Higher wages in exporting firms: self-selection, export effect, or both? First evidence from linked employer-employee data

While it is a stylized fact that exporting firms pay higher wages than non-exporting firms, the direction of the link between exporting and wages is less clear. Using a rich set of German linked employer-employee panel data we follow over time plants that start to export. We show that the exporter wage premium does already exist in the years before firms start to export, and that it does not increase in the following years. Higher wages in exporting firms are thus due to self-selection of more productive, better paying firms into export markets; they are not caused by export activities.     

价格水平目标制成为货币政策的新选择

通胀目标制面临挑战 过去20年之中,通胀目标制已成为当代央行操作的基准模式。大多数央行都设定了某种形式的通胀目标,而且它们决定利率水平的主要着眼点在于,将中期通胀率稳定在目标值附近。然而,近期的经济动向对实行通胀目标制的央行构成了重大挑战,原因有两方面：     

Export entry and exit by German firms

Export Entry and Exit by German Firms. — While exports have played an important role in German business cycles, little is known about the export supply response of German firms. This paper presents a dynamic model of the export decision by a profit-maximizing firm. Using a panel of German manufacturing plants, we test for the role of plant characteristics and sunk costs in the entry decision. We find evidence for substantial sunk costs: exporting today by a plant increases the probability by 50 percent that the plant will export tomorrow. This advantage depreciates quickly, falling by two-thirds in a year. The authors also find evidence that plant success, as measured by size and productivity, increases the likelihood of exporting.     

Exports and Productivity Growth: First Evidence from a Continuous Treatment Approach

A recent survey of 54 micro-econometric studies reveals that exporting firms are more productive than non-exporters. However, previous empirical studies show that exporting does not necessarily improve productivity. One possible reason for this result is that most previous studies are restricted to analysing the relationship between a firm’s export status and the growth of its labour productivity, using the firms’ export status as a binary treatment variable and comparing the performance of exporting and non-exporting firms. In this paper, we apply the newly developed generalised propensity score (GPS) methodology that allows for continuous treatment, that is, different levels of the firms’ export activities. Using the GPS method and a large panel data set for German manufacturing firms, we estimate the relationship between a firm’s export-sales ratio and its labour productivity growth rate. We find that there is a causal effect of firms’ export activities on labour productivity growth. However, exporting improves labour productivity growth only within a sub-interval of the range of firms’ export-sales ratios. JEL no.  F14, F23, L60     

The exporter productivity premium along the productivity distribution: evidence from quantile regression with nonadditive firm fixed effects

A vast literature on the international activities of heterogeneous firms finds the existence of a positive exporter productivity premium. On average, exporting firms are more productive than firms that sell on the national market only. The Melitz (Econometrica 71:1695–1725, 2003) model, however, has implications for not only mean differences but also differences in the distribution of productivity. Furthermore, exporting firms may be different from non-exporting firms for reasons that are not included in the Melitz model. We believe that conditioning on firm fixed effects and studying the distribution of productivity are both necessary for empirical tests of the Melitz model. This paper is the first to employ a new quantile estimation technique for panel data introduced in Powell (Did the economic stimulus payments of 2008 reduce labor supply? Evidence from quantile panel data estimation. RAND Corporation Publications Department, Santa Monica, 2014). We find that the premium is positive at all productivity levels, but highest at the lowest quantiles. These results support theoretical models which suggest that there is a division in productivity between exporters and non-exporters.     

The Hot Versus Cold Effect in a Simple Bargaining Experiment

In this paper, the strategy method's impact on behavior in sequential bargaining games is investigated. Besides the decision procedure (hot versus cold), we varied the second mover punishment costs (high versus low). Significant impacts of both treatment variables were observed. For example, second movers punished significantly more often in the hot version of the low cost game. Furthermore, first mover behavior was significantly different in the hot and cold versions of both games. In the hot games, first mover behavior suggests an expectation of decreased rewards and/or punishments from second movers. We observed, however, no decrease in reward and an increase in punishment. The hot cold variable only informs first movers that the decision procedure used by second movers has changed. Therefore, first mover behavior must be shaped by their perceived assessment concerning how second movers make decisions. We argue that first mover behavior can be explained by the interaction of two well-known psychological effects: the consensus and positive self-image effects.     

