Rezensionen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Relative Price Changes, Wages and Unemployment in a Specific Factors Model with Search Frictions

This paper analyzes the effects of changes in the relative product price on wages and unemployment of a small open economy in a specific factors model characterized by search frictions. It shows that unemployment and wages move in opposite directions, i.e., high unemployment is associated with low wages and low unemployment with high wages. The reason for the employment effect is found to be individual wage bargaining.     

Tenure security and land-related investment: Evidence from Ethiopia

We use a large data set from Ethiopia that differentiates tenure security and transferability to explore determinants of different types of land-related investment and its possible impact on productivity. While we find some support for endogeneity of investment in trees, this is not the case for terraces. Transfer rights are unambiguously investment-enhancing. The large productivity effect of terracing implies that, even where households undertake investments to increase their tenure security, the level of such investment may be below the social optimum. In Ethiopia, government action to increase tenure security and transferability of land rights can significantly enhance rural investment and productivity.     

Unequal factor prices and incomplete specialization in a Heckscher-Ohlin model of endogenous growth

Two-factors, two-goods Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory predicts that under certain circumstances factor prices equalize if countries are incompletely specialized. If at least one country is completely specialized no factor-price equalization obtains. Different factor rewards and free trade, however, are not automatically linked to complete specialization: in a Heckscher-Ohlin model of endogenous growth where the countries differ in their individual discount rates, a situation of incomplete specialization and different factor rewards will result.     

Matchmaking as multi-sided market for open innovation

An obvious task in open innovation is to find suitable partners for collaboration. In this paper we present results from three participatory case studies of identifying and matching technology firms for collaborative innovation projects. We observe that matchmaking is a more complex process than an (online) market transaction. The cases show how innovation intermediaries organise the matching process as external service-providers and what economic contribution they can have. The paper conceptualises matchmaking for collaborative innovation as economic resource allocation process in the shape of a multi-sided market which involves the innovation partners and intermediaries. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications that such a conceptual lens opens for exploratory technology analysis projects and the management of matching processes for innovation partnership formation.     

Determinants of Deforestation and the Economics of Protection: An Application to Mexico

We estimate the probability of deforestation at the plot level for Chiapas and Oaxaca, two poor Mexican states with high levels of biodiversity. Results highlight the importance of physio–geographic endowments as well as policy variables and allow to test explicitly for aggregation bias. They also suggest that, if combined with information on the biodiversity value of specific plots, such models could be of great relevance for policy by allowing to identify the ex ante risk of deforestation.     

Effizienter Steuerverbund statt korrigierender Finanzausgleich

Der für diese Legislaturperiode geplante zweite Teil der F?deralismusreform bietet die Chance eines grundlegenden Systemwechsels. Wie k?nnen die widerstreitenden Finanzinteressen der Bundesl?nder mit den Anforderungen an die Anreizeffizienz des Systems in Einklang gebracht werden? Prof. Dr. Ulrich van Suntum, 53, ist gesch?ftsführender Direktor des Centrums für angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung der Universit?t Münster (CAWM); Klaus Hafemann, 32, Dipl.-Volkswirt, ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am CAWM.     

The Making of Entrepreneurs in Germany: Are Native Men and Immigrants Alike?

This paper uses a state of the art three-stage estimation technique to identify the determinants of the self-employed immigrant and native men in Germany. Their making is surprisingly alike. Employing data from the German Socioeconomic Panel 2000 (GSOEP) release we find that self-employment is not significantly affected by exposure to Germany or by human capital. But this choice has a very strong intergenerational link and it is also related to homeownership and financial worries. While individuals are strongly pulled into self-employment if it offers higher earnings, immigrants are additionally pushed into self-employment when they feel discriminated. Married immigrants are more likely to go into self-employment, but less likely when they have young children. Immigrants with foreign passports living in ethnic households are more likely self-employed than native Germans. The earnings of self-employed men increase with exposure to Germany, hours worked and occupational prestige; they decrease with high regional unemployment to vacancies ratios. Everything else equal, the earnings of self-employed Germans are not much different from the earnings of the self-employed immigrants, including those who have become German citizens. However, immigrants suffer a strong earnings penalty if they feel discriminated against while they receive a premium if they are German educated.     

Wende am Ölmarkt?

Die Roh?lpreise geben nach, die schon greifbar nahe 80-US-$-Marke ist erst einmal in die Ferne gerückt. Zeigt sich hier eine Gew?hnung an die andauernden geopolitischen Risiken, und bestimmen nun wieder fundamentale Marktdaten st?rker die Preisentwicklung am ?lmarkt? Klaus Matthies, 59, Dipl.-Volkswirt, ist Referent für Rohstoffpreise im Hamburgischen Welt-Wirtschafts-Archiv (HWWA).