; Marginal products; resource allocation |
| JEL: | D22 D24 O12 O47 O52 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12821&r=eur |
| By: | Juri Demuth (E.CA Economics); Hans W. Friederiszick (ESMT European School of Management and Technology and E.CA Economics); Steffen Reinhold (E.CA Economics) |
| Abstract: | After earlier waves of privatization, local governments have increasingly taken back control of local service provisions in some sectors and countries and, instead, started providing those services themselves (reverse privatization). Using a unique panel data set on the mode of service provision for solid waste collection for German municipalities covering the years 2003, 2009, and 2015, we investigate motives for reverse privatization. Our results show that, in deciding whether to insource or not, municipalities react to the cost advantages of private suppliers as well as to the competitive environment, with more switching to insourcing in concentrated markets. Furthermore, we find local contagion effects, that is, insourcing is more likely if municipalities close by also provide services themselves, whether in horizontally or vertically-related markets. Implications for competition law enforcement are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Local privatization, state-owned enterprises, competition law enforcement, mergers, logit regression |
| Date: | 2018–04–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esm:wpaper:esmt-18-02&r=eur |
| By: | Lieke Kools (Leiden University, Netspar); Pierre Koning (VU Amsterdam, IZA) |
| Abstract: | There is increasing evidence that graded return-to-work is an effective tool for the rehabilitation of sick-listed workers. Still, little is known on the optimal timing and level of grading in return-to-work trajectories, as well as the allocation of trajectories across worker types. To fill this gap, we analyze whether the effectiveness of graded return-to-work depends on the starting moment of the trajectory and the initial level of graded work resumption. We use administrative data from a Dutch private workplace reintegration provider. In order to correct for the selection bias inherent to the evaluation of activation strategies, we exploit the discretionary room of the case managers in setting up treatment plans. In correspondence with previous literature we find that graded return-to-work reduces sick spells with eighteen weeks within the first two years after reporting sick. However, the probability of work resumption after two years remains unchanged. Work resumption can be achieved faster when graded return-to-work is started earlier or at a higher rate of initial work resumption. These findings however do not hold for individuals who have problems related to mental health. |
| Keywords: | Activation; long-term sickness absence; graded return-to-work |
| JEL: | I18 C26 |
| Date: | 2018–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20180035&r=eur |
| By: | Alessandro Sola |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of the refugee crisis, and the related government’s asylum policy, on concerns about immigration of the German population. Exploiting exogenous variation in survey interview timing of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), I employ a difference-in-differences strategy to estimate the short-term causal effect of the refugee crisis on concerns about immigration. The estimated effect is substantial, representing an increase in concerns of around 22%, compared to the pre-refugee crisis baseline level. Interestingly, I find that this increase was twice as large for East Germans, compared to West Germans. In a second section, I show concerns about immigration are positively correlated with political support for the relatively new, right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). However, using the variability in concerns generated by the refugee crisis, I find no evidence of a causal effect of concerns on political preferences in the short term. |
| Keywords: | Concerns about immigration, refugee crisis, Germany, AfD, populism, political preferences |
| JEL: | F22 J61 D72 H12 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp966&r=eur |
| By: | Czarnitzki, Dirk; van Criekingen, Kristof |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the economic literature on patent litigation by taking a new perspective. In the past, scholars mostly focused on specific litigation cases at the patent level and related technological characteristics to the event of litigation. However, observing IP disputes suggests that not only technological characteristics may trigger litigation suits, but also the market positions of firms, and that firms dispute not only about single patents but often about portfolios. Consequently, this paper examines the occurrence of IP litigation cases in Belgian firms using the 2013 Community Innovation Survey with supplemental information on IP litigation and patent portfolios. The rich survey information regarding firms' general innovation strategies enables us to introduce market-related variables such as sales with new products as well as sales based mainly on imitation and incremental innovation. Our results indicate that when controlling for firms' IP portfolio, the composition of turnover in terms of innovations and imitations has additional explanatory power regarding litigation propensities. Firms with a high turnover from innovations are more likely to become plaintiffs in court. Contrastingly, firms with a high turnover from incremental innovation and imitation are more likely to become defendants in court, and, moreover, are more likely to negotiate settlements outside of court. |
| Keywords: | IP litigation,patenting,innovation,imitation |
| JEL: | O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:18018&r=eur |
