05.04.2023 • 8/2023
Gemeinschaftsdiagnose Frühjahr 2023: Inflation im Kern hoch – Angebotskräfte jetzt stärken
Die führenden Wirtschaftsforschungsinstitute haben ihre Prognose für den Anstieg der Wirtschaftsleistung im laufenden Jahr auf 0,3% angehoben. Im Herbst hatten sie noch mit einem Rückgang um 0,4% gerechnet. „Der konjunkturelle Rückschlag im Winterhalbjahr 2022/2023 dürfte glimpflicher ausgefallen sein als im Herbst befürchtet. Maßgeblich ist ein geringerer Kaufkraftentzug infolge deutlich rückläufiger Energiepreise“, sagt ifo-Konjunkturchef Timo Wollmershäuser zur Begründung. Dennoch wird die Inflationsrate nur langsam zurückgehen von 6,9% im vergangenen Jahr auf 6,0% in diesem Jahr.
Oliver Holtemöller
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14.03.2023 • 7/2023
Konjunktur aktuell: Gasspeicher voll – Konjunkturaussichten weniger trüb
Der im vergangenen Herbst erwartete deutliche Einbruch der deutschen Wirtschaft ist ausgeblieben, denn die Gasversorgungslage hat sich entspannt. Doch wegen hoher Inflation, gestiegener Realzinsen und rückläufiger Realeinkommen dürfte die Konjunktur schwach bleiben. Nach der Frühjahrsprognose des Leibniz-Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH) dürfte das Bruttoinlandsprodukt im Jahr 2023 um lediglich 0,4% zulegen, und die Inflationsrate bleibt mit 5,8% hoch.
Oliver Holtemöller
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Institutions and Corporate Reputation: Evidence from Public Debt Markets
Xian Gu, Iftekhar Hasan, Haitian Lu
Journal of Business Ethics,
Nr. 1,
2023
Abstract
Using data from China’s public debt markets, we study the value of corporate reputation and how it interacts with legal and cultural forces to assure accountability. Exploring lawsuits that change corporate reputation, we find that firms involved in lawsuits experience a decrease in bond values and a tightening of borrowing terms. Using the heterogeneities in legal and social capital environments across Chinese provinces, we find the effects are more pronounced for private firms, firms headquartered in provinces with low legal protections, and firms headquartered in provinces with high social capital. The results show that lawsuits that allege misconduct are associated with reputational penalties and that such penalties serve as substitutes for legal protections and as complements to cultural forces to provide ex post accountability and motivate ex ante trust.
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Do Larger Firms Exert More Market Power? Markups and Markdowns along the Size Distribution
Matthias Mertens, Bernardo Mottironi
IWH-CompNet Discussion Papers,
Nr. 1,
2023
Abstract
Several models posit a positive cross-sectional correlation between markups and firm size, which characterizes misallocation, factor shares, and gains from trade. Accounting for labor market power in markup estimation, we find instead that larger firms have lower product markups but higher wage markdowns. The negative markup-size correlation turns positive when conditioning on markdowns, suggesting interactions between product and labor market power. Our findings are robust to common criticism (e.g., price bias, non-neutral technology) and hold across 19 European countries. We discuss possible mechanisms and resulting implications, highlighting the importance of studying input and output market power in a unified framework.
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Do Larger Firms Exert More Market Power? Markups and Markdowns along the Size Distribution
Matthias Mertens, Bernardo Mottironi
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 1,
2023
Abstract
Several models posit a positive cross-sectional correlation between markups and firm size, which characterizes misallocation, factor shares, and gains from trade. Accounting for labor market power in markup estimation, we find instead that larger firms have lower product markups but higher wage markdowns. The negative markup-size correlation turns positive when conditioning on markdowns, suggesting interactions between product and labor market power. Our findings are robust to common criticism (e.g., price bias, non-neutral technology) and hold across 19 European countries. We discuss possible mechanisms and resulting implications, highlighting the importance of studying input and output market power in a unified framework.
