Konjunktur aktuell: Deutschland in der Stagnation festgefahren – privater Konsum weiter unter dem Niveau
von vor der Pandemie
Konjunktur aktuell,
No. 1,
2024
Abstract
Zu Beginn des Jahres 2024 zeigen Stimmungsindikatoren etwas aufgehellte Aussichten für die internationale Konjunktur. In Europa dürfte die Dynamik allerdings recht schwach bleiben. Deutschland befindet sich in einer lang anhaltenden Stagnation, die sich bis zum Sommer fortsetzen wird. Für die Zeit danach ist mit einem leichten Anziehen der Konjunktur zu rechnen. Das Bruttoinlandsprodukt dürfte im Jahr 2024 um lediglich 0,2% expandieren, für 2025 prognostiziert das IWH einen Zuwachs um 1,5%.
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Frühzeitige Ermittlung stabiler Ergebnisse zum Bruttoinlandsprodukt bzw. realen Wirtschaftswachstum und der Bruttowertschöpfung auf Länderebene
Boris Blagov, Franziska Exß, Katja Heinisch, Oliver Holtemöller, Clara Krause, Torsten Schmidt
RWI Projektberichte,
2024
Abstract
In dieser Studie wird geprüft, ob die Genauigkeit der ersten Schätzung der Bruttowertschöpfung und des Bruttoinlandsprodukts für die Bundesländer erhöht und damit das Ausmaß der nachfolgenden Revisionen reduziert werden kann. Dazu werden alternative ökonometrische Methoden und zusätzliche Daten herangezogen. Zunächst wird untersucht, in welchen Bereichen die Revisionen stärker ausfallen als in anderen. Dabei werden das BIP und die Bruttowertschöpfung (BWS) auf der Wirtschaftszweig-Gliederungsebene A*10 mit Zusammenfassungen in die Untersuchung einbezogen. Anschließend werden die amtlichen Ergebnisse mit denen der alternativen Ansätze verglichen. Insgesamt ist das Ausmaß, in dem der Revisionsbedarf mit alternativen Methoden verringert werden konnte, relativ gering.
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IWH-Flash-Indikator I. und II. Quartal 2024
Katja Heinisch, Oliver Holtemöller, Axel Lindner, Birgit Schultz
IWH-Flash-Indikator,
No. 1,
2024
Abstract
Im Jahr 2023 ging das deutsche Bruttoinlandsprodukt um 0,3% gegenüber dem Vorjahr zurück. Während im zweiten und dritten Quartal eine Stagnation der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Produktion zu beobachten war, sank die Wirtschaftsleistung in Deutschland im vierten Quartal 2023 um 0,3%. Insbesondere dürften die gestiegenen Verbraucherpreise dazu beigetragen haben, dass die preisbereinigten Konsumausgaben der privaten Haushalte deutlich zurückgingen. Zusätzlich belastete politische und wirtschaftliche Unsicherheit den Konsum. Der Anstieg der Zinsen wirkte im vergangenen Jahr ebenfalls dämpfend auf die Konjunktur. Die Verunsicherung wird auch in der ersten Jahreshälfte andauern, so dass das Bruttoinlandsprodukt (BIP) laut IWH-Flash-Indikator im ersten Quartal 2024 stagnieren und im zweiten Quartal 2024 lediglich um knapp 0,2% steigen dürfte (vgl. Abbildung 1).
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Financial Technologies and the Effectiveness of Monetary Policy Transmission
Iftekhar Hasan, Boreum Kwak, Xiang Li
European Economic Review,
January
2024
Abstract
This study investigates whether and how financial technologies (FinTech) influence the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission. We use an interacted panel vector autoregression model to explore how the effects of monetary policy shocks change with regional-level FinTech adoption. Results indicate that FinTech adoption generally mitigates the transmission of monetary policy to real GDP, consumer prices, bank loans, and housing prices, with the most significant impact observed in the weakened transmission to bank loan growth. The relaxed financial constraints, regulatory arbitrage, and intensified competition are the possible mechanisms underlying the mitigated transmission.
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Macroeconomic Effects from Sovereign Risk vs. Knightian Uncertainty
Ruben Staffa
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 27,
2023
Abstract
This paper compares macroeconomic effects of Knightian uncertainty and risk using policy shocks for the case of Italy. Drawing on the ambiguity literature, I use changes in the bid-ask spread and mid-price of government bonds as distinct measures for uncertainty and risk. The identification exploits the quasi-pessimistic behavior under ambiguity-aversion and the dealer market structure of government bond markets, where dealers must quote both sides of the market. If uncertainty increases, ambiguity-averse dealers will quasi-pessimistically quote higher ask and lower bid prices – increasing the bid-ask spread. In contrast, a pure change in risk shifts the risk-compensating discount factor which is well approximated by the change in bond mid-prices. I evaluate economic effects of the two measures within an instrumental variable local projection framework. The main findings are threefold. First, the resulting shock time series for uncertainty and risk are uncorrelated with each other at the intraday level, however, upon aggregation to monthly level the measures become correlated. Second, uncertainty is an important driver of economic aggregates. Third, macroeconomic effects of risk and uncertainty are similar, except for the response of prices. While sovereign risk raises inflation, uncertainty suppresses price growth – a result which is in line with increased price rigidity under ambiguity.
