Socially Gainful Gender Quotas
Walter Hyll, Oded Stark
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization,
No. 105,
2014
Abstract
We study the impact of gender quotas on the acquisition of human capital. We assume that individuals’ formation of human capital is influenced by the prospect of landing high-pay top positions, and that these positions are regulated by gender-specific quotas. In the absence of quotas, women consider their chances of getting top positions to be lower than men’s. The lure of top positions induces even men of relatively low ability to engage in human capital formation, whereas women of relatively high ability do not expect to get top positions and do not therefore engage in human capital formation. Gender quotas discourage men who are less efficient in forming human capital, and encourage women who are more efficient in forming human capital. We provide a condition under which the net result of the institution of gender quotas is an increase in human capital in the economy as a whole.
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Spillover Effects among Financial Institutions: A State-dependent Sensitivity Value-at-Risk Approach
Z. Adams, R. Füss, Reint E. Gropp
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis,
No. 3,
2014
Abstract
In this paper, we develop a state-dependent sensitivity value-at-risk (SDSVaR) approach that enables us to quantify the direction, size, and duration of risk spillovers among financial institutions as a function of the state of financial markets (tranquil, normal, and volatile). For four sets of major financial institutions (commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds, and insurance companies) we show that while small during normal times, equivalent shocks lead to considerable spillover effects in volatile market periods. Commercial banks and, especially, hedge funds appear to play a major role in the transmission of shocks to other financial institutions.
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The Impact of Preferences on Early Warning Systems - The Case of the European Commission's Scoreboard
Tobias Knedlik
European Journal of Political Economy,
2014
Abstract
The European Commission’s Scoreboard of Macroeconomic Imbalances is a rare case of a publicly released early warning system. It allows the preferences of the politicians involved to be analysed with regard to the two potential errors of an early warning system – missing a crisis and issuing a false alarm. These preferences might differ with the institutional setting. Such an analysis is done for the first time in this article for early warning systems in general by using a standard signals approach, including a preference-based optimisation approach, to set thresholds. It is shown that, in general, the thresholds of the Commission’s Scoreboard are set low (resulting in more alarm signals), as compared to a neutral stand. Based on political economy considerations the result could have been expected.
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How Important are Hedge Funds in a Crisis?
Reint E. Gropp
FRBSF Economic Letters,
No. 11,
2014
Abstract
Before the 2007–09 crisis, standard risk measurement methods substantially underestimated the threat to the financial system. One reason was that these methods didn’t account for how closely commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds, and insurance companies were linked. As financial conditions worsened in one type of institution, the effects spread to others. A new method that more accurately accounts for these spillover effects suggests that hedge funds may have been central in generating systemic risk during the crisis.
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24.03.2014 • 11/2014
IWH gut aufgestellt: Vorstandsrat trifft wichtige Entscheidungen
Der Vorstandsrat des Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH) hat in seiner heutigen Sitzung die Weichen für die Zeit nach dem Wechsel der IWH-Präsidentin Claudia Buch zur Bundesbank gestellt. Der Leiter der Abteilung Makroökonomik, Oliver Holtemöller, wurde in den Vorstand gewählt. Höchste Priorität hat für den Vorstandsrat eine zügige Regelung der Präsidentschaftsnachfolge. Die Präsidentschaft des IWH wird als gemeinsame Berufung mit der Universität Magdeburg in Kürze ausgeschrieben. Zur Ende 2014 anstehenden Evaluierung durch die Leibniz-Gemeinschaft soll bereits eine designierte Präsidentschaftsnachfolge das erfolgversprechende Zukunftskonzept des IWH vertreten können.
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R&D Cooperation for Non-technological Innovations
Gunnar Pippel
Economics of Innovation and New Technology,
No. 7,
2014
Abstract
Past research on the impact of R&D cooperation on firm innovation performance has almost solely focused on technological innovations. This paper investigates the impact of R&D cooperation on non-technological innovation performance of firms. In doing so, seven different cooperation partner types are distinguished. Survey data from German firms are used for the econometric analysis. It is shown that R&D cooperation increases the probability of a firm to introduce non-technological innovations. R&D cooperation with suppliers, consultants, other firms within the same firm group and universities has a significant positive impact on organizational and marketing innovation performance. Cooperation with governmental research institutes and competitors has no significant effect. R&D cooperation with customers has a significant impact on a firm's organizational innovation performance, but not on marketing innovation performance.
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26.02.2014 • 6/2014
IWH-Präsidentin Buch soll Lautenschläger-Nachfolgerin werden
Mit großem Respekt und Bedauern nimmt das gesamte Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH) die heutige Entscheidung des Bundeskabinetts zur Kenntnis, die IWH-Präsidentin Claudia Buch als Bundesbank-Vizepräsidentin zu nominieren. Die Annahme dieses Amtes wäre für Frau Buch mit der Niederlegung der Institutspräsidentschaft verbunden.
Pierre Azoulay
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Non-union Worker Representation, Foreign Owners, and the Performance of Establishments
U. Jirjahn, Steffen Müller
Oxford Economic Papers,
No. 1,
2014
Abstract
Using German establishment data, this study provides the first econometric analysis on the interaction of establishment-level codetermination and foreign owners. Works councils are associated with higher productivity in domestic-owned establishments while they are associated with lower productivity in foreign-owned establishments. Our results conform to the notion that foreign ownership can involve strong tensions with the institutional patterns of the host country.
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Parent Universities and the Location of Academic Startups
S. Heblich, Viktor Slavtchev
Small Business Economics,
No. 1,
2014
Abstract
Academic startups are thought to locate in their parent university’s home region because geographic proximity to a university facilitates access to academic knowledge and resources. In this paper we analyze the importance of a different channel, namely social ties between academic entrepreneurs and university researchers, for the access to academic knowledge and resources, and therefore for the location of the startups. We employ unique data on academic startups from regions with more than one university and find that only the parent university influences academic entrepreneurs’ decisions to stay in the region while other universities in the same region play no role. Our findings suggest that geographic proximity to a university may not per se guarantee access to knowledge and resources; social contacts are additionally required. The importance of social ties implies that academic knowledge and resources are not necessarily local public goods. This holds implications for universities’ role in stimulating regional development.
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09.01.2014 • 2/2014
Hallenser Leibniz-Institute präsentieren ihre Forschung zu Transformationsökonomien auf einer der wichtigsten sozialwissenschaftlichen Konferenzen weltweit
Die Erforschung ökonomischer Transformationsprozesse gehört zu den Leitthemen der beiden Forschungsinstitute und stößt nicht nur in den betroffenen Regionen, sondern auch international auf Interesse. Erkenntnisse über die Entwicklungen in Mittel- und Osteuropa und Asien helfen der Wissenschaft, Strukturwandel und dessen wirtschaftspolitische Steuerung besser zu verstehen.
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