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20.12.2022 • 31/2022
Konjunktur aktuell: Keine tiefe Rezession trotz Energiekrise und Zinsanstieg
Die hohen Energiepreise und die Verschlechterung des Finanzierungsumfelds belasten die deutsche Konjunktur. Allerdings dürfte die Schwächephase über den Winter moderat ausfallen, auch weil die Energiepreisbremsen die privaten Einkommen stützen. Das Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH) prognostiziert, dass das Bruttoinlandsprodukt im Jahr 2022 aufgrund der Erholung von der Pandemie in den ersten drei Quartalen um 1,8% zugenommen haben, den Winter über aber leicht sinken und im Jahr 2023 insgesamt stagnieren dürfte (Ostdeutschland: 1,8% und 0,2%). Die Inflation geht nach 7,8% im Jahr 2022 auf 6,5% im Jahr 2023 zurück.
Oliver Holtemöller
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Early Child Care and Labor Supply of Lower-SES Mothers: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Henning Hermes, Marina Krauss, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter, Simon Wiederhold
CESifo Working Paper,
Nr. 10178,
2022
Abstract
We present experimental evidence that enabling access to universal early child care for families with lower socioeconomic status (SES) increases maternal labor supply. Our intervention provides families with customized help for child care applications, resulting in a large increase in enrollment among lower-SES families. The treatment increases lower-SES mothers' full-time employment rates by 9 percentage points (+160%), household income by 10%, and mothers' earnings by 22%. The effect on full-time employment is largely driven by increased care hours provided by child care centers and fathers. Overall, the treatment substantially improves intra-household gender equality in terms of child care duties and earnings.
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Physical Climate Change and the Sovereign Risk of Emerging Economies
Hannes Böhm
Journal of Economic Structures,
2022
Abstract
I show that rising temperatures can detrimentally affect the sovereign creditworthiness of emerging economies. To this end, I collect long-term monthly temperature data of 54 emerging markets. I calculate a country’s temperature deviation from its historical average, which approximates present-day climate change trends. Running regressions from 1994m1 to 2018m12, I find that higher temperature anomalies lower sovereign bond performances (i.e., increase sovereign risk) significantly for countries that are warmer on average and have lower seasonality. The estimated magnitudes suggest that affected countries likely face significant increases in their sovereign borrowing costs if temperatures continue to rise due to climate change. However, results indicate that stronger institutions can make a country more resilient towards temperature shocks, which holds independent of a country’s climate.
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Trust and Contracting with Foreign Banks: Evidence from China
Desheng Yin, Iftekhar Hasan, Liuling Liu, Haizhi Wang
Journal of Asian Economics,
December
2022
Abstract
We empirically investigate whether firms doing business in regions characterized as having high social trust receive preferential treatment on loan contractual terms by foreign banks. Tracing cross-border syndicated lending activities in China, we document that firms located in provinces with higher social trust scores obtain significantly low costs of bank loans and experience less stringent collateral requirement. To address the potential endogeneity issues, we adopt an instrumental variable approach and a two-sided matching model, and report consistent results. We also estimate a system of three equations through three-stage-least square estimator to accommodate the joint determination of price and non-price terms in loan contracts. In addition, we find that the effect of social trust on cost of bank loans is more prominent for firms located in provinces with relatively less developed formal institutions.
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Trading away Incentives
Stefano Colonnello, Giuliano Curatola, Shuo Xia
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 23,
2022
Abstract
Equity pay has been the primary component of managerial compensation packages at US public firms since the early 1990s. Using a comprehensive sample of top executives from 1992-2020, we estimate to what extent they trade firm equity held in their portfolios to neutralize increments in ownership due to annual equity pay. Executives accommodate ownership increases linked to options awards. Conversely, increases in stock holdings linked to option exercises and restricted stock grants are largely neutralized through comparable sales of unrestricted shares. Variation in stock trading responses across executives hardly appears to respond to diversification motives. From a theoretical standpoint, these results challenge (i) the common, generally implicit assumption that managers cannot undo their incentive packages, (ii) the standard modeling practice of treating different equity pay items homogeneously, and (iii) the often taken for granted crucial role of diversification motives in managers’ portfolio choices.
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