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on German Papers |
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Issue of 2009‒04‒13
seven papers chosen by Roberto Cruccolini Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen |
| By: | Alexia Meyermann; Jennifer Elsner; Jürgen Schupp; Stefan Liebig |
| Abstract: | Der Beitrag diskutiert hinsichtlich der Erstellung verknüpfter Datensätze von Arbeitnehmern und Betrieben unterschiedliche Vorgehensweisen und die damit verbundenen spezifischen Vor- und Nachteilen. Ausführlich wird dabei die employee-first-method vorgestellt, zu dem bislang in der Surveyforschung lediglich entsprechende Vorbildstudien aus den USA vorliegen. Es kann für Deutschland gezeigt werden, dass mit Hilfe dieser Methodik erstens die Angaben der Personen hinreichend vollständig und fehlerfrei sind. Die Analysen basieren auf den Ergebnissen einer nachgelagerten Erhebung von Betrieben, die im SOEP-Pretest im Jahr 2007 erstmals bei mehr als 300 Beschäftigten erprobt wurde. Hierzu Weiterhin zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass mittels der Methode der Datenedition relativ einfach eine beachtliche Verbesserung der Güte der durch offene Abfrage erhaltenen Betriebskontaktadressen erreicht werden. Die Güte und Anzahl der Nennungen der Betriebskontaktdaten ebenso wie die Anzahl der teilnehmenden Betriebe kann zudem durch eine Reihe an Verbesserungen in den unterschiedlichen Phasen des Generierungsprozesses gesteigert werden. |
| Keywords: | German Socio-Economic Panel Study, SOEP, Linked Employer-Employee-Data |
| JEL: | A12 C81 J2 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp170&r=ger |
| By: | Elke Holst; Anne Busch |
| Abstract: | Obwohl eine Vielzahl an Studien zum geschlechtsspezifischen Verdienstunterschied und dessen Erklärung existiert, konzentrieren sich bisher nur vergleichsweise wenige auf den "gender pay gap" in Führungspositionen, der im Fokus dieses Beitrags steht. In der hoch selektiven Gruppe der Führungskräfte in der Privatwirtschaft in Deutschland unterscheiden sich die Geschlechter in ihrer Humankapitalausstattung kaum, so dass der über eine Oaxaca/Blinder-Dekomposition ermittelte Unterschied in den Brutto-Monatsverdiensten hierüber nur sehr unzureichend zu erklären ist. Die Einbeziehung von Variablen zur geschlechtsspezifischen Segregation auf dem Arbeitsmarkt sowie haushaltsbezogener Kontrollvariablen führt zunächst dazu, dass der "gender pay gap" zu über zwei Dritteln erklärt werden kann. Das tatsächliche Ausmaß der Nachteile von Frauen am Arbeitsmarkt wird erst unter Berücksichtigung von Selektionseffekten in eine Führungsposition sichtbar: Unter Einbezug von Selektionseffekten (Heckman-Korrektur) können die in den Verdienstschätzungen berücksichtigten Merkmale den "gender pay gap" nur noch zu einem Drittel erklären. Zudem wird deutlich, dass Frauen auch innerhalb der Frauenberufe weniger verdienen als Männer (allokative Diskriminierung). Der zwei Drittel umfassende nicht erklärte Anteil am "gender pay gap" ("Resteffekt") repräsentiert die unbeobachtete Heterogenität. Hierzu gehören zum Beispiel gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Rahmenbedingungen sowie Strukturen und Praktiken auf dem Arbeitsmarkt und in Unternehmen, die zum Nachteil von Frauen wirken und den Aufstieg in eine Führungsposition erschweren. |
| Keywords: | Gender Pay Gap, managers, segregation, Oaxaca/Blinder decomposition, Heckman correction |
| JEL: | J31 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp169&r=ger |
| By: | Gerhards, Claudia (Department of Economics of the Duesseldorf University of Applied Sciences); Ferschke, Stephanie |
| Abstract: | Aufgrund der zunehmenden Digitalisierung und der damit einhergehenden Veränderungen hinsichtlich der Verbreitungswege und Angebotsformen, der Fragmentarisierung von Zielgruppen und verändertem Mediennutzungsverhalten befindet sich die Kommunikationsbranche im Umbruch. Kommunikationstreibende und Marketingverantwortliche suchen nach neuen Kommunikationsformen, Medienunternehmen nach neuen Erlösquellen. In diesem Zusammenhang spielen Branded-Entertainment-TV-Produktionen eine immer wichtiger werdende Rolle. In dem Beitrag werden mögliche Akteurskonstellationen von Branded-Entertainment-TV-Produktionen erstmals systematisch dargestellt, die Informationsasymmetrien und Zielkonflikte der Akteure vor dem Hintergrund der Systemtheorie und der Prinzipal-Agent-Theorie herausgearbeitet und Handlungsempfehlungen für das Schnittstellenmanagement aufgezeigt. The communication industry is on the move. Increasing digitalisation brings new distribution channels, new forms of content and a fragmentation of target groups. Players in the communication industry and marketeers search for new forms of communication. Media companies seek for new forms of generating revenue. In this context, TV productions that are focused on branded entertainment content become increasingly important. In this article, constellations of the players of branded entertainment TV productions are for the first time systematically identified and described. The difficulties that arise between the different parties under conditions of incomplete and asymmetric information are analysed with the help of the system theory and the principal agent theory. Recommendations for the management of branded entertainment productions are given, while instruments that could reduce uncertainty and risks for the principal are presented. |
| Keywords: | branded entertainment, branded content, tv productions, principal agent theory, system theory |
| JEL: | M30 |
| Date: | 2009–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ddf:wpaper:fobe09&r=ger |
| By: | Ronald Schettkat (Department of Economics University of Wuppertal); Rongrong Sun (Department of Economics University of Wuppertal) |
| Abstract: | Almost all institutions - employment protection legislation, unions, wages, wage structure, unemployment insurance, etc. - have been alleged and found guilty to have caused this tragic development at some point in the long history of rising and persistent unemployment in Europe. US labor market institutions, assumed to leave markets unfettered, became the benchmark for Europe. Based on the assertion of neutrality of monetary policy in the medium and long run, the search for causes of European unemployment has shielded away from the policy of central banks. Actually, however, the institutional setup regarding monetary policy is very different between the FED and the Bundesbank (ECB). We argue that the interaction of negative external shocks and tight monetary policies may have been the major - although probably not the only - cause of unemployment in Europe remaining at ever higher levels each recession. We identify the monetary policy of the Bundesbank as asymmetrical in the sense that the Bank did not actively fight recessions, but that it dampened recovery periods. |
