Mentoring Helps Highly Disadvantaged Adolescents
Sven Resnjanskij, Jens Ruhose, Katharina Wedel, Simon Wiederhold, Ludger Woessmann
IEB Report "Education Policy: Quality and Equality of Opportunity",
2023
Abstract
In this report, we discuss the results of our randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a nationwide mentoring program designed to improve the labor-market prospects of disadvantaged adolescents in Germany (Resnjanskij et al., 2023). The study is motivated by the high persistence of inequality across generations present even in countries with comprehensive social welfare systems (Alvaredo et al., 2018). In particular, the school-to-work transition is a decisive moment that determines the differences in later labor-market outcomes of young adolescents.
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Department Profiles
Research Profiles of the IWH Departments All doctoral students are allocated to one of the four research departments (Financial Markets – Laws, Regulations and Factor Markets –…
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Household Indebtedness, Financial Frictions and the Transmission of Monetary Policy to Consumption: Evidence from China
Michael Funke, Xiang Li, Doudou Zhong
Emerging Markets Review,
June
2023
Abstract
This paper studies the impact of household indebtedness on the transmission of monetary policy to consumption using the Chinese household-level survey data. We employ a panel smooth transition regression model to investigate the non-linear role of indebtedness. We find that housing-related indebtedness weakens the monetary policy transmission, and this effect is non-linear as there is a much larger counteraction of consumption in response to monetary policy shocks when household indebtedness increases from a low level rather than from a high level. Moreover, the weakened monetary policy transmission from indebtedness is stronger in urban households than in rural households. This can be explained by the investment good characteristic of real estate in China.
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Loan Securitisation during the Transition to a Low-carbon Economy
Isabella Müller, Huyen Nguyen, Trang Nguyen
VoxEU CEPR,
May
2023
Abstract
Banks play a crucial role in the transition to a low-carbon economy, but they also expose themselves to climate transition risk. This column shows that banks use corporate loan securitisation to shift climate transition risk to less-regulated shadow banking entities. This behaviour affects carbon premia in loan contracts. When banks can use securitisation to manage transition risk, their climate policies that target only activities reflected in their books may not be as effective as bank regulators hope for.
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Deindustrialisierung: Schreckgespenst oder notwendiger Schritt im Strukturwandel der deutschen Wirtschaft?
Oliver Falck, Steffen Müller, Monika Schnitzer, et al.
ifo Schnelldienst,
No. 3,
2023
Abstract
Die Ereignisse der letzten Jahre haben die Debatte über eine Deindustrialisierung Deutschlands auf die Tagesordnung gesetzt. Die Corona-Pandemie, Unsicherheiten im Umgang mit China und der Krieg in der Ukraine belasten die deutsche Wirtschaft stark. Unterbrochene Lieferketten, fehlende Rohstoffe und vor allem die in ungeahnte Höhen gestiegenen Energiepreise verunsichern die Unternehmen. Aufgrund deutlich günstigerer Energiekosten und der Subventionspolitik in den USA gibt es Befürchtungen, dass insbesondere energieintensive Unternehmen abwandern und der Industriestandort Deutschland an Wettbewerbsfähigkeit verliert. Ist diese Sorge berechtigt, und wie kann die Politik gegensteuern?
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Stellungnahme „Übergreifende Kostenbetrachtung der Auswirkungen des Klimawandels in Schleswig-Holstein“
Katja Heinisch, Oliver Holtemöller, Christoph Schult
IWH Policy Notes,
No. 1,
2023
Abstract
anlässlich der Anhörung im Umwelt- und Agrarausschuss des Schleswig-Holsteinischen Landtags ‒ Antrag der Fraktion der SPD, Drucksache 20/414
Der Klimawandel in Schleswig-Holstein führt zu Veränderungen in Umwelt, Wirtschaft und Arbeitswelt, und er hat Auswirkungen auf die Gesundheit der Menschen. Der wissenschaftliche Konsens geht davon aus, dass die sozioökonomischen und ökologischen Effekte des Klimawandels weltweit überwiegend negativ sein werden. Aus diesem Grund schreibt das Klimaschutzgesetz vor, dass die deutschen Treibhausgasemissionen bis zum Jahr 2030 um mindestens 65% und bis zum Jahr 2040 um mindestens 88% reduziert werden sollen; bis zum Jahr 2045 soll Klimaneutralität in Deutschland erreicht werden. Schleswig-Holstein hat eigene Klimaschutzziele und Maßnahmen eingeführt. Unsicherheiten bestehen jedoch hinsichtlich der nationalen und regionalen Kosten des Klimawandels. Bisherige Studien deuten darauf hin, dass in der zweiten Hälfte des
21. Jahrhunderts in Deutschland die jährlichen Verluste des Bruttoinlandsprodukts unter einem Prozent liegen werden. Zur Plausibilisierung dieser Zahl ist es notwendig, eine transparente und replizierbare Klimawandelfolgenabschätzung für Schleswig-Holstein vorzunehmen. Es wird daher empfohlen, dem Antrag zuzustimmen.