| By: | Goos, Maarten; Konings, Jozef; Vandeweyer, Marieke |
| Abstract: | Examining employment growth in local labor markets across Europe, this paper finds that each worker in a high-skilled occupation creates up to five extra jobs in less-skilled intensive services in the same region. However, it is also shown that there exist persistent differences in the size of this local high-tech job multiplier across regions. In particular, we find that the multiplier is larger in regions with high immigration, an abundance of less-skilled workers, and lower gross output per capita. At the country level we also show that this results in local high-tech job multipliers that are larger in Southern European countries than in the rest of Europe. |
| Keywords: | high-tech jobs; local job multiplier; regional growth |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12868&r=eur |
| By: | Albinowski, Maciej (Ministry of Finance) |
| Abstract: | I use the Polish anonymized tax data for 24 million individuals observed in the period 2004-2016 to analyse the employment effects of minimum wage. In contrast to most studies, the longitudinal dimension of the dataset allows me to control for unobserved characteristics of employees and to assess the long-term effects of minimum wage hikes. I find that minimum wage has a moderate impact on job separations in the long-run, while the short-term effects are negligible. Another important result is that young workers earning around the level of minimum wage have a significantly lower probability of returning to employment after a job loss than their peers from higher part of the income distribution. This effect has been in place since 2008, when there was a substantial increase in the minimum wage. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage; unemployment; social exclusion |
| JEL: | J21 J38 J63 |
| Date: | 2018–04–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:mfplwp:0031&r=eur |
| By: | Engström, Per (Department of Economics and UCFS, Uppsala University, Sweden); Nordblom, Katarina (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Stefansson, Arnaldur (Department of Economics, UCFS and UCLS, Uppsala University, Sweden) |
| Abstract: | We study what determines taxpayers’ deduction behavior when filing tax returns. Pre-liminary deficits might be viewed as losses assuming zero preliminary balance as reference point. Swedish taxpayers may escape these losses by claiming deductions after receiving information about the preliminary balance. Furthermore, the Swedish income tax system has a substantial kink (20 percentage points) where the central government tax applies. Taxpayers slightly above the governmental tax kink have substantially higher (standard economic) incentives to claim deductions than taxpayers slightly below the kink. Using a regression kink and discontinuity approach with individual fixed effects, we study a panel of 4.1 million Swedish taxpayers in 1999 to 2006. We find strong causal effects of preliminary deficits on the probability of claiming deductions. The initial em-pirical evidence for a kink in deduction probability at the central government threshold, anticipated by standard economic theory, is weaker but significant. However, a more detailed analysis reveals that the kink at the tax threshold is not likely due to the tax incentives per se. When controlling for the preliminary tax deficit, the kink at the tax threshold disappears. Taxpayers just above the tax kink are namely more likely to run a preliminary tax deficit than those just below it. Hence, the most plausible explanation also for the kink at the tax threshold is therefore loss aversion and not standard economic incentives. The Swedish taxpayers are thus “misbehaving”, in a Thaler (2015) sense, on two separate margins: they are highly loss averse but surprisingly inattentive to standard monetary incentives. |
| Keywords: | tax compliance; loss aversion; prospect theory; quasi-experiment; regression kink; regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | C21 D91 H24 H26 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0729&r=eur |
| By: | Andrea Cipollini; Fabio Parla |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use a Global Vector Autoregression (GVAR) model to assess the spatio-temporal mechanism of house price spillovers, also known as “ripple effect”, among 93 Italian provincial housing markets, over the period 2004 - 2016. In order to better capture the local housing market dynamics, we use data not only on house prices but also on transaction volumes. In particular, we focus on estimating, to what extent, exogenous shocks, interpreted as negative housing demand shocks, arising from 10 Italian regional capitals, impact on their house prices and sales and how these shocks spill over to neighbours housing markets. The negative housing market demand shock hitting the GVAR model is identified by using theory-driven sign restrictions. The spatio-temporal analysis carried through impulse response functions shows that there is evidence of a “ripple effect” mainly occurring through transaction volumes. |
| Keywords: | Ripple effect; housing market prices and volumes; Global VAR; sign restrictions |
| JEL: | C32 C33 R21 R50 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:wcefin:18041&r=eur |
