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IWH EXplore Competitive Funding for Research Projects with External Involvement at IWH IWH EXplore gives scientists the opportunity to acquire supplemental funding, in addition to…
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Sind Subventionen für Halbleiter zu rechtfertigen?
Reint E. Gropp, Alexander Reifschneider
Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik,
No. 2,
2023
Abstract
Reint Gropp und Alexander Reifschneider beleuchten in diesem Artikel die wichtigsten Argumente für und gegen die Subventionen, die im Rahmen des European Chips Acts für Halbleiter in Europa und in Deutschland geplant sind. Sie gehen dabei auch auf die geostrategischen Argumente ein. Es zeigt sich, dass die Subventionen für Produktionsanlagen für Halbleiter sehr schwer zu rechtfertigen sind. Subventionen für Forschung und Entwicklung statt für Produktion wären eine bessere Verwendung von Steuergeldern.
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European Firm Concentration and Aggregate Productivity
Tommaso Bighelli, Filippo di Mauro, Marc Melitz, Matthias Mertens
Journal of the European Economic Association,
No. 2,
2023
Abstract
This paper derives a European Herfindahl–Hirschman concentration index from 15 micro-aggregated country datasets. In the last decade, European concentration rose due to a reallocation of economic activity toward large and concentrated industries. Over the same period, productivity gains from an increasing allocative efficiency of the European market accounted for 50% of European productivity growth while markups stayed constant. Using country-industry variation, we show that changes in concentration are positively associated with changes in productivity and allocative efficiency. This holds across most sectors and countries and supports the notion that rising concentration in Europe reflects a more efficient market environment rather than weak competition and rising market power.
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Subventionswettbewerb: Subventionen für Halbleiter?
Reint E. Gropp
Wirtschaftsdienst,
No. 3,
2023
Abstract
Hochtechnologien gelten als die Branchen der Zukunft. Europa will hier nicht den Anschluss verlieren. Auch gegen Lieferengpässe und Produktionsengpässe durch gestörte Lieferketten will sich Europa besser wappnen. Mit dem „European Chips Act“ will die Europäische Kommission gemeinsam mit den Mitgliedstaaten mehr als 40 Mrd. Euro ausgeben, um die europäische Halbleiter-Produktion von gegenwärtig 10 % auf dann 20 % der globalen Produktion zu steigern. Halbleiter sind nicht nur in Gebrauchsgegenständen wie Handys, Laptops und Autos, sie sind auch unverzichtbar, wenn die grüne und digitale Wende gelingen soll. Photovoltaikanlagen, nachhaltige Produktion und E-Mobilität – all das braucht Computerchips. Der „European Chips Act“ ist daher die Antwort der EU auf den „Chips-Act“ der USA, der mehr als 50 Mrd. US-$ für Halbleiter vorsieht, um die Produktion zu sichern, zu modernisieren und auszubauen.
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A Note on the Use of Syndicated Loan Data
Isabella Müller, Felix Noth, Lena Tonzer
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 17,
2022
Abstract
Syndicated loan data provided by DealScan is an essential input in banking research. This data is rich enough to answer urging questions on bank lending, e.g., in the presence of financial shocks or climate change. However, many data options raise the question of how to choose the estimation sample. We employ a standard regression framework analyzing bank lending during the financial crisis of 2007/08 to study how conventional but varying usages of DealScan affect the estimates. The key finding is that the direction of coefficients remains relatively robust. However, statistical significance depends on the data and sampling choice and we provide guidelines for applied research.
