Wage subsidies, work incentives, and the reform of the Austrian welfare system

We analyze the employment and income effects of a needs-based minimum benefit system (“Bedarfsorientierte Mindestsicherung”) which has recently been introduced in Austria. The aim of this reform was to reduce poverty as well as to increase work incentives for recipients of social assistance. On the basis of a behavioral microsimulation model we show that this new system slightly increases employment but reduces incomes for the poorest households remaining unemployed. As an alternative, we analyze a budgetary neutral reform proposal which reduces financial incentives for marginal employment and provides a wage subsidy rewarding working longer hours. This alternative reform would yield larger positive employment effects, but more households would suffer from income losses. Overall, income inequality and poverty are affected little, however, both under the new social welfare system and the alternative reform proposal.     

The 1980's Project

Abstract

Sales promotion tools such as coupons, bonus packs, free samples, and sweepstakes have become very popular in recent times. However, the characteristics of consumers who respond to each of these tools are not well understood. This paper provides a comparison of consumers who prefer gift promotions to those who prefer to enter sweepstakes on the basis of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The data base was comprised of a large national random sample of males and females. The results reveal several interesting findings. Implications for marketers and for future research are discussed.     

University Systems in Europe： A Multi-Dimensional Efficiency Comparison

The paper undertakes an examination of university systems of selected European countries from the perspective of the Austrian higher education system. The challenge of implementing higher institutional autonomy, accountability, and controllability in the Austrian higher education system is discussed with respect to recent experience in selected national university systems in Europe. Two major challenges were identified, first, the high diversity of the Austrian university system, and second, the implementation of considerable reorganization in a comparatively short period and under conditions of relatively high uncertainty.     

Ethnicity and the distribution of welfare: Evidence from southern Kyrgyzstan

Economic disparity between ethnic groups is sometimes supposed to be the main driver of ethnic conflict. Understanding the extent and the sources of such disparity is then important to help formulate policies that aim at avoiding further conflict. This paper analyzes economic disparity between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan. These groups were involved in violent clashes in the recent past. Using household survey data from 2005, we show that, in contrast to the public perception, Kyrgyz households have slightly higher expenditure than Uzbek households in urban areas and about the same level in rural areas. The gap in urban areas is mostly due to smaller households and higher education among the Kyrgyz. We also find that Uzbek households are better off than Kyrgyz households in terms of the value of housing property. We argue that the house value gap can be explained by the Uzbeks having larger houses, which are home to larger families and serve as a basis for running small businesses.     

“When Should Manufacturers Want Fair Trade?”: New Insights from Asymmetric Information when Supply Chains Compete

We study a model of competing manufacturer/retailer pairs where adverse selection and moral hazard are coupled with promotional externalities at the downstream level. In contrast to earlier models mainly focusing on a bilateral monopoly setting, we show that with competing brands a ‘laissez‐faire’ approach towards vertical price control might not always promote productive efficiency. Giving manufacturers freedom to control retail prices is more likely to harm consumers when retailers impose positive promotional externalities on each other, and the converse is true otherwise. Our simple model also suggests that, with competing supply chains, consumers and manufacturers might prefer different contractual modes if promotional externalities have substantial effects on demands.     

Value-at-Risk-Schätzung bei Optionen — Ein Empirischer Vergleich Praxisüblicher Verfahren

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The “Own-Brand Marketer” Debuts in the 1997 Census

The 1997 Census of Wholesale Trade has led the way by recognizing and reporting the activities of a huge, new type of business that has grown explosively over the past 20 years. The Own-brand marketer (O-BM) performs all the functions traditionally bundled with domestic manufacturing except that production is typically outsourced offshore. Previously, O-BM sales and margins had been intermingled with those of several functionally incompatible types of wholesalers, causing serious misinterpretations and distortions in many domestic and foreign trade-related measures of industry performance. The 1997 Census will substantially alleviate these problems.     

Macroeconomic Risk Factors and the Role of Mispriced Credit in the Returns from International Real Estate Securities

We examine the canonical influence of global market, currency and inflation risks on the returns from international real estate securities. In addition, we study how mispricing of credit in the local banking systems is related to the returns from these securities. We analyze a global sample of real estate securities over the period 1999 to 2011 to test our hypotheses. We find support for the anticipated relationships between macroeconomic risk factors and the returns from international real estate securities. Our evidence also supports the expected link between local credit market conditions and the performance of international real estate securities.     

Financial Flexibility and Manager–Shareholder Conflict: Evidence from REITs

Using equity Real Estate Investment Trust data, we show empirically that the use of unsecured debt, which contains standardized covenants that place limits on total leverage and the use of secured debt, is associated with lower leverage outcomes. We then show that firm value is sensitive to leverage levels, where lower leverage is associated with higher firm value. In the presence of weak managerial governance, our results suggest that unsecured debt covenants function as a managerial commitment device that preserves the firm's debt capacity to enhance financial flexibility.