| By: | Anne-Fleur Roos (ESHPM, Erasmus University Rotterdam); Eddy van Doorslaer (ESHPM, Erasmus University Rotterdam); Owen O'Donnell (Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Macedonia); Erik Schutt (ESHPM, Erasmus University Rotterdam); Marco Varkevisser (ESHPM, Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | One of the reasons why regulators are hesitant about permitting price competition in healthcare markets is that it may damage quality when information is poor. Evidence on whether this fear is well-founded is scarce. We provide evidence using a reform that permitted Dutch health insurers and hospitals to freely negotiate prices for elective procedures. Unlike previous research that has relied on indicators of the quality of urgent treatments, we take advantage of the plausible absence of selection bias in our setting to identify the effect on quality of non-acute hip replacements. Using administrative data on all admissions to Dutch hospitals, we find no evidence that increased exposure to price competition reduces quality measured by readmission rates, despite the lack of publicly available information on this outcome. In fact, there is evidence of a temporary, positive impact on quality. Our estimated null effect over the full post-liberalization period is robust. |
| Keywords: | Healthcare; hospital; competition; quality; contracting |
| JEL: | I11 L14 L15 |
| Date: | 2018–04–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20180040&r=eur |
| By: | Collischon; Matthias |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether personality traits can explain glass ceilings (increasing gender wage gaps across the wage distribution). Using longitudinal survey data from Germany, the UK, and Australia, I combine unconditional quantile regressions with wage gap decompositions to identify the effect of personality traits on wage gaps. The results suggest that the impact of personality traits on wage gaps increases across the wage distribution in all countries. Personality traits explain up to 14.5% of the overall gender wage gap. However, controlling for personality traits does not lead to a significant reduction of unexplained wage gaps in most cases. |
| Keywords: | Non-cognitive skills, personality traits, unconditional quantile regression, gender wage gap, glass ceiling |
| JEL: | C21 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp965&r=eur |
| By: | Schleich, Joachim; Gassmann, Xavier; Meissner, Thomas; Faure, Corinne |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically and jointly analyses the relations between risk aversion, standard time discounting, present bias, and loss aversion and household stated adoption of low to high stake energy efficiency technologies (EETs) (light emitting diodes (LEDs), energy efficient appliances, and retrofit measures). The analysis relies on a large representative sample drawn from eight European Union countries. Preferences over time, risk and losses were elicited and jointly estimated from participant choices in incentivized, context-free multiple price list experiments. The findings from econometrically estimating EET adoption equations suggest that present-biased individuals are less likely to adopt EETs. They also provide (weak) evidence that individuals which are more risk-averse, or more loss-averse, or which exhibit a lower discount factor are less likely to adopt EETs. Finally, omitting one or several of the time and risk or loss-aversion parameters when estimating the EET adoption equations did not appear to cause omitted variable bias. |
| Keywords: | risk aversion,time discounting,present bias,loss aversion,energy efficiency,adoption |
| JEL: | D23 D81 Q41 Q48 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisisi:s042018&r=eur |
| By: | Rita Sousa (Department of Economics/NIPE, University of Minho); Elsa Agante (Amb3E); João Cerejeira (Department of Economics/NIPE, University of Minho, CIPES – Centro de Investigação de Políticas do Ensino Superior); Miguel Portela (Department of Economics/NIPE, University of Minho, CIPES – Centro de Investigação de Políticas do Ensino Superior, IZA – Institute for Labor Economics) |
| Abstract: | Countries have been adjusting their electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) fees since the European directive for the control of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) entered into force. Using a novel data set collected by the team, our results show that EEE fees are negatively adjusted to the country’s income per capita, with a 0.6% decrease in the fee for 1% increase in GDP per capita (GDPpc) for Large Household Appliances, but a positive association of a 0.8% increase for the Cool and Freezing category. For collection rates, a positive association is shown for Lamps and a negative association for Small Household Appliances. We broadly consider the observed relations weaker than expected and rather heterogeneous, which may be the result of the current lack of binding European policy in this matter. Considering the final EEE consumer, who could be responsible for the payment of the fee, and the extended Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) that receives it, we propose that fee leels should reflect both the countries’ income per capita of consumers and the collection rates from WEEE suppliers. We also advise, towards the implementation of better transparency, good practices that include public availability of data and background calculation of fees. |
| Keywords: | Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE); Recycling; WEEE management; Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) fees. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:03/2018&r=eur |
