Shareholder composition,share turnover,and returns in volatile markets: The case of international REITs

The shareholder composition of listed property companies has changed from the fragmented, retail ownership, to more concentrated, institutional ownership over the past decade. In this paper, we first document significant variation in the composition of the shareholder base across the world's five largest listed property markets. We then examine the relation between the composition of the shareholder base and stock market performance and share turnover during the turbulent trading days of 2008 and 2009. By directly relating the shareholder base of firms to excess returns and turnover on these volatile days, we are able to isolate the importance of shareholder composition during periods when trading behavior is most likely to vary across different types of shareholders. We find that both large block holdings and high levels of institutional ownership decrease trading volumes and moderate stock returns; however, the effects largely occur when stock prices move sharply downward. Moreover, these effects are strongest when ownership concentration and institutional ownership exceed 25 percent. We also find that the disaggregation of institutional investors into distinct categories (banks, pension funds, advisors, etc.) increases our understanding of stock trading and share price dynamics of listed property companies.     

Geothermisch erschlie?bare Niedertemperaturw?rmesenken in Deutschland – Identifikation und Quantifizierung

Geothermal energy supply meets the expectations of the established criterias for sustainability from the German government because it provides a base load of electricity- and heat supply by nearly zero emissions. The geothermal resources in Germany are big enough to cover a relevant demand of the German energy supply. Due to the low electrical efficiency is a high amount of heat produced what can be feed in a distribution network. In this context the aim of the following article is to identify and quantify the technical and economical low temperature heat demand for sector household, trade and industry in local authorities bigger then 20?000?inhabitants for German areas with geothermal recourses. The technical low temperature heat demand is calculated to 341?TWh/a (241?TWh/a household, 19?TWh/a trade, 81?TWh/a industry), 206?TWh/a of this heat demand is deducible by geothermal energy and 26?% of the geothermal deducible heat demand can be used on economic conditions.     

The development of new products: The role of firm context and managerial cognition

We explore the effect of organizational factors and managerial cognition on firms' entrepreneurial actions and investigate the relationship between these antecedents by drawing from prior work on corporate entrepreneurship, managerial cognition, and the attention-based view of the firm. The analysis of data from 84 firms shows that firm strategy and resources influence the degree of negativity with which managers interpret events that lead to the development of new products. Our results also suggest that more negative evaluations of the triggering event lead to less innovative new products. While the strategy and the resources of a firm also have an effect on a new product's degree of innovativeness, at least part of this effect is mediated by executives' evaluation of the triggering event. The theoretical elaboration and our results contribute to a better understanding of the drivers of corporate entrepreneurial activities and point to the importance of considering both managerial and organizational factors for advancing our knowledge on firms' entrepreneurial actions.     

Is there a compensating wage differential for high crime levels? First evidence from Europe

This paper investigates whether high regional crime levels lead to a compensating wage differential paid by firms in the respective region. Using data from German social-security records, official police statistics and official statistics for 2003–2006, I consider both violent and non-violent crimes and use three-way error-components estimators to control for individual and regional heterogeneity. The findings suggest that wages are practically unrelated to changes in crime rates. This result is robust over a wide range of subgroups. There is, however, some evidence that crime rates influence land prices.     

Airbus gegen Boeing vor der WTO: Zeit für einen Legal-Case-Manager

The WTO has been dealing with the Airbus-Boeing dispute for more than ten years. Both parties continue to blame the other side for their unfair financing methods. This seemingly never-ending dispute not only ties up the resources of both aircraft manufactures but also negatively influences the reputation of the WTO and impairs its ability to act as an effective dispute settlement forum. To resolve this case — the biggest and most complex one that has ever reached the WTO — a legal case manager should assist the parties in either complying with the specifications made by the appellate body or in reaching a negotiated settlement.     

German Finance Capitalism: The Paradigm Shift Underlying Financial Diversification

This article is concerned with the genesis of German financial liberalisation. A refined inventory of financial system change – including new meso-level data on finance pattern and the marketisation of banking – reveals a varied pattern of change across German finance. It is argued that this financial diversification can only be understood with careful reference to the underlying ideational factors. An analytical narrative traces how technocratic ideas of financial modernisation during the 1980s began to open up space for the political program of finance capitalism to absorb liberal and leftist discontents with insider control and bank dominance. Upon reaching a tipping point of discursive dominance, the program was distinctly adopted across the political economy as the result of compartmentally different political, ideational and structural factors; creating a non-hegemonic financial paradigm that became identifiable in the face of recent crises. By developing analytical steps that link incremental and dynamic theories of institutional change in a conceptual framework of belief shifts, the paper contributes to efforts of adapting existing models of change to complex domains and accounting for the dynamic nature of the paradigm-generating process. The findings inform the larger debate about internal capitalist diversity and the coherence of national economic models.     

Malthus in Sweden

This paper presents some new and unique cross‐county data from 19th‐century Sweden over birth, death, and marriage rates, grain prices, and harvests. Local grain prices correlate negatively with local harvests, suggesting imperfectly integrated food markets. The so‐called positive and preventive checks are also present: good local harvests are associated with high birth and marriage rates, and low death rates. We also find that the fertility and marriage effects from changes in prices – but not harvests – are greater in counties that rely more on manufacturing, consistent with an open‐economy model of fertility choice, where agents earn income from both agriculture and manufacturing.     

When science meets strategic realpolitik: The case of the Copenhagen UN climate change summit

This paper argues that the impasse over tackling climate change at the 2009 climate change summit is a result of the outcome of the prevailing power and politics at the summit. The paper discusses the sociological literature on power and notes that the failure of the summit illustrates the fragility of legitimacy and authority. The paper rehearses key parts of the chronology of the summit and argues that the politics of domination often prevail over the politics of legitimacy. Moreover, the way in which both science and politics have failed to legitimate the issue of climate change is explored. The paper closes with a discussion of what is required to fix the issue as legitimate and meriting serious action by major international agencies and economies.     

How does economic integration influence employment and wages in border regions? The case of the EU enlargement 2004 and Germany’s eastern border

This paper considers the (short-run) employment and wage effects of the 2004 EU enlargement on firms located close to Germany’s eastern border. We use a 50% sample of Germans plants and apply difference-in-differences estimators combined with a matching approach. We evaluate changes in total employment, the employment shares of low-skilled and East European workers and the wages for low-skilled, skilled and high-skilled workers in various sectors. Our results suggest basically no short-run employment effects of the EU enlargement except for firms active in wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants. We also find some evidence for a stronger employment of East European workers in almost all border firms, although the effects are quantitatively small. Negative wage effects are only found for skilled workers in consulting, research and related activities.     

Exporting against Risk? Theory and Evidence from Public Export Insurance Schemes in OECD Countries

This paper endeavours to find out in how far public export insurance schemes foster international trade. Thereto, a gravity equation is derived, which accounts for the risk of financial losses in case firms contract defaulting foreign buyers. Empirical results suggest that OECD countries issuing trade credits with generous state-guarantees did not, during the 1999 to 2005 period, witness more exports towards politically and commercially more unstable low-income countries. Rather, publicly indemnified trade finance has promoted exports, to a modest degree, towards high and middle-income countries, where financial intermediaries and markets provide viable alternatives to hedge against payment risks.