THE CAUSAL LINK BETWEEN FINANCIAL INCENTIVES AND WEIGHT LOSS: AN EVIDENCE‐BASED SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE

Obesity and overweight are linked to diseases that cost society a significant amount of resources. While behavior modification can reduce the problem, instigating such lifestyle changes is an uneasy task. One potential way to reduce the problem is through the use of financial incentives. In this survey, we review the available evidence, properly emphasizing studies that credibly yield meaningful estimates of the effect of financial incentives on weight loss. We find that the scientific literature on the subject has not yet satisfactorily settled whether such a mechanism is effective at eliciting the desired behavioral and health outcomes. We therefore advocate a rigorous large‐scale randomized experiment to provide reliable estimates of the effect.     

The role of employees for post-entry firm growth

While the majority of existing studies on the determinants of post-entry firm growth focus on the role of the founders or on the impact of firm-specific characteristics, possible effects of the characteristics of a start-up’s workforce have been widely neglected to date. In this paper we examine the role of initial worker and job characteristics (e.g., qualification, age, workload, marginal employment) of start-ups for their post‐entry employment growth. The analyses are based upon a capacious panel dataset comprising a representative 50 % sample of establishments in Germany. Our empirical results show that, inter alia, high-skilled and young workers are conducive to growth in terms of both the number of employees and full-time equivalents. With respect to flexible work forms, however, establishments using part-time employment show higher post‐entry growth only in terms of total hours worked, but a significantly lower growth with respect to the number of employees.     

Presentation and Derivation of a Five-Parameter Survival Function Intended to Model Mortality in Modern Female Populations

A single analytical expression for the probability of survival from birth to age x that would hold good for all ages in the entire human life span has been sought for centuries. With an eight-parameter function, Heligman and Pollard achieved this goal, for integer values of x , in 1980. The present paper introduces a five-parameter survival function intended to model human mortality in modern female populations. The introduced function is not only defined for integers. It is defined for all ages.     

FDI versus Exports: Multiple Host Countries and Empirical Evidence

There are two main options for companies to serve foreign markets: exports and foreign direct investment (FDI). Based on the Helpman et al. (2004) model for multiple host countries, this paper derives a clear theoretical prediction for the decision between both strategies. A bivariate probit model is estimated using a large data set of European companies to analyse the probability of using one or the other strategy. The empirical evidence indicates that more productive firms less (more) probably use the export (FDI) strategy to serve foreign markets. Moreover, a considerable number of companies use a combination of both the strategies to serve foreign markets, which is in line with a multiple‐country model.     

Firm growth in multinational corporate groups

This paper formulates an econometric model of firm growth that explicitly accounts for interdependence of firm growth rates within multinational corporate networks. We apply a recently introduced IV-estimation procedure for peer group effects to directly test for growth spillovers within multinational corporate networks. Using European firm level data, our estimation results indicate negative spillovers within horizontally organized multinational networks, with this effect being most pronounced for corporate groups producing in a larger number of different countries. In contrast, they are positive for vertically organized multinational corporate groups. In the former case, the spillovers lead to more within-network heterogeneity in the firm growth processes and slower average size adjustments. In the latter case, multinational corporate groups as a whole are more stable and, on average, members adjust their size faster. Finally, the robustness analysis demonstrates that the growth spillover effects in purely domestic corporate groups differ from their multinational counterparts and shows that our baseline results are not driven by spurious correlation of individual firm growth rates.     

Does Export Openness Increase Firm‐level Output Volatility?

There is a widespread concern that increased trade may lead to increased instability and thus risk at the firm level. Greater export openness can indeed affect firm‐level volatility by changing the exposure and the reaction of firms to macroeconomic developments. The net effect is ambiguous from a theoretical point of view. This paper provides firm‐level evidence on the link between openness and volatility. Using comprehensive data on more than 21,000 German manufacturing firms for the period 1980–2001, we analyse the evolution of firm‐level output volatility and the link between volatility and export openness. Our paper has three main findings. First, firm‐level output volatility is significantly higher than the level of aggregate volatility, but it displays similar patterns. Second, increased export openness lowers firm‐level output volatility. This effect is primarily driven by variations along the extensive margin, i.e. by the distinction between exporters and non‐exporters. Variations along the intensive margin, i.e. the volume of exports, tend to have a dampening impact on volatility as well. Third, small firms are more volatile than large firms.     

The entry price system for fresh fruit and vegetable exports from China to the EU — Breaking a fly on the wheel?

China's exports of apples and pears to the EU have increased substantially, although the EU production of apples and pears is protected by the EU entry price system (EPS), aiming to protect EU producers against international competition by restricting imports below a minimum import price. This study investigates the relevance of the EPS for Chinese exports of apples and pears to the EU accounting for changes over time and seasonal variation. Our results suggest that the high relevance of the EPS for apples originating in China was of temporary nature, whereas the relevance of the EPS for pears originating in China is of a more general nature. In addition, the relevance of the EPS varies seasonally. Finally, we find that the production of pears in China is more competitive than the production of apples vis-à-vis the EU. Therefore, China's fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) producers would benefit more from an improved EU market access for pears than for apples. Thus, China should put more effort in negotiating improved EU market access conditions for pears rather than for apples.     

International price and earnings momentum

In this paper, we find that price and earnings momentum are pervasive features of international equity markets even when controlling for data-snooping biases. For Europe, we show price momentum to be subsumed by earnings momentum on an aggregate level. However, this rationale can hardly be sustained on a country level. Also, the above explanation is confined to certain time periods in the USA. Since we cannot establish a decent relation between momentum and macroeconomic risks, we suspect a behavior-based explanation to be at work. In fact, we find momentum profits to be more pronounced for portfolios characterized by higher information uncertainty. Hence, the momentum anomaly may well be rationalized in a model of investors underreacting to fundamental news. Finally, we find that momentum works better when limited to stocks with high idiosyncratic risk or higher illiquidity, suggesting that limits to arbitrage deter rational investors from exploiting the anomaly.     

Bundesverfassungsgericht und Krisenpolitik der EZB — Stellungnahmen der Ökonomen

In June 2013, the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany held an expert hearing on the suitability of ECB measures, such as the purchase of government bonds, and their compatibility with existing EU and German legislation. The statements of five invited experts are documented here. The authors comment on the path from the agreement that has laid down the basic rules for the euro area to a crisis-driven approach that seems to have forgotten these rules. The ECB policy holds many risks - above all that of financing public budgets almost without limits - for the stability of monetary and fiscal governance in the euro area. On the other hand, ECB measures can also be interpreted as a necessary means to comply with the ultimate task of the ECB, the defence of price stability. Hence the ECB’s crisis measures do not represent any intention to intervene in fiscal or economic policy measures, and after the crisis the ECB can return to a narrower interpretation of the role of a central bank. It should not be forgotten that the ECB measures bear high risks for the countries in trouble as well as for those countries supporting them.