Asymmetric Investment Responses to Firm-specific Forecast Errors
Julian Berner, Manuel Buchholz, Lena Tonzer
Abstract
This paper analyses how firm-specific forecast errors derived from survey data of German manufacturing firms over 2007–2011 affect firms’ investment propensity. Understanding how forecast errors affect firm investment behaviour is key to mitigate economic downturns during and after crisis periods in which forecast errors tend to increase. Our findings reveal a negative impact of absolute forecast errors on investment. Strikingly, asymmetries arise depending on the size and direction of the forecast error. The investment propensity declines if the realised situation is worse than expected. However, firms do not adjust investment if the realised situation is better than expected suggesting that the uncertainty component of the forecast error counteracts positive effects of unexpectedly favorable business conditions. Given that the fraction of firms making positive forecast errors is higher after the peak of the recent financial crisis, this mechanism can be one explanation behind staggered economic growth and slow recovery following crises.
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08.04.2020 • 5/2020
Gemeinschaftsdiagnose Frühjahr 2020: Wirtschaft unter Schock – Finanzpolitik hält dagegen
Die Corona-Pandemie löst eine schwerwiegende Rezession in Deutschland aus. Die Wirtschaftsleistung wird in diesem Jahr um 4,2% schrumpfen. Das erwarten die führenden Wirtschaftsforschungsinstitute in ihrem Frühjahrsgutachten. Für das kommende Jahr sagen sie eine Erholung und ein Wachstum von 5,8% voraus.
Oliver Holtemöller
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The Value of Firm Networks: A Natural Experiment on Board Connections
Ester Faia, Maximilian Mayer, Vincenzo Pezone
CEPR Discussion Papers,
Nr. 14591,
2020
Abstract
This paper presents causal evidence of the effects of boardroom networks on firm value and compensation policies. We exploit exogenous variation in network centrality arising from a ban on interlocking directorates of Italian financial and insurance companies. We leverage this shock to show that firms whose centrality in the network rises after the reform experience positive abnormal returns around the announcement date and are better hedged against shocks. Information dissemination plays a central role: results are driven by firms that have higher idiosyncratic volatility, low analyst coverage, and more uncertainty surrounding their earnings forecasts. Firms benefit more from boardroom centrality when they are more central in the input-output network, hence more susceptible to upstream shocks, when they are less central in the cross-ownership network, or when they have low profitability or low growth opportunities. Network centrality also results in higher directors' compensation, due to rent sharing and improved executives' outside option, and more similar compensation policies between connected firms.
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Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship
Pierre Azoulay, Benjamin Jones, J. Daniel Kim, Javier Miranda
American Economic Review: Insights,
Nr. 1,
2020
Abstract
Many observers, and many investors, believe that young people are especially likely to produce the most successful new firms. Integrating administrative data on firms, workers, and owners, we study start-ups systematically in the United States and find that successful entrepreneurs are middle-aged, not young. The mean age at founding for the 1-in-1,000 fastest growing new ventures is 45.0. The findings are similar when considering high-technology sectors, entrepreneurial hubs, and successful firm exits. Prior experience in the specific industry predicts much greater rates of entrepreneurial success. These findings strongly reject common hypotheses that emphasize youth as a key trait of successful entrepreneurs.
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12.03.2020 • 4/2020
Konjunktur aktuell: Wirtschaft im Bann der Corona-Epidemie
Die Corona-Epidemie blockiert die konjunkturelle Erholung in Deutschland. Aus dem Ausland fällt Nachfrage aus, im Inland wird Konsum, soweit er Infektionsrisiken mit sich bringt, unterlassen, und Investitionen werden aufgeschoben. Unter der Annahme, dass die Epidemie in den fortgeschrittenen Volkswirtschaften noch zeitnah eingedämmt werden kann, beträgt der Produktionszuwachs im Jahr 2020 nach der Frühjahrsprognose des Leibniz-Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH) 0,6%. Dabei dürfte die Expansion in Ostdeutschland mit 0,9% höher ausfallen als in Westdeutschland. Sollte die Ausbreitung der Krankheit nicht drastisch reduziert werden können, ist mit einer Rezession in Deutschland zu rechnen.
