Betriebe lernen Ältere schätzen

Durch die demographische Entwicklung nimmt der Anteil der ?lteren Arbeitskr?fte stetig zu, w?hrend das Erwerbspersonenpotenzial insgesamt langfristig sinkt. Die Unternehmer müssen daher immer mehr ?ltere Arbeitnehmer neu einstellen. Hier k?nnte es aufgrund verschiedener Anforderungen zu Problemen kommen. Die Autorin untersucht die Besch?ftigungschancen ?lterer beispielhaft in sechs hessischen Regionen.     

Export Intensity and Plant Characteristics: What Can We Learn from Quantile Regression?

Using quantile regression and a rich cross section data set for German manufacturing plants this paper documents that the impact of plant characteristics on export activities varies along the conditional size distribution of the export/sales ratio. For example, firm size is statistically significant at a conventional level for the 0.25 quantile only; branch plant status matters at the upper tail of the conditional distribution of the export/sales ratio only; the craft shop dummy is only significant for the very top quantile; and patents do not matter at the very lower end of the conditional distribution of export over sales. This has implications both for understanding what makes a successful exporter, and for the design of policy measures with a focus on supporting exporters. JEL no. F10, D21, L60     

Transparency in the interbank market and the volume of bank intermediated loans

In the present paper we study the equilibrium interaction through which the interbank market is related to the public lending and borrowing market. It turns out that this interaction is affected by the transparency in the interbank market. Interbank market transparency is modeled by means of more informative signals about future interbank rates. We find that more transparency might increase or decrease the volume of bank intermediated loans in the public market. In particular, the impact of more transparency on the volume of loans depends on the curvature of the marginal cost function of the banking firm. Furthermore, we find that expected profits of the bank are higher when the interbank market is more transparent.     

Möglichkeiten für eine präventive und breitenwirksame Verbraucherberatung durch die Verbraucherzentralen

Journal of Consumer Policy - Der Beitrag stellt einen Vorschlag über Möglichkeiten der Erweiterung der Rechtsberatung durch die Verbraucherzentralen in Richtung auf eine Erhöhung von...     

Distance-sensitivity of German exports: first evidence from firm-product level data

This article uses a tailor-made new data set of 7 580 251 observations for German exports at the firm-product-destination level to estimate a gravity equation and to investigate the link between the amount of firms’ exports and the distance to destination countries. It is shown that, in line with stylized facts based on aggregate data, the quantity of exports declines significantly with distance within a firm for a given product.     

Trade and the Environment: The Role of Firm Heterogeneity

In this paper, we derive a new effect of trade liberalization on the quality of the environment. We show that in the presence of heterogeneous firms, the aggregate volume of emissions is influenced by a reallocation effect resulting from an increase in the relative size of more productive firms. The relative importance of this reallocation effect and the scale effect well‐known from the literature is affected by the emission intensity at the firm level. Domestic emissions decrease as a result of a unilateral tariff reduction if and only if firm‐specific emission intensity decreases strongly with increasing firm productivity. As a result of the induced change in foreign emissions, domestic pollution can increase even if domestic emissions decrease.     

Acquisition through innovation tournaments in high-tech industries: a comparative perspective

Acquisition of innovative firms is a widely observed phenomenon in high-tech industries. On the basis of distinct advantages of large and small firms, in this paper, we build a tournament model with possible acquisition activity of large firms to derive hypotheses on interdependencies between acquisition frequency and post-acquisition success rates. We find empirical support for our hypotheses that (1) acquisitions increase overall innovation output and (2) that the number of acquisitions is higher in industries with larger heterogeneity between established firms and young start-ups. However, our third hypothesis derived from the formal model that innovation success following from acquisitions varies across industries is only partially confirmed.     

Liquidity constrained exporters and trade

We present a model of a risk-averse exporting firm subject to liquidity constraints. We show that preferences and expectations become important for optimum export and hedging decisions. Only firms that have sufficient financial resources can fully materialize gains from trade.