| By: | Igna, Ioana A. (Department of Economics, University of Perugia) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the influence on inventor productivity of the imperfect occupational match, measured as the number of years of education in excess and in deficit to the required level (educational mismatch). The empirical model draws on a unique database that matches information about individual inventor characteristics, such as age, experience and gender, with patenting performance in Sweden over the period 2003-2010. The results suggest that over-educated (OE) inventors file a number of patents higher than inventors who are appropriately matched (RE), but perform poorly than well-matched inventors who hold a similar level of education. Conversely, under-educated (UE) inventors file a total number of patents lower than inventors who are well-matched (RE), but more than well-matched ones who hold the same level of education. These results conform to the hierarchical pattern of ORU model, well-documented in the literature relating the employees’ wages to educational mismatch (i.e. RE>OE>UE). We find that significant differences in returns to education across match and mismatch categories remain even after controlling for individual ability. Our findings are robust to controlling for differences between younger and older inventors, geographical areas and industry of work. |
| Keywords: | Inventor; Productivity; Educational mismatch; Patent |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2018–04–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2018_008&r=eur |
| By: | Livio Romano (Centro Studi Confindustria, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides first empirical evidence of the joint effects that innovation strategies and human resource management practices exert on firm growth. By exploiting unique information from a large sample of Italian manufacturing companies in the very recent years, it shows that investing in technology and implementing performance-based pay policies are both positively associated with a significant turnover, employment and labor productivity growth premium. However, their joint adoption does not necessarily sum the two effects. In particular, performance-based rewards boost growth of non-innovators and of firms pursuing relatively simple innovation strategies, centered around the acquisition of embodied technology. For firms strongly relying on R&D as an additional lever for product and process upgrading, the estimated effect of having in place monetary incentive mechanisms is null or even negative. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneity, Innovation, Management Practices, Firm Growth |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201803&r=eur |
| By: | Anne Ardila Brenøe; Ulf Zölitz |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how high school gender composition affects students’ participation in STEM college studies. Using Danish administrative data, we exploit idiosyncratic within-school variation in gender composition. We find that having a larger proportion of female peers reduces women’s probability of enrolling in and graduating from STEM programs. Men’s STEM participation increases with more female peers present. In the long run, women exposed to more female peers earn less because they (1) are less likely to work in STEM occupations, and (2) have more children. Our findings show that the school peer environment has lasting effects on occupational sorting and the gender wage gap. |
| Keywords: | Gender, peer effects, STEM studies |
| JEL: | I21 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:285&r=eur |
| By: | Henkel, Marcel; Seidel, Tobias; Südekum, Jens |
| Abstract: | Many countries operate pronounced fiscal equalization schemes that shift tax revenue across jurisdictions. We use a general equilibrium model with multiple asymmetric regions, costly trade and labor mobility to carve out the aggregate implications of this policy. Calibrating the model for Germany, we find that it indeed delivers smaller spatial economic disparities across regions. This comes at the cost of lower national output, however, because activity is diverted away from core cities and towards remote areas with low productivity. But despite this output loss, fiscal transfers may still raise national welfare, because they effectively countervail over-congestion in large cities. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal equalization; migration; regional transfers; spatial economics |
| JEL: | F15 R11 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12875&r=eur |
| By: | Marco Becht; Yuliya Kamisarenka; Anete Pajuste |
| Abstract: | French listed companies can issue shares that confer two votes per share after a holding period of at least two years (loyalty shares with tenure voting rights). In 2014 the default rule changed from one-share-one-vote to loyalty shares. The Coase theorem predicts that ceteris paribus shareholders rewrite the corporate charter to preserve the pre-reform structure. The theorem also predicts that the proportion of loyalty shares in initial public offerings is unchanged. The paper shows that most one-share-one-vote companies reverted to the prereform contract. The exception were firms with a stake held by the French state. In initial public offerings, the new default rule had an impact; the proportion of loyalty share statutes increased from about forty to fifty percent after the passage of the law. Companies that kept the same statutes have a significantly higher market to book ratio than companies forced into a different regime. The evidence is broadly consistent with the predictions of the Coase theorem, but only in the absence of conflicted parties with veto power. |
| Keywords: | Loyalty shares, tenure voting, time-phased voting, dual-class shares, one-shareone- vote, Coase theorem |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/270013&r=eur |
| By: | Peter H. Egger; Nora M. Strecker; Benedikt Zoller-Rydzek |
| Abstract: | Bargaining power may explain the tax differences between multinational and national enterprises beyond MNEs’ profit shifting. Larger firms (mostly MNEs) are more valuable for tax authorities for various reasons. In threatening relocation, larger firms extract greater deductions, resulting in a regressive ETR schedule and lower ETRs for size-related reasons. MNEs face lower relocation costs than NEs, which enhances their bargaining position. Using French firm-level data and entropy balancing, we find that the regressivity of the French tax schedule reduces MNEs’ ETRs by 2.52 percentage points (size effect), while their relocation threat leads to a 3.58 percentage point reduction. |
