Search Results

All
Data Type
Topic
Year
Refresh

16.12.2015 • 45/2015

German Economy: Strong domestic demand compensates for weak exports

The upturn of the German economy is expected to gain further momentum as a consequence of strong domestic demand. Real gross domestic product is expected to increase by 1.6% in 2016. Consumer prices are expected to rise by 0.9%. Unemployment is expected to rise slightly because it will take time to integrate refugees into the labour market.

Oliver Holtemöller
Read

EFN Report Autumn 2015: Economic Outlook for the Euro Area in 2015 and 2016

European Forecasting Network Reports, No. 4, 2015
Abstract
For the end of this year and for 2016, chances are good that production in advanced economies will continue to expand a bit faster than at trend rates, while growth dynamics in emerging markets economies will not strengthen or even continue to decrease. Since autumn 2014, production in the euro area expands at an annualized rate of about 1.5%. The recovery appears to be broad based, with contributions from private consumption, exports, and investment into fixed capital, although it fell back in the second quarter after a strong increase at the beginning of the year. From a regional perspective, the recovery is as well quite broad based: production is expanding in almost every country, surprisingly and according to official data, including Greece. Structural impediments still limit the ability of the euro area economy to grow strongly: firms and, in particular, private households are only slowly reducing their heavy debt burdens. According to our forecasts, the euro area GDP will grow by 1.6% in 2015 and by 1.9% in 2016. The high increase in the number of refugees in 2015 will, in principle, positively affect private as well as public consumption, but the effect should be below 0.1 percentage points relative to GDP. Our inflation forecast for 2015 is 0.1%. For 2016, we expect that inflation will increase to 1.3%, which is still below the ECB’s target of 2%.
Read article

Bank Market Power, Factor Reallocation, and Aggregate Growth

R. Inklaar, Michael Koetter, Felix Noth
Journal of Financial Stability, 2015
Abstract
Using a unique firm-level sample of approximately 700,000 firm-year observations of German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this study seeks to identify the effect of bank market power on aggregate growth components. We test for a pre-crisis sample whether bank market power spurs or hinders the reallocation of resources across informationally opaque firms. Identification relies on the dependence on external finance in each industry and the regional demarcation of regional banking markets in Germany. The results show that bank markups spur aggregate SME growth, primarily through technical change and the reallocation of resources. Banks seem to need sufficient markups to generate the necessary private information to allocate financial funds efficiently.
Read article

Does Going Public Affect Innovation?

Shai B. Bernstein
Journal of Finance, No. 4, 2015
Abstract
This paper investigates the effects of going public on innovation by comparing the innovation activity of firms that go public with firms that withdraw their initial public offering (IPO) filing and remain private. NASDAQ fluctuations during the book-building phase are used as an instrument for IPO completion. Using patent-based metrics, I find that the quality of internal innovation declines following the IPO, and firms experience both an exodus of skilled inventors and a decline in the productivity of the remaining inventors. However, public firms attract new human capital and acquire external innovation. The analysis reveals that going public changes firms' strategies in pursuing innovation.
Read article

EFN Report Summer 2015: Economic Outlook for the Euro Area in 2015 and 2016

EFN Reports, No. 3, 2015
Abstract
External conditions for the euro area economy are still favourable, albeit somewhat less so than at the beginning of the year. Oil prices are by more than a third lower than they were on average in 2014, but about 10 USD higher than in January. Long term interest rates are still very low, but by half a percentage point higher than in January. Worldwide growth in production and trade has disappointed in the first quarter of 2015, and recent leading indicators point to no more than a slightly faster expansion of world production for the rest of the year. The risks of contagion from the Greek crisis to the partner countries appear limited, because financial exposure to the Greek banking sector has been very much reduced. The EU nowadays has instruments with considerable power to fight losses of confidence, and the other countries that received financial assistance in the euro crisis appear politically much more stable, and their economies (including that of Cyprus in the first quarter of this year) have started growing at quite satisfactory rates. According to our forecasts, the euro area GDP will grow by 1.6% in 2015 and by 2.1% in 2016, as negative factors slowly become less important. Both private consumption and investment will expand at a good pace, and the unemployment rate will diminish, but still remain above 10% by the end of 2016. The main risk is that the Greek crisis has a more negative effect on confidence than initially expected. Our inflation forecast for 2015 is 0.2%, with the possibility of a mild deflation not excluded. During the first quarter of 2015 rising oil prices were the main contributors to the ascending inflation expectations, while during the second quarter upward surprises over expected inflation have come from manufactured goods and services. For 2016, we expect that inflation will increase up to 1.2%, still below the 2% ECB’s target.
Read article

