Hysteresis in Unemployment

After two decades of ratcheting unemployment in Europe, most economists agree that structural changes associated with higher equilibrium rates of unemployment have occurred. But the direction of causality is a matter of controversy: Have the structural changes caused the long-lasting increases in actual unemployment? Or have the increases in actual unemployment caused the structural changes? The latter possibility is often referred to as hysteresis. During the past decade, a distinct research program has evolved around the idea that equilibrium employment tracks actual unemployment. This survey reviews the various hysteretic explanations offered in the literature and evaluates their empirical standing.     

Einige numerische Untersuchungen auf Grund der kollektiven Risikotheorie

Abstract

Wir gehen nun zu einem Bericht betreffs der Berechnungen über, die unter Annahme einer Maximierung des Versicherungsbetrages (Methode 2, Seite 93) und zur Bestimmung der Wahrscheinlichkeitszahl φ₁ gemacht worden sind.     

Entrepreneurship: Origins and returns

We examine the origins and outcome of entrepreneurship on the basis of exceptionally comprehensive Norwegian matched worker-firm-owner data. In contrast to most existing studies, our notion of entrepreneurship not only comprises self-employment, but also employment in partly self-owned limited liability companies. Based on this extended entrepreneurship concept, we find that entrepreneurship tends to be profitable. It also raises income variability, but the most successful quartile gains much more than the least successful quartile loses. Key determinants of the decision to become an entrepreneur are occupational qualifications, family resources, gender, and work environments. Individual unemployment encourages, while aggregate unemployment discourages, entrepreneurship.     

Discrimination in rental markets: Evidence from Norway

This paper examines discrimination in the rental housing market. We analyze a rich data set on rental contracts from Norway. We find that tenants born abroad pay a statistically significant and economically important premium for their dwelling units after controlling for a comprehensive set of apartment, individual and contract specific covariates. Moreover, we find that the premium is largest for tenants of African origin. Finally, Norwegians whose parents were born abroad also face a statistically significant and economically important rental premium that is directly comparable to the premium paid by tenants born abroad.     

A Jump/Diffusion Consumption-Based Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Equity Premium Puzzle

This paper derives the equilibrium excess returns on risky assets in an exchange economy where the underlying exogenous uncertainty is a combination of a pure multidimensional jump process and a diffusion model. We derive closed-form solutions for the interest rate and the risk premiums on risky assets for a traditional class of separable utility indices. Our analysis demonstrates that when the underlying jumps of the aggregate consumption process are not negligible, then the traditional form of the consumption-based capital asset princing model need not hold and the asset risk premiums may be larger than predicted by the traditional CCAPM in continuous time, based on pure Itô diffusion processes. Our analysis suggests an explanation for the large estimates of the risk premiums reported in empirical tests of the single-beta CCAPM.     

Market Power and Market Failure The Decline of the European Fertilizer Industry and the Expansion of Norsk Hydro

During the 1980s, the fertilizer industry in Western Europeunderwent some radical changes. Reduced profitability and overcapacityforced a number of smaller producers to close down, and mostof the major firms in the business either withdrew from themarket or reduced their capacity. The exception was the Norwegianindustrial conglomerate Norsk Hydro, which expanded rapidlyand established itself as the largest producer in Europe andlater globally. The article discusses the strategy behind Hydro's expansionin relation to the changing structure of the fertilizer market,which historically was characterized by tacit and explicit agreementson prices and market shares between the major producers. Hydro'sstrategy and growth are analyzed in relation to some theoreticalcontributions from the study of transnationalisation of enterprises.A main argument is that Hydro's expansion was not driven byadvantages in cost structure or organizational capabilities,nor did the expansion create such advantages. The Norwegiancompany expanded in foreign markets partly because it had lessto lose from a counterattack than competitors in larger marketsand partly because of strategic disadvantages. Contrary to mostof its large European competitors, Hydro failed to identifythe long term threats to the stability and profitability ofthe Western European market.     

The impacts of innovations and standards on trade of measurement and testing products: empirical results of Switzerland’s bilateral trade flows with Germany, France and the UK

Nowadays, the impact of the measurement and testing infrastructure on economic performance and trade is theoretically and even politically widely accepted. However, there are no empirical studies on this issue. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the impact of innovative capacity and technical standards as one important part of the measurement and testing infrastructure on international trade flows and competitiveness. In order to focus on the direct causality between innovative technology and measurement and testing standards and the respective market, the empirical analysis concentrates on the trade of measurement and testing products of a country with a top position in measurement and testing technology. In its empirical analysis of Switzerland’s trade flows with Germany, France and the UK, the paper follows the approach of the pioneering paper of Swann et al. (Economic Journal 106 (1996) 1297), who integrated for the first time technical standards as a technology indicator in the estimation of UK trade performance. The trade flows in measurement and testing products from 1980 until 1995 are explained by both an indicator for innovative capacity and for the degree of standardisation. The first indicator is based on the patent applications at the European patent office. The latter uses the stocks of technical standards in the countries differentiated by their regional scope. Four different trade equations are analysed, besides an export and an import function, the trade balance and the intra-industry trade. The results clearly show that both Switzerland’s innovative capacity and its stocks of standards are able to explain its export performance in the three countries. Secondly, especially the stocks of international standards in Switzerland have a positive impact on imports into Switzerland from the three countries, confirming their positive role for fostering trade in general. Thirdly, Switzerland’s export surplus concerning the three trade partners is positively affected by the stocks of international standards in Switzerland, which seem to be an important factor for international competitiveness. Finally, the results of the intra-industry model underline the common view of the general trade-fostering effect of even national standards in the case of the trade with the three countries.