Estimating a high-frequency New-Keynesian Phillips curve

This paper estimates a high-frequency New-Keynesian Phillips curve via the generalized method of moments. Allowing for higher-than-usual frequencies strongly mitigates the problems of small-sample bias and structural breaks. Applying a daily frequency allows us to obtain estimates for the Calvo parameter of nominal rigidity over a very short period—for instance for the recent financial and economic crisis—which can then be easily transformed into their low-frequency equivalences. With Argentine data from the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2011 we estimate the daily Calvo parameter and find that on average prices remain fixed for approximately two to three months which is in line with recent microeconomic evidence.     

Das Glühbirnendekret der EU – ein unnötiges Verbot

Since September 2009, the European market for household lamps is subject to EU regulation 244/2009, which enforces the gradual phase-out of incandescent light bulbs. As of September 2012, only energy-efficient lighting sources such as halogen lamps, light-emitting diodes (LED), or compact fluorescent lamps—often referred to as energy-saving lamps—will be allowed for sale. The EU’s justification for the phase-out of conventional light bulbs maintains that a reduction in the electricity consumed will not only lead to lower energy costs for private households and industrial consumers, but at the same time lead to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. This article discusses possible reasons for the slow market diffusion of energy-saving lamps and shows that the investment in energy-efficient lamps does not necessarily lead to significant cost reductions in every case. Drawing on some illustrative examples, we demonstrate that the use of cheaper incandescent bulbs instead of energy-saving lamps can be economically rational in cases of rather low usage times, in which the higher initial purchasing price might only pay off after very long time spans. Furthermore, due to the coexistence with the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), this regulation will not lead to any additional reduction of carbon emissions exceeding the amount caused by the ETS. We thus conclude that the general ban of incandescent light bulbs is inappropriate and should be abolished by the Commission.     

Board‐Level Employee Representation (BLER) and Firms’ Responses to Crisis

Short: We hypothesize that companies with board‐level employee representation (BLER) experience a lower probability of crisis‐induced dismissals than other firms. Theoretically, we link this effect to the employee directors’ ability to reduce the information asymmetry and moral hazard in employee–employer contracting, thereby facilitating the implementation of labor‐cost adjustments that are an alternative to workforce dismissals. We confirm our hypotheses by analyzing the behavior of Scandinavian public corporations with/without employee directors during the Great Recession.     

Efficiency–equity tradeoffs and the scope for resource reallocation in agricultural research: evidence from Nigeria

On the basis of projected economic and poverty impacts of alternative commodity research programs, this article assessed efficiency and equity tradeoffs and the scope for research resource reallocation in Nigeria. Given the importance of major food staples to both poor and nonpoor households in production and consumption, introducing a poverty dimension revealed no significant shift in priorities compared with those implied by efficiency. The results showed that neither the additional benefits to the poor nor the foregone benefits to society are significant from prioritizing research according to equity—relative to efficiency—criteria. As current priorities are supported by neither efficiency nor equity criteria, however, there is considerable scope for maximizing research benefits to the poor through informed reallocation of research resources. The article concludes with a discussion of the patterns of resource reallocations implied by efficiency and equity criteria.     

Minimum wages in an automating economy

We explore the suitability of the minimum wage as a policy instrument for reducing emerging income inequality created by new technologies. For this, we implement a binding minimum wage in a task-based framework, in which tasks are conducted by machines, low-skill, and high-skill workers. In this framework, an increasing minimum wage reduces the inequality between the low-skill wage and the other factor prices, whereas the share of income of low-skill workers in the national income is nonincreasing. Then, we analyze the impact of an automating economy along the extensive and intensive margins. In a setting with a minimum wage, it can be shown that automation at the extensive margin and the creation of new, labor-intensive tasks do not increase the aggregate output in general, as the displacement of low-skill workers counteracts the positive effects of cost-savings. Finally, we highlight a potential trade-off between less inequality of the factor prices and greater inequality of the income distribution when a minimum wage is introduced into an automating economy.     

Economic preferences and trade outcomes

Review of World Economics - Integrating the Global Preference Survey (GPS) and its data of unique scope on national preference structures in patience, risk attitude and reciprocity into a gravity...     

Special issue: 20th anniversary of the Portuguese Economic Journal. Editors’ introduction

Portuguese Economic Journal -     

城市荒野景观及其营造策略：以荷兰 实践为例

在国际范围内荒野保护运动持续发展的同时，中国 的荒野保护体系正在稳步建立。但随着城市化进程的不断加 速，城市中自然荒野空间的开发是不可避免的。如何在不断扩 张的城市范围内尽可能保留与规划荒野景观，已经成为国内风 景园林设计师关注的问题。在梳理了城市荒野课题相关背景和 研究进展后，探索了荷兰的城市荒野实践经验，并选取3个不 同尺度和类型的代表性案例，分别对案例的项目背景、设计要 点和场地功能进行研究分析，进而提出自然优先、野性保护、 控制扰动和公众参与4点原则，并辩证地提取了可指导中国背 景下不同尺度城市荒野景观营造的策略，为构建中国荒野体系 提供了国际经验。