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Fallende Lohnquoten: Die Rolle von Technologie und Marktmacht
Matthias Mertens
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 2,
2022
Abstract
Die Lohnquote, definiert als die Summe der Arbeitnehmerentgelte geteilt durch die Gesamtproduktion einer Volkswirtschaft, ist in den letzten 40 Jahren in vielen Ländern gefallen. Das Fallen der Lohnquote besitzt potenziell weitreichende Implikationen für das Ausmaß an Ungleichheit und für den Wohlstand von Arbeitnehmerinnen und Arbeitnehmern. Daneben kann eine fallende Lohnquote auch ein Anzeichen für einen Anstieg der Firmenmarktmacht sein. Anhand von Mikrodaten zum deutschen Verarbeitenden Gewerbe untersucht dieser Artikel, welche Rolle technologischer Wandel und steigende Firmenmarktmacht als Ursachen für das Fallen der Lohnquote spielen. Es zeigt sich, dass technologischer Wandel und ein Anstieg der Firmenmarktmacht, insbesondere auf Arbeitsmärkten, jeweils die Hälfte der fallenden Lohnquote im deutschen Verarbeitenden Gewerbe erklären. Daher können politische Maßnahmen, die Firmenmarktmacht reduzieren, nicht nur eine effizienzsteigernde Wirkung entfalten, sondern, als ein Nebeneffekt, auch den Anteil der Löhne an der Gesamtproduktion erhöhen.
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Offshoring, Domestic Employment and Production. Evidence from the German International Sourcing Survey
Wolfhard Kaus, Markus Zimmermann
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 14,
2022
Abstract
This paper analyses the effect of offshoring (i.e., the relocation of activities previously performed in-house to foreign countries) on various firm outcomes (domestic employment, production, and productivity). It uses data from the International Sourcing Survey (ISS) 2017 for Germany, linked to other firm level data such as business register and ITGS data. First, we find that offshoring is a rare event: In the sample of firms with 50 or more persons employed, only about 3% of manufacturing firms and 1% of business service firms have performed offshoring in the period 2014-2016. Second, difference-in-differences propensity score matching estimates reveal a negative effect of offshoring on domestic employment and production. Most of this negative effect is not because the offshoring firms shrink, but rather because they don’t grow as fast as the non-offshoring firms. We further decompose the underlying employment dynamics by using direct survey evidence on how many jobs the firms destroyed/created due to offshoring. Moreover, we do not find an effect on labour productivity, since the negative effect on domestic employment and production are more or less of the same size. Third, the German data confirm previous findings for Denmark that offshoring is associated with an increase in the share of ‘produced goods imports’, i.e. offshoring firms increase their imports for the same goods they continue to produce domestically. In contrast, it is not the case that offshoring firms increase the share of intermediate goods imports (a commonly used proxy for offshoring), as defined by the BEC Rev. 5 classification.
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13.04.2022 • 8/2022
From Pandemic to Energy Crisis: Economy and Politics under Permanent Stress
The German economy is steering through difficult waters and faces the highest inflation rates in decades. In their spring report, the leading German economic research institutes revise their outlook for this year significantly downward. The recovery from the COVID-19 crisis is slowing down as a result of the war in Ukraine, but remains on track. The institutes expect GDP to increase by 2.7% and 3.1% in 2022 and 2023 respectively. In the event of an immediate interruption to Russian gas supplies, a total of 220 billion euros in German economic output would be at risk in both years.
Oliver Holtemöller
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Micro-mechanisms behind Declining Labor Shares: Rising Market Power and Changing Modes of Production
Matthias Mertens
International Journal of Industrial Organization,
March
2022
Abstract
I derive a micro-founded framework showing how rising firm market power on product and labor markets and falling aggregate labor output elasticities provide three competing explanations for falling labor shares. I apply my framework to 20 years of German manufacturing sector micro data containing firm-specific price information to study these three distinct drivers of declining labor shares. I document a severe increase in firms’ labor market power, whereas firms’ product market power stayed comparably low. Changes in firm market power and a falling aggregate labor output elasticity each account for one half of the decline in labor's share.
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European Firm Concentration and Aggregate Productivity
Tommaso Bighelli, Filippo di Mauro, Marc Melitz, Matthias Mertens
Abstract
This article derives a European Herfindahl-Hirschman concentration index from 15 micro-aggregated country datasets. In the last decade, European concentration rose due to a reallocation of economic activity towards large and concentrated industries. Over the same period, productivity gains from reallocation accounted for 50% of European productivity growth and markups stayed constant. Using country-industry variation, we show that changes in concentration are positively associated with changes in productivity and allocative efficiency. This holds across most sectors and countries and supports the notion that rising concentration in Europe reflects a more efficient market environment rather than weak competition and rising market power.
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