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Fiscal Policy under the Eyes of Wary Bondholders
Ruben Staffa, Gregor von Schweinitz
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 26,
2023
Abstract
This paper studies the interaction between fiscal policy and bondholders against the backdrop of high sovereign debt levels. For our analysis, we investigate the case of Italy, a country that has dealt with high public debt levels for a long time, using a Bayesian structural VAR model. We extend a canonical three variable macro mode to include a bond market, consisting of a fiscal rule and a bond demand schedule for long-term government bonds. To identify the model in the presence of political uncertainty and forward-looking investors, we derive an external instrument for bond demand shocks from a novel news ticker data set. Our main results are threefold. First, the interaction between fiscal policy and bondholders’ expectations is critical for the evolution of prices. Fiscal policy reinforces contractionary monetary policy through sustained increases in primary surpluses and investors provide incentives for “passive” fiscal policy. Second, investors’ expectations matter for inflation, and we document a Fisherian response of inflation across all maturities in response to a bond demand shock. Third, domestic politics is critical in the determination of bondholders’ expectations and an increase in the perceived riskiness of sovereign debt increases inflation and thus complicates the task of controlling price growth.
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The Reverse Revolving Door in the Supervision of European Banks
Stefano Colonnello, Michael Koetter, Alex Sclip, Konstantin Wagner
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 25,
2023
Abstract
We show that around one third of executive directors on the boards of national supervisory authorities (NSA) in European banking have an employment history in the financial industry. The appointment of executives without a finance background associates with negative valuation effects. Appointments of former bankers, in turn, spark positive stock market reactions. This „proximity premium“ of supervised banks is a more likely driver of positive valuation effects than superior financial expertise or intrinsic skills of former executives from the financial industry. Prior to the inception of the European Single Supervisory Mechanism, the presence of former financial industry executives on the board of NSA associates with lower regulatory capital and faster growth of banks, pointing to a more lenient supervisory style.
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Distributional Income Effects of Banking Regulation in Europe
Lars Brausewetter, Melina Ludolph, Lena Tonzer
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 24,
2023
Abstract
We study the impact of stricter and more harmonized banking regulation along the income distribution using household survey data for 25 EU countries. Exploiting country-level heterogeneity in the implementation of European Banking Union directives allows us to control for confounders and identify effects. Our results show that these regulatory reforms aimed at increasing financial system resilience affected households heterogeneously. More stringent regulation reduces income growth for low-income households due to employment exits. Yet it tends to increase growth rates at the top of the distribution both for employee and self-employed income.
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Searching where Ideas Are Harder to Find – The Productivity Slowdown as a Result of Firms Hindering Disruptive Innovation
Richard Bräuer
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 22,
2023
Abstract
This paper proposes to explain the productivity growth slowdown with the poaching of disruptive inventors by firms these inventors threaten with their research. I build an endogenous growth model with incremental and disruptive innovation and an inventor labor market where this defensive poaching takes place. Incremental firms poach more as they grow, which lowers the probability of disruption and makes large incremental firms even more prevalent. I perform an event study around disruptive innovations to confirm the main features of the model: Disruptions increase future research productivity, hurt incumbent inventors and raise the probability of future disruption. Without disruption, technology classes slowly trend even further towards incrementalism. I calibrate the model to the global patent landscape in 1990 and show that the model predicts 52% of the decline of disruptive innovation until 2010.
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14.12.2023 • 30/2023
Exports and private consumption weak ‒ Germany is waiting for an economic upturn
In the winter of 2023/2024, the German economy is still in a downturn. Parts of industry have lost competitiveness, real incomes have fallen in 2023 due to inflation, and there is uncertainty about the course of fiscal policy. However, rising real incomes and a slight increase in exports should cause a pickup from spring onwards. The Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) expects gross domestic product (GDP) to fall by 0.3% in 2023 and to expand by 0.5% in 2024 (East Germany: +0.5% and +0.7%). In September, the IWH forecast had assumed a decline of 0.5% for Germany in 2023 and expected growth of 0.9% for the coming year.
Oliver Holtemöller
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