| Keywords: | profit taxation, multinational firms, entropy balancing |
| JEL: | H25 H26 F23 C21 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6979&r=eur |
| By: | Gorinas, Cédric (Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI)) |
| Abstract: | Using highly detailed longitudinal data from Danish registers, this study overcomes limitations inherent in victimization surveys and compares the role of individual and family characteristics for five forms of childhood violence, including sexual assaults and threats. The study also examines repeated and poly-victimization and the factors underlying abuse by different types of domestic perpetrators. This study finds that children aged 0 to 12 are the most exposed to sexual abuse, aggravated violence, and domestic abuse; that 30% of young victims of sex and threats will be victimized again; and that the economic and physical vulnerability of the mother in particular is a strong risk factor for early abuse. This study shows the importance of national registers in uncovering under-researched areas of childhood victimization and identifying the most vulnerable groups. |
| Keywords: | victimization, domestic crime, violence, child abuse |
| JEL: | J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11398&r=eur |
| By: | Bastani, Spencer; Waldenström, Daniel |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the role of capital taxation in advanced economies with a focus on the Swedish experience. We synthesize the existing theoretical literature, present facts about the capital stock and its distribution, review current capital tax practices and empirical findings regarding their effects on economic activity. The paper also examines the political feasibility of capital taxation by presenting results from a unique attitude survey targeted to a large representative sample of the Swedish population. Finally, we tie together our findings and discuss their implications for tax policy. |
| Keywords: | Capital taxation; corporate tax; Income inequality; Inheritance tax; optimal taxation; political economy; Preferences for Redistribution; Wealth Inequality; Wealth tax |
| JEL: | D31 H21 H24 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12880&r=eur |
| By: | Sorace, Miriam |
| Abstract: | The analysis compares voters' preferences in economic policy to political parties' economic written parliamentary questions during the 2009–2014 term of the European Parliament. The corpus of over 55,000 written questions was ideologically scaled via crowdsourcing. The analysis shows that parties are unresponsive to second-order and to disengaged voters. The results also suggest that there is no upper class bias in European Parliament political representation. The data highlight a strong tendency of EP7 political parties to cluster around the position of the average European voter, at the expense of their average supporter. The democratic deficit is therefore at most a pluralism deficit in the European Parliament, since substantive representation in the European Parliament is successful as far as the majoritarian norm is concerned. |
| Keywords: | crowdsourcing; democratic deficits; European Parliament; European Union; political representation |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2018–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:87625&r=eur |
| By: | Gianluca Orsatti; Valerio Sterzi |
| Abstract: | The recent upsurge of patent litigation cases initiated by patent assertion entities (PAEs) in the U.S. has led to an intense debate about their effect on innovation performances and on the IP system functioning. We contribute to this debate by providing original evidence based on the patenting activity of PAEs in Europe, a region where the patent assertion landscape is growing rapidly and the imminent introduction of the Unified Patent Court and the Unitary Patent will upset the current schemes. Relying on EPO (European Patent Office) data on patent transfers and patent citations, our results show that PAEs acquire patents with high average technological quality. They may thus increase liquidity in the patent market and enhance its efficiency. However, after a transfer occurs, patents transferred to PAEs receive significantly fewer citations. This suggests that producing companies whose business makes their technologies close to the ones acquired by PAEs may perceive an augmented risk of being sued. As a consequence, they reduce their innovative effort in fields populated by PAEs and this reflects into lower citations flowing towards PAEs’ acquired patents. These results are robust to different measures of citations considered and to different econometric techniques. |
| Keywords: | Market for technology; Patent assertion entities; Patent trolls; Patent intermediaries; Patent citations; Innovation. |
| JEL: | O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2018-08&r=eur |
| By: | Viete, Steffen; Erdsiek, Daniel |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether the returns to mobile information and communication technology (ICT) in the workplace are contingent on granting employees autonomy over the structure of their workday through trust-based work time arrangements (TBW). Our regression analysis is based on a production function framework and exploits fine-grained firm survey data on ICT use and organisational practices for 1,045 service firms in Germany. We find empirical support for the argument that the returns to mobile ICT are higher when TBW allows for discretion over when, where and how to perform work-related tasks. The finding holds when we account for more limited forms of workplace flexibility, suggesting that the high degree of formal employee autonomy under TBW drives the complementarity between mobile ICT and organisational practices. |