Oliver Holtemöller
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Does Working at a Start-Up Pay Off?
Daniel Fackler, Lisa Hölscher, Claus Schnabel, Antje Weyh
Abstract
Using representative linked employer-employee data for Germany, this paper analyzes short- and long-run differences in labor market performance of workers joining startups instead of incumbent firms. Applying entropy balancing and following individuals over ten years, we find huge and long-lasting drawbacks from entering a start-up in terms of wages, yearly income, and (un)employment. These disadvantages hold for all groups of workers and types of start-ups analyzed. Although our analysis of different subsequent career paths highlights important heterogeneities, it does not reveal any strategy through which workers joining start-ups can catch up with the income of similar workers entering incumbent firms.
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Managerial Effect or Firm Effect: Evidence from the Private Debt Market
Bill Francis, Iftekhar Hasan, Yun Zhu
Financial Review,
Nr. 1,
2020
Abstract
This paper provides evidence that the managerial effect is a key determinant of firms’ cost of capital, in the context of private debt contracting. Applying the novel empirical method developed by an earlier study to a large sample that tracks the job movement of top managers, we find that the managerial effect is a critical and significant factor that explains a large part of the variation in loan contract terms more accurately than firm fixed effects. Additional evidence shows that banks “follow” managers when they change jobs and offer loan contracts with preferential terms to their new firms.
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30.01.2020 • 1/2020
Alterung, Braunkohleausstieg und Klimapaket: Finanzpolitische Konsequenzen in Deutschland bis 2024
Nach der Mittelfristprojektion des Leibniz-Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH) wird das Wachstum in Deutschland in den Jahren bis 2024 aufgrund der bald sinkenden Erwerbsbevölkerung spürbar zurückgehen. Dies wird sich auch bei den Staatseinnahmen niederschlagen, und strukturschwache Regionen dürften davon besonders stark betroffen sein. Diese regionalen Effekte werden zwar durch Umverteilungsmechanismen abgefedert, aber nicht völlig ausgeglichen. Regionen mit schrumpfender Erwerbsbevölkerung müssen sich auf einen sinkenden finanziellen Spielraum einstellen. Oliver Holtemöller, Leiter der Abteilung Makroökonomik und Vizepräsident des IWH, ergänzt: „Der beschleunigte Braunkohleausstieg wird diesen Prozess verstärken, das Klimapaket der Bundesregierung hat hingegen vergleichsweise geringe Auswirkungen auf die öffentlichen Finanzen.“
Oliver Holtemöller
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Business Dynamics Statistics of High Tech Industries
Nathan Goldschlag, Javier Miranda
Journal of Economics and Management Strategy,
Nr. 1,
2020
Abstract
Modern market economies are characterized by the reallocation of resources from less productive, less valuable activities to more productive, more valuable ones. Businesses in the High Tech sector play a particularly important role in this reallocation by introducing new products and services that impact the entire economy. In this paper we describe an extension to the Census Bureau’s Business Dynamics Statistics that tracks job creation, job destruction, startups, and exits by firm and establishment characteristics, including sector, firm age, and firm size in the High Tech sector. We preview the resulting statistics, showing the structural shifts in the High Tech sector over the past 30 years, including the surge of entry and young firm activity in the 1990s that reversed abruptly in the early‐2000s.
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Nowcasting East German GDP Growth: a MIDAS Approach
João Carlos Claudio, Katja Heinisch, Oliver Holtemöller
Empirical Economics,
Nr. 1,
2020
Abstract
Economic forecasts are an important element of rational economic policy both on the federal and on the local or regional level. Solid budgetary plans for government expenditures and revenues rely on efficient macroeconomic projections. However, official data on quarterly regional GDP in Germany are not available, and hence, regional GDP forecasts do not play an important role in public budget planning. We provide a new quarterly time series for East German GDP and develop a forecasting approach for East German GDP that takes data availability in real time and regional economic indicators into account. Overall, we find that mixed-data sampling model forecasts for East German GDP in combination with model averaging outperform regional forecast models that only rely on aggregate national information.
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