The gender wage gap in Austria: eppur si muove!

We examine the change of the gender wage gap in Austria between 2002 and 2007 using Juhn et al. (Workers and their wages, AEI Press, Washington DC, pp 107–143, 1991) decomposition. We analyze data from Austrian tax records which we merge with social security records and Austrian micro-censuses of the years 2002 and 2007. We find that the gender wage gap declined from 21 % in 2002 to 18 % in 2007. The main determinant of this decline is the relative improvement of women’s unobserved characteristics. The decline of the gender wage gap is also due to women having attained more formal education and to a convergence of men’s and women’s returns to education. Women’s improved educational attainments were partly offset by a shift in the demand for skilled workers that disadvantaged unskilled workers, most of whom are women, resulting in a moderate decrease of the gender pay gap over these years. Robustness checks confirm our results.     

To converge or not converge: unit labor cost inflation in the Euro area

In this article, convergence of unit labor cost (ULC) inflation within the Euro area is tested by means of panel unit root tests. To account for the small cross-sectional dimension, cross-sectional dependence of model innovations and time varying volatility, wild bootstrap critical values are employed for inference. Convergence is tested separately for pre- and post-Euro introduction subperiods. Moreover, we identify particular economies that are characterized by diverging ULC inflation after the introduction of the Euro. While the German economy is characterized by ULC inflation which is persistently below the sample average, Spain and Italy have suffered sustained losses of price competitiveness against their trading partners within the Euro area. ULC inflation in Finland, France, and Ireland can be classified as neutral with respect to relative competitive positions.     

Why do people save in cash? Distrust,memories of banking crises,weak institutions and dollarization

The paper analyzes why households hold sizeable shares of their assets in cash at home rather than at banks – a phenomenon that is widespread in many economies but for which information is scarce. Using survey data from ten Central, Eastern and Southeastern European countries, I document the relevance of this behavior and show that cash preferences cannot be fully explained by whether people are banked or unbanked. The analysis reveals that a lack of trust in banks, memories of past banking crises and weak tax enforcement are important factors. Moreover, cash preferences are stronger in dollarized economies where a “safe” foreign currency serves as a store of value.     

Wage bargaining,productivity growth and long-run industry structure

This paper studies the innovation dynamics of an oligopolistic industry. The firms compete not only in the output market but also by engaging in productivity enhancing innovations to reduce labor costs. Rent sharing may generate productivity dependent wage differentials. Productivity growth creates intertemporal spillover effects, which affect the incentives for innovation at subsequent dates. Over time the industry equilibrium approaches a steady state. The paper characterizes the evolution of the industry's innovation behavior and its market structure on the adjustment path.     

Internationalisation of technology-oriented firms in Germany and the UK

Based on longitudinal data, this article examines empirically the long-term export behaviour of German and British technology-oriented firms founded between 1987 and 1996. Applying logit models, the results show that firms can overcome high entry costs by acquiring firm-specific assets. Similarly, firm-specific resources prevent high-tech companies from exiting the international market. The strategic role of investment in R&D is stressed in particular by the data.

Low Mortgage Rates and Securitization: A Distinct Perspective on the US Housing Boom*

In this paper, we analyse the impacts of low interest rates and lax underwriting standards on the US housing boom around the beginning of the new millennium. We suggest a time-varying mean of the log price-to-rent ratio (PtR) to capture the persistent changes in housing prices. We show that the increasing latent trend in the PtR was significantly affected by the increased securitization of residential mortgage loans and decreasing interest rates, with the former effect being about three times larger than the latter. In the absence of securitization, negative interest rates would have been needed to reproduce an equally large housing boom since 2003.     

Measuring Spot Variance Spillovers when (Co)variances are Time‐varying – The Case of Multivariate GARCH Models

We propose global and disaggregated spillover indices that allow us to assess variance and covariance spillovers, locally in time and conditionally on time‐t information. Key to our approach is the vector moving average representation of the half‐vectorized ‘squared’ multivariate GARCH process of the popular BEKK model. In an empirical application to a four‐dimensional system of broad asset classes (equity, fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities), we illustrate the new spillover indices at various levels of (dis)aggregation. Moreover, we demonstrate that they are informative of the value‐at‐risk violations of portfolios composed of the considered asset classes.     

Still more on the speed of adjustment in inventory models: A lesson in aggregation

Applied econometric research has been troubled by the fact that estimated adjustment speeds from stock-adjustment models of inventory investment turn out to be “implausibly slow”. The paper presents new empirical evidence using business-survey data colfected by the IFO Institute Munich, Germany. It is shown empirically that there is no such a thing as an “implausibly slow” adjustment speed if estimation is done at the same level of aggregation as is requested by the underlying microeconomic theory, that is, at the level of the individual firm. Slow adjustment speeds turn out to be an artifact due to aggregation.     

The changing pattern of international trade in manufactures: A logit analysis

Zusammenfassung Ver?nderungen im Welthandel mit Industriegütern: Eine LogitAnalyse. — Dieser Aufsatz berichtet über die Ergebnisse einer empirischen Untersuchung, in der die güterm?\ige Zusammensetzung des internationalen Handels mit Industrieerzeugnissen im Wandel der Zeit geprüft wird. Die Hypothesen für eine Analyse des Konzepts der „revealed comparative advantages“ für eine L?nderquerschnittsanalyse mit vielen Gütern werden in “schwacher” Form aufgestellt und mit Hilfe des Logit-Verfahrens getestet. Die Ergebnisse unterstreichen, daβ die statische Handelsstruktur ma\geblich von den Proportionen zwischen Humankapital und dem Faktor Arbeit bestimmt wird. Nicht gestützt wird die Faktorproportionenhypothese auf der Grundlage des Verh?ltnisses zwischen physischem Kapital und Arbeit. Au\erdem zeigt sich, da\ sowohl das technologische Alter der Erzeugnisse als auch wiederum die Humankapitalintensit?t wichtige Bestimmungsgründe für die Dynamik der Handelsstruktur im Sinne des Produktzyklus sind.

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Résumé La structure changeante du commerce international des produits manufacturés: une analyse logit. — Cet article rapporte les résultats d’une investigation empirique sur la composition par produit du commerce en biens manufacturiers et sur ses changements au cours du temps. L’auteur formule des hypothèses du type ?faible? et les teste en se servirant de la méthode logit et une analyse trans-pays et multi-biens de l’avantage comparatif révélé. Les résultats soulignent la dominance des proportions entre le capital humain et la main d’oeuvre comme déterminants des structures statiques du commerce, mais ne supportent pas une hypothèse des proportions de facteur basée sur le capital physique et la main-d’∄uvre. De plus, les résultats montrent que l’age technologique du produit et encore une fois l’intensité au capital humain sont des déterminants importants de la dynamique de la structure commerciale du type du cycle de bien.

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Resumen La estructura cambiante del comercio internacional en manufacturas: un análisis del tipo ?logit?. — Este artículo informa sobre los resultados de una investigación empírica de la composición de productos del comercio de manufacturas y sus cambios a través del tiempo. Para un análisis multi-productos a través de países de ventajas comparativas reveladas, se establecen hipótesis en forma ?débil? y se someten a prueba a través de un análisis de tipo ?logit?. Los resultados subrayan el dominio de proporciones capital humanomano de obra como déterminantes de las estructuras de comercio estatico, pero no sustentan una hipótesis de proporciones de factures basada en capital físico versus trabajo. Más aún, ellos sugieren la edad tecnológica del producto y de nuevo la intensidad de capital humano como los mayores determinantes de la dinámica de la estructura de comercio del tipo ciclo productivo.