| Keywords: | mobile information and communication technologies,ICT,trust-based work time,work organisation,complementarity,productivity,firm performance |
| JEL: | D22 L22 M10 O33 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:18013&r=eur |
| By: | Doris Hanzl-Weiss (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Sandra M. Leitner (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Robert Stehrer (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Roman Stöllinger (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates in detail value chain trade of the EU and its Member States, compares it to that of other trading blocs and regions such as NAFTA and East Asia, and delves into implications of value chain trade on specialisation and competitiveness as well as on the declining income elasticity of trade. The analysis of value chain (VC) trade, understood as trade that involves internationally organised production processes, is based on the latest update of the World Input-Output Database (WIOD). It relies to a large extent on a forward production integration measure termed re-exported domestic value added (DVAre) which comprises exports of intermediates that cross international borders at least twice. Results confirm the conjecture that the expansion of international value chains has come to a halt in the post-crisis period (2011-2014). Still, the EU’s VC trade was growing at the same pace as value added exports in general in the post-crisis years, implying that value chains were not dismantled. In contrast, worldwide VC trade was indeed less dynamic than value added exports, which could be seen as a sign that some value chains are on the retreat. Zooming closer into the EU, there was a marked reshuffling of market shares of Member States in EU-wide VC trade from large Member States such as France, Italy and the United Kingdom towards a group of Central European (CE) economies – Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – which together form the Central European Manufacturing Core. Looking at the question whether VC trade is rather regional in scope, VC trade is separated into regional value chain (RVC) trade – involving only regional production partners – and global value chain (GVC) trade – involving also extra-regional partner countries. For the EU as a whole this split is about half-half, with only a slight move towards GVC trade between 2000 and 2014. Strikingly, demand is strongly shaping the organisation of production while RVCs are predominantly producing for the EU market, GVCs are predominantly procuring for third countries. As regards implications of value chain trade, these are harder to assess. Overall, implications for structural change and competitiveness are rather country and context specific. Changes in attitudes towards international value chains contributed to the significant decline in the income elasticity of trade. |
| Keywords: | value chain trade, global value chains, regional value chains, Factory Europe, Factory North America, Factory Asia, revealed export preferences, regional introversion index, specialisation, competitiveness, income elasticity of trade |
| JEL: | F14 F15 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:rpaper:rr:427&r=eur |
| By: | William W. Olney (Williams College); Dario Pozzoli (Copenhagen Business School and the Tuborg Centre for Globalization and Firms) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the relationship between immigration and offshoring by examining whether an influx of foreign workers reduces the need for firms to relocate jobs abroad. We exploit a Danish quasi-natural experiment in which immigrants were randomly allocated to municipalities using a refugee dispersal policy and we use the Danish employer-employee matched data set covering the universe of workers and firms over the period 1995-2011. Our findings show that an exogenous influx of immigrants into a municipality reduces firm-level offshoring at both the extensive and intensive margins. The fact that immigration and offshoring are substitutes has important policy implications, since restrictions on one may encourage the other. While the multilateral relationship is negative, a subsequent bilateral analysis shows that immigrants have connections in their country of origin that increase the likelihood that firms offshore to that particular foreign country. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Offshoring |
| JEL: | F22 F16 J61 F23 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wil:wileco:2018-02&r=eur |
| By: | Benesch, Christine; Loretz, Simon; Stadelmann, David; Thomas, Tobias |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically explores the link between mass media coverage of migration and immigration worries. Using detailed data on media coverage in Germany, we show that the amount of media reports regarding migration issues is positively associated with concerns about immigration among the German population. The association is robust to the inclusion of time-variant individual control variables and individual fixed-effects. We employ media spillovers from the neighboring country of Switzerland, which occur due to referendum decisions on immigration as an instrumental variable to address endogeneity concerns. The IV estimates suggest that media coverage has a causal impact on immigration worries. Exploring heterogeneous effects between respondents, the results reveal that the link between media reports and immigration worries is particularly relevant for women and respondents active in the workforce. |
| Keywords: | media,migration,news spillovers,political attitudes |
| JEL: | L8 D7 F2 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:288&r=eur |