Downsizing in US Manufacturing, 1967 to 1997

Using US Census of Manufacturing data covering the period from 1967 to 1997, I analyze factors affecting downsizing in manufacturing. The data show that average establishment size declined in manufacturing, from an average of 60.5 employees in 1967 to 46.5 in 1997. The econometric results indicate considerable support for the hypotheses that foreign competition puts pressure on enterprises to downsize and that falling profits lead to a reduction in establishment size. However, the findings reject the notions that unions are an effective impediment to downsizing and that faster information-technology capital formation leads to downsizing.     

Die Prognose von Serviceintervallen mit?der?Hazard-Raten-Analyse – Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie im Automobilmarkt

Mit dem After Sales-Gesch?ft generieren die deutschen Automobilbauer etwa die H?lfte ihrer Gewinne. Gerade vor dem Hintergrund der aktuellen gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklungen, wovon insbesondere das Neuwagengesch?ft betroffen ist, erscheinen Anstrengungen zur Optimierung der kundenindividuellen Ansprache im Service-, Teile- und Wartungsgesch?ft aussichtsreich zu sein. Als Voraussetzung dafür kann das Wissen über die kundenindividuellen Serviceintervalle als entscheidender Wettbewerbsvorteil gesehen werden, denn nur hiermit lassen sich Kunden auch zielgerichtet ansprechen und potenzielle Abwanderungen vermeiden. Genau an diesem Punkt knüpft dieser Beitrag an, indem mit der Hazard-Raten-Analyse ein wissenschaftlich fundiertes und praktikables Verfahren zur Prognose kundenindividueller Serviceintervalle illustriert wird. Da dieses im betriebswirtschaftlichen Kontext ohnehin sehr junge Analyseverfahren bislang überwiegend im FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods)-Bereich auf Scannerdaten zum Einsatz kam, kann dieser Beitrag als Leitfaden für eine Erweiterung im Bereich langlebiger Konsum- und Investitionsgüter gesehen werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Anteil korrekt gesch?tzter Serviceintervalle die einfache lineare Fortschreibung, die bis dato das Standardverfahren zur Prognose von Serviceintervallen darstellt, um über 20% übertrifft bzw. die Prognosegenauigkeit von ±73 Tagen auf ±38 Tage gesteigert werden kann. Das Erfolgspotenzial einer kundenindividuellen Direktansprache l?sst sich mit dieser substanziellen Verbesserung der zugrunde liegenden Informationsbasis erheblich steigern. Aus der Verbesserung der Prognosegenauigkeit auf kundenindividueller Ebene (Mikroebene) resultiert schlie?lich auch auf der Makroebene (Unternehmensplanung- und steuerung) eine erh?hte Planungssicherheit.     

The ADR shadow exchange rate as an early warning indicator for currency crises

We develop an indicator for currency crisis risk using price spreads between American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and their underlyings. This risk measure represents the mean exchange rate ADR investors expect after a potential currency crisis or realignment. It makes crisis prediction possible on a daily basis as depreciation expectations are reflected in ADR market prices. Using daily data, we analyze the impact of several risk drivers related to standard currency crisis theories and find that ADR investors perceive higher currency crisis risk when export commodity prices fall, trading partners’ currencies depreciate, sovereign yield spreads increase, or interest rate spreads widen.     

Identifying Laffer Bounds: A Sufficient‐Statistics Approach with an Application to Germany

We derive a simple sufficient‐statistics test for whether a nonlinear tax‐transfer system is second‐best Pareto efficient. If it is not, then it is beyond the top of the Laffer curve and there exists a tax cut that is self‐financing. The test depends on the income distribution, extensive and intensive labor supply elasticities, and income effect parameters. A tax‐transfer system is likely to be inefficient if marginal tax rates are quickly falling in income. We apply this test to the German tax‐transfer system, and we find that the structure of effective marginal tax rates is likely to be inefficient in the region where transfers are phased out.     

Interest expectations and exchange rates news

Using a new survey data set ofmatched exchange rate and interest rate expectations for eight currencies relative to the German mark, we examine empirically the relationship between exchange rate returns, news and risk premia. News on interest differentials enters significantly in equations for the difference between the spot rate and the lagged forward rate for the British pound, Japanese yen, Spanish peseta and the US dollar. An unexpected rise in the interest rate differential tends to strengthen the domestic exchange rate. For each of these currencies, we also find significant effects of our ex-ante measure of the risk premium. In addition, we investigate the effect of lagged interest rate differentials as proxy for the risk premium and find that they do not capture time-varying risk premia as is widely suggested in the literature, but probably capture a peso-problem, learning about a policy change, a market-inefficiency or a combination of these factors.     

The Dynamics of Short-Term Interest Rate Volatility Reconsidered

In this paper we present and estimate a model of short-term interest rate volatility that encompasses both the level effect of Chan, Karolyi, Longstaff and Sanders (1992) and the conditional heteroskedasticity effect of the GARCH class of models. This flexible specification allows different effects to dominate as the level of the interest rate varies. We also investigate implications for the pricing of bond options. Our findings indicate that the inclusion of a volatility effect reduces the estimate of the level effect, and has option implications that differ significantly from the Chan, Karolyi, Longstaff and Sanders (1992) model.