SOCIAL DEPRIVATION OF IMMIGRANTS IN GERMANY

This paper investigates the extent to which immigrants in Germany are socially deprived compared to German natives. We demonstrate that when using a conventional definition of the social deprivation index typically applied in the literature, immigrants do not necessarily appear to be socially deprived. We propose a weighting scheme that weights components of social deprivation by their subjective contribution to an overall measure of life satisfaction. Using this weighting scheme to calculate an index of social deprivation, we find that immigrants experience a significant degree of social deprivation, confirming much of the economic literature examining the economic assimilation of immigrants in Germany. This result is driven by particularly high weights being attributed to employment. Also the size of the groups “in need” is smaller when using the innovative weighting scheme, allowing a more precise targeting of economic policy.     

Analyzing the labor market activity of immigrant families in Germany

This paper analyzes whether immigrant families facing credit constraints adopt a family investment strategy wherein, upon arrival, an immigrant spouse invests in host country-specific human capital while the other partner works to finance the family's current consumption and the spouse's skills accumulation. Using data for West Germany, we do not find evidence for such a specialization strategy. We further examine the labor supply and wage assimilation of families whose members immigrated together relative to families whose members immigrated sequentially. Our estimates indicate that this differentiation is relevant for the analysis of the labor market activities of migrant households.     

商业银行反周期资本缓冲的方法选择

本文提供了设计反周期资本缓冲的一些经验教训和方法选择,主要贡献在于分析了用于指引资本缓冲建立和释放的条件变量。不同反周期资本措施的主要区别在于条件变量是银行特定的还是系统性的,前种方法对特定构成要素的数量要求巨大,相比之下系统性的方法更具优势。作为资本缓冲增加进度和规模信号的最佳变量未必是指引资本缓冲释放时机和程度的最佳变量。信贷/GDP比率是指引建立阶段开始的最好变量,总损失的某种衡量,与信贷条件指标一起,可以很好地发出释放资本的信号。不过,现阶段设计完全以规则为基础的机制不太可能,不同程度的主观判断不可避免。此外,本文还认为,减少最低资本要求的敏感性是可靠的反周期缓冲措施的重要组成部分。在本次金融危机发生之后,反周期资本管理正逐渐引起国内银行业及相关部门的重视,本刊征得作者同意,翻译并发表此文,以期为相关部门资本监管和风险管理提供借鉴。作者及所在机构对译文免责。     

Esophageal calcification after corrosive injury

A clinically silent case of intramural esophageal calcification secondary to corrosive injury is presented. Computed tomography (CT) demonstrated a circular calcified esophageal wall over a distance of 5 cm leaving a residual esophageal lumen of 5 mm.     

The impact of demographic change on human capital accumulation

This paper investigates whether and to what extent demographic change has an impact on human capital accumulation. The effect of the relative cohort size on educational attainment of young adults in Germany is analyzed utilizing data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for West-German individuals of the birth cohorts 1966 to 1986. These are the cohorts which entered the labor market since the 1980s. Particular attention is paid to the effect of changes in labor market conditions, which constitute an important channel through which demographic change may affect human capital accumulation. Our findings suggest that the variables measuring demographic change exert a considerable though heterogeneous impact on the human capital accumulation of young Germans. Changing labor market conditions during the 1980s and 1990s exhibit a sizeable impact on both the highest schooling and the highest professional degree obtained by younger cohorts.     

A macroeconomic perspective on Knowledge Management

This paper provides a theory of the interactions between knowledge codification, firm-level organization structures, information diffusion and the dynamics of technological competition. At the firm level, we focus on incentives to design Knowledge Management policies based on the codification of soft into hard information. At the aggregate level, we discuss the endogenous nature of knowledge spillover and the implications for macroeconomic growth. The model predicts the existence of a bell shaped relationship between knowledge codification and technological competition.     

Transmission of Nominal Exchange Rate Changes to Export Prices and Trade Flows and Implications for Exchange Rate Policy*

We discuss how the welfare ranking of fixed and flexible exchange rate regimes in a New Open Economy Macroeconomics model depends on the interplay between the degree of exchange rate pass‐through and the elasticity of substitution between home and foreign goods. We identify combinations of these two parameters for which flexible and fixed exchange rates are superior with respect to welfare as measured by a representative household's utility level. We estimate the two parameters for six non‐EMU European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, and the UK) using a heterogeneous dynamic panel approach.