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Carbon Transition Risk and Corporate Loan Securitization
Isabella Müller, Huyen Nguyen, Trang Nguyen
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 22,
2022
Abstract
We examine how banks manage carbon transition risk by selling loans given to polluting borrowers to less regulated shadow banks in securitization markets. Exploiting the election of Donald Trump as an exogenous shock that reduces carbon risk, we find that banks’ securitization decisions are sensitive to borrowers’ carbon footprints. Banks are more likely to securitize brown loans when carbon risk is high but swiftly change to keep these loans on their balance sheets when carbon risk is reduced after Trump’s election. Importantly, securitization enables banks to offer lower interest rates to polluting borrowers but does not affect the supply of green loans. Our findings are more pronounced among domestic banks and banks that do not display green lending preferences. We discuss how securitization can weaken the effectiveness of bank climate policies through reducing banks’ incentives to price carbon risk.
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Banking Reform, Risk-Taking, and Accounting Quality: Evidence from Post-Soviet Transition States
Yiwei Fang, Wassim Dbouk, Iftekhar Hasan, Lingxiang Li
Journal of International Accounting Research,
No. 1,
2022
Abstract
The drastic banking reform within Central and Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union provides an ideal quasi-experimental design to examine the causal effects of institutional development on accounting quality (AQ). We find that banking reform spurs significant improvement in predictive power of earnings and reductions in earnings smoothing, earnings-inflating discretionary provisions, and avoidance of reporting losses. These effects hold under alternative model specifications and after considering concurrent institutional developments. In contrast, corporate reform shows no such effects, refuting the alternative explanation that unobserved factors affect both reform speed in general and the quality of financial reporting. We further identify four specific reformative actions that are integral to the drastic banking reform process where prudential regulation contributes the most to the observed AQ improvement. It supports the conjecture that banking reform improves AQ by reducing banks' risk-taking behaviors and, as a result, their motive behind accounting manipulation.
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Did GRW Investment Grants Contribute to the Catching-up of East Germany?
Matthias Brachert, Eva Dettmann, Lutz Schneider, Mirko Titze
Wirtschaftsdienst,
Konferenzband "30 Jahre Deutsche Einheit", März
2021
Abstract
Die Gemeinschaftsaufgabe „Verbesserung der regionalen Wirtschaftsstruktur“ (GRW) ist das wichtigste regionalpolitische Programm in Deutschland und wurde nach der Wiedervereinigung in großem Umfang zur Unterstützung des wirtschaftlichen Transformationsprozesses in den neuen Bundesländern eingesetzt. Ein Überblick über nationale und internationale kausalanalytische Studien zur Wirkung von Investitionszuschüssen zeigt, dass solche Programme positive Effekte auf die Entwicklung insbesondere von Beschäftigung und Einkommen haben. Nicht nur die geförderten Betriebe profitieren von der Unterstützung, sondern die Regionen insgesamt. Auch wenn die Studien nicht bis in die frühen 1990er Jahre zurückreichen, kann man daraus schließen, dass die GRW zur wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung in Ostdeutschland beigetragen hat – und zum Aufholprozess.
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Promoting Higher Productivity in China — Does Innovation Expenditure Really Matter?
Hoang Minh Duy, Filippo di Mauro, Jo Van Biesebroeck
Singapore Economic Review,
No. 5,
2020
Abstract
The slowing down of the global economy adds additional challenges to China? economic policies as the country orchestrates its transition to lower resource dependency and higher technology intensity of output. Are policies aimed at technologically advanced sectors the right answer? Drawing from a newly created dataset of firms? balance sheets over the period 1998?2013, matched with patents data until 2009, we uncover that expenditure in innovation had limited effect on boosting productivity, without generating a clear gain in overall productivity for the high-tech sector. As a matter of fact, there is a much higher dispersion in productivity outcomes in firms belonging to the low-technology sectors, which derives from a bunch of champions in those sectors scoring higher productivity dynamics than in the High-technology sectors. The paper finds those barriers to entry and in general, market power of incumbents in the high-tech generate less than optimal resource reallocation, which hampers the overall productivity. Policies should presumably aim at removing such obstacles rather than solely promote innovation expenditure.
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