EFN Report Spring 2015: Economic Outlook for the Euro Area in 2015 and 2016

EFN Reports, No. 2, 2015
Abstract
Recent movements on world markets for commodities, currencies and capital stimulate the world economy, but they entail also considerable risks: income losses of energy exporting countries might trigger financial crises with worldwide repercussions; crises might also emerge from financial distress of emerging market debtors with liabilities denominated in US dollars. Extremely low interest rates might not only trigger stock and bond price booms, but also more volatility if investors become fearful of financial bubbles. Quite a few conditions are highly beneficial for a recovery of the euro area economy: governments and large corporations benefit from ultra-low bond yields, banks’ composite costs of debt financing have been converging during the past two years to very low levels, and borrowing costs for non-financial corporations have come down markedly. Prices for stocks, bonds and (on average) houses have gone up. Real disposable incomes of private households have risen due to oil prices. The real effective exchange rate is about 10% lower in March 2015 than it was a year ago, strengthening the price competitiveness of firms in the euro area. According to our forecasts, the euro area GDP will grow by 1.6% in 2015 and by 2.1% in 2016. Structural impediments, however, still limit the ability of the euro area economy to grow strongly: firms and, in particular, private households are only slowly reducing their heavy debt burdens, and confidence will not fully come back in France and Italy, as long as reform processes are inconclusive in both countries and as long as unemployment is not coming down markedly. Our inflation forecast for 2015 is 0.1%, with the possibility of a mild deflation not excluded. In 2016 inflation will increase up to 1.3%, still clearly below the 2% ECB’s target. This calls for continued monetary expansion, though its effects could be limited in the absence of a complementary fiscal stimulus, in particular in those countries where the implementation of structural reforms brings long term gains but short term losses.
Read article

Can R&D Subsidies Counteract the Economic Crisis? – Macroeconomic Effects in Germany

Hans-Ulrich Brautzsch, Jutta Günther, Brigitte Loose, Udo Ludwig, Nicole Nulsch
Research Policy, No. 3, 2015
Abstract
During the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009, governments in Europe stabilized their economies by means of fiscal policy. After decades of absence, deficit spending was used to counteract the heavy decline in demand. In Germany, public spending went partially into R&D subsidies in favor of small and medium sized enterprises. Applying the standard open input–output model, the paper analyzes the macroeconomic effects of R&D subsidies on employment and production in the business cycle. Findings in the form of backward multipliers suggest that R&D subsidies have stimulated a substantial leverage effect. Almost two thirds of the costs of R&D projects are covered by the enterprises themselves. Overall, a subsidized R&D program results in a production, value added and employment effect that amounts to at least twice the initial financing. Overall, the R&D program counteracts the decline of GDP by 0.5% in the year 2009. In the year 2010 the effects are already procyclical since the German economy recovered quickly. Compared to the strongly discussed alternative uses of subsidies for private consumption, R&D spending is more effective.
Read article

Ökonomisches Wachstum in Ostdeutschland seit der Wiedervereinigung: Eine empirische Perspektive

Maike Irrek
Hochschulschrift, Juristische und Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 2015
Abstract
Der schleppende Konvergenzprozess zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland und der fortdauernde Produktivitätsrückstand der ostdeutschen Wirtschaft sind die Motivation einer Vielzahl an Studien und Analysen. Öffentliches Sachkapital und Humankapital spielen dabei eine wichtige Rolle. Es liegen jedoch keine passenden Zeitreihen vor, mit deren Hilfe die in der Literatur diskutierten Thesen in empirischen Untersuchungen überprüft werden könnten. Daher werden in der vorliegenden Dissertation das öffentliche und private Sachkapital sowie das Humankapital für Ost-und Westdeutschland geschätzt. Erst mit diesen Daten sind zudem genauere Schätzungen der Totalen Faktorproduktivität in beiden Regionen möglich.
Read article

22.01.2015 • 4/2015

EZB-Staatsanleihekäufe: Langfristig sehr riskant – aber angesichts der akuten Gefahren für die Preisstabilität vertretbar

Die Europäische Zentralbank hat sich für den Kauf von Staatsanleihen in großem Umfang entschieden. Durch den damit verbundenen Rückgang der Umlaufsrendite von Staatsanleihen ist es wahrscheinlich, dass auch die Unternehmenszinsen ge-senkt werden können. Dadurch würden mehr realwirtschaftliche Projekte rentabel und die Unternehmensinvestitionen zunehmen. Käufe von Staatsanleihen durch die Notenbank bringen zwar erhebliche Risiken mit sich, sind aber mit Blick auf die akuten Gefahren für die Geldpolitik vertretbar.

Reint E. Gropp
Oliver Holtemöller
Read

Understanding the Great Recession

Mathias Trabandt, Lawrence J. Christiano, Martin S. Eichenbaum
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, No. 1, 2015
Abstract
We argue that the vast bulk of movements in aggregate real economic activity during the Great Recession were due to financial frictions. We reach this conclusion by looking through the lens of an estimated New Keynesian model in which firms face moderate degrees of price rigidities, no nominal rigidities in wages, and a binding zero lower bound constraint on the nominal interest rate. Our model does a good job of accounting for the joint behavior of labor and goods markets, as well as inflation, during the Great Recession. According to the model the observed fall in total factor productivity and the rise in the cost of working capital played critical roles in accounting for the small drop in inflation that occurred during the Great Recession.
Read article
Mitglied der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft LogoTotal-Equality-LogoSupported by the BMWK