Unobservable industry characteristics and the innovation-concentration-advertising-maze: Evidence from an econometric study using panel data for manufacturing industries in the FRG, 1979–1986

In discussing the nexus between innovations and market structure it is often argued that industry characteristics (called opportunities) might play an important role as determinants of innovation, and that simultaneity rather than one-way causality prevails. We consider a three-equation model for innovation, advertising, and concentration. Based on pooled cross-section time-series data for 26 German manufacturing industries we estimate single equation models with and without fixed industry and/or time effects (to control for unobservable industry or time effects, respectively) and simultaneous equation systems including fixed effects, and controlling for extreme cases (outliers) or not. Furthermore, we use two different measures for innovations, i.e., the percentage of shipments due to new products, and the percentage of firms which classified themselves as innovators. Our results can be summarized as follows: (1) The firm size has no significant effect on innovation. One can, therefore, not conclude from this data set that large firms are more innovative than small ones; (2) unobservable industry effects do matter; (3) the treatment of outliers does matter; (4) simultaneity does matter (5) the way innovations are measured does matter; (6) different stories could be told based on the results of the systems of interdependent equations estimated.Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the committee of industrial economists of the Verein fuer Socialpolitik at Hohenheim University in March, 1990, and at the 1990 conferences of the European Economic Association and the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics in Lisboa. We would like to thank participants of these meetings and three anonymous referees for helpful comments. A more complete version of the paper with a set of tables for the results of all computations is available from the authors on request.     

How would Swiss consumers decide if they had freedom of choice? Evidence from a field study with organic,conventional and GM corn bread

In 2005, the Swiss expressed their negative attitude towards genetic engineering in agriculture by voting in favor of a ban to use genetically modified (GM) crops in domestic agriculture. At the same time, certain GM food products remain approved but are not on offer since retailers assume that consumers would shun labeled GM food. In our study we tested this claim by conducting a large-scale field study with Swiss consumers. In our experimental design, three clearly labeled types of corn bread were offered at five different market stands across the French and German-speaking part of Switzerland: one made with organic, one made with conventional, and one made with genetically modified (GM) corn. In addition, we tested the consistency between purchasing decision at the market stand and the previous voting decision on GMOs in 2005 by means of an ex-post questionnaire. The results of our discrete choice analysis show that Swiss consumers treat GM foods just like any other type of novel food. We conclude from our findings that consumers tend to appreciate transparency and freedom of choice even if one of the offered product types is labeled as containing a genetically modified ingredient. Retailers should allow consumers to make their own choice and accept the fact that not all people appear to be afraid of GM food.     

Aktuelle Entwicklungen in der Beaufsichtigung und Rechnungslegung von Versicherungsunternehmen: IFRS und Solvency II

Accounting and supervision are closely related, especially via the determination of regulatory capital. As a precondition for the harmonisation of solvency rules within Europe, as discussed in the context of Solvency II, there is a need for harmonised accounting rules regarding the recognition and measurement of assets and liabilities. The International Financial Reporting Standards resp. International Accounting Standards (IFRS resp. IAS) are used as a starting point. Insurance contracts are accounted for under IFRS 4, published in March 2004, which is only established as an interim standard allowing insurance companies to continue their existing accounting policy without major changes in their accounting systems. The IASB has just begun working on a final standard (Phase II). The IASB’s work on the final standard should be taken into account for the determination of regulatory capital as well. The third pillar of Solvency II is an additional connection between international accounting standards and the Solvency II project: extensive disclosure requirements companies shall provide disciplinary transparency with regard to their risk management systems and risk profiles.