| Keywords: | Production; Employment; Unemployment; Monetary Policy; Central Banks and Their Policies |
| JEL: | E23 E24 E42 E43 E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwu:schdps:sdp09003&r=ger |
| By: | Christoph Hornych; Michael Schwartz |
| Abstract: | Regarding technological innovativeness, the transformed economy of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) clearly lags behind the Western part of the country. To face this weakness, a broad mixture of policy measures was carried out in recent years. Particular attention is drawn to the development of industry concentrations and economic ‘clusters’. However, little is known about the effectiveness of these policy measures regarding how industry concentrations in fact promote innovative performance in Eastern Germany. The present study tries to fill this gap by analyzing the relationship between industry concentration in Eastern Germany and regional innovative performance. Our empirical analysis is based upon the number of patent applications of 22 manufacturing industries in 22 Eastern German planning regions. The estimated regression models indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between the degree of industry concentration and innovative performance. An exceedingly high degree of industry concentration in one region hampers regional innovative output. We discuss policy implications of our findings and give recommendations for future refinement of ‘cluster’-supporting policy schemes in Eastern Germany. |
| Date: | 2009–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwh:dispap:8-09&r=ger |
| By: | Armin Falk; Dieter Dohmen; Uwe Sunde |
| Abstract: | In this paper we discuss the complementarity of laboratory and field data. Experiments offer highly controlled environments that allow precise testing and causal inferences. Survey and field data on the other hand provide information on large and representative samples of people interacting in their natural environment. We discuss several concrete examples how to combine lab and field data and how to exploit potential complementarities. One example describes an experiment, which is run with a representative sample to guarantee control and representativeness. The second example is based on the idea to experimentally validate survey instruments to ensure behavioral validity of instruments that can be used in existing panel data sets. The third example describes the possibility to use the lab to identify causal effects, which are tested in large data sets. Topics discussed in this paper comprise the relation of cognitive skills (IQ) and risk and time preferences, determinants, prevalence and economic consequences of risk attitudes, selection into incentive schemes and the impact of unfair pay on stress. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp168&r=ger |
| By: | Schneider, Andrea (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg); Zimmermann, Klaus W. (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | The political blessings of federalism are the core of our discussion. These benefits are operationalized as the decrease in the number of outvoted in a federal system with majority voting as an important source of regime satisfaction. The approach originates from the work of Roland Pennock who developed a similar methodology exactly 50 years ago although he applied it to a slightly different topic. First, we show that decentralized decision-making is advantageous in the majority of logical cases since the expected value of the number of outvoted is lower compared to centralized decision-making. Comparing different cases, we conclude that the political force of the decentralization-theorem (Oates) is a sole and inverse function of the population size of the nation, implying that there is no structural effect of differing populations within regions. Next, the question is addressed how the gains from federalism react to variations in the number of regions: Measured as the difference of the shares of the sum of the highest number of outvoted to the national population between federalism and centralism, the gains of federalism are a direct function of the number of regions, in a 3-regions-case as well as in a generalized formal model. Therefore, a decrease of the population at the national level and an increase of the number of regions boost the gains of federalism representing a successful path to enhance regime satisfaction. The complementary question what happens to the gains of federalism when increasing the number of alternatives to vote for is more difficult to answer for set-ups with more than 2 alternatives. In our special case with 2 regions and 3 alternatives, the model shows that augmenting the number of alternatives exerts a negative effect on the gains of federalism if we use our first indicator - the share of the sum of the highest number of outvoted. If instead we employ the shares of the average number of outvoted, then there is still a slight increase in the gains of federalism. Using the last indicator, a case-related comparison of both effects shows that an increase in the number of regions has a stronger positive impact on the gains than letting the number of alternatives grow. Employing the other indicator of the share of the sum of the highest number of outvoted, then there is clearly a positive effect of the number of regions. But the effect of the number of alternatives is negative, implying that this last indicator underestimates the gains of federalism to a certain extent. Our integrative model explaining the gains of federalism reconfirms these interdependencies with the share of the sum of the highest numbers of outvoted: The first derivative is positive for more than 2 regions and the same holds for the size of the population at the national level in an unrestricted manner. Differentiating the number of alternatives, however, leads to a casuistic of 4 different domains separating positive and negative effects. Finally, we return to the opening question by analyzing the cumulative frequency distributions of the number of outvoted: Here, even if federalization is preferable as a whole, centralized decision-making is more advantageous for low numbers of outvoted, implying that the domain of decentralized decision-making seems to be connected to higher levels of the outvoted. |
| Keywords: | Federalism; Decentralization; Outvoted |
| JEL: | D72 H77 |
| Date: | 2009–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:vhsuwp:2009_092&r=ger |