Die falschen Angriffe auf das Ehegattensplitting

These articles debate the pros and cons of the full income-splitting tax procedure. Ernst Niemeier defends this taxation scheme, because in his opinion it is not aimed at furthering families or children but making sure that a couple does not have to pay more taxes than two singles. He argues that there are constitutional reasons to treat equal incomes equally, which he refers to as “horizontal justice”. Furthermore, he rejects evidence of a negative labour supply effect on the second earner. A team of authors at the DIW find his argumentation not at all convincing. First, they say, determining tax justice or ability to pay is ultimately a political question and cannot be determined by scientists or the courts. Thus, a constitutional determination of marriage taxation on the existing full income-splitting procedure is excessive. Second, the empirical evidence of negative labour supply effects of full income splitting for the second earner can simply not be denied. Niemeier argues why such supply effects cannot exist.     

Fostering entrepreneurship in distressed urban neighbourhoods

During the last decade entrepreneurship research has focused increasingly on spatial aspects of entrepreneurship. Many systematic studies have been conducted on the national or regional scale, although other geographical scales—cities and their single districts and neighbourhoods—have drawn less attention. In this context, the paper aims, firstly, at identifying spatial success factors of entrepreneurial activities and their promotion at the local scale. Secondly, the paper aims at contributing to the development of a conceptual frame at the interface of entrepreneurship research, urban and economic geography, and regional economics. Empirically, the paper draws on results from explorative case studies in two distressed urban areas.     

On the duality principle in option pricing: semimartingale setting

The purpose of this paper is to describe the appropriate mathematical framework for the study of the duality principle in option pricing. We consider models where prices evolve as general exponential semimartingales and provide a complete characterization of the dual process under the dual measure. Particular cases of these models are the ones driven by Brownian motions and by Lévy processes, which have been considered in several papers. Generally speaking, the duality principle states that the calculation of the price of a call option for a model with price process S=e ^H (with respect to the measure P) is equivalent to the calculation of the price of a put option for a suitable dual model S′=e ^H′ (with respect to the dual measure P′). More sophisticated duality results are derived for a broad spectrum of exotic options. The second named author acknowledges the financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Eb 66/9-2). This research was carried out while the third named author was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt foundation.     

Three generations of Telework: New ICTs and the (R)evolution from Home Office to Virtual Office

‘New ICTs’, such as smartphones and tablet computers, have revolutionised work and life in the 21st Century. Crucial to this development is the detachment of work from traditional office spaces. Today's office work is often supported by Internet connections, and thus can be done from anywhere at any time. Research on detachment of work from the employer's premises actually dates back to the previous century. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jack Nilles and Allan Toffler predicted that work of the future would be relocated into or nearby employees’ homes with the help of technology, called ‘Telework’. Analysing technological advancements—the enabling forces of change in this context—over four decades sheds new light on this term: they have fostered the evolution of Telework in distinct stages or ‘generations’. Today's various location‐independent, technology‐enabled new ways of working are all part of the same revolution in the inter‐relationship between paid work and personal life.     

Experiments in supply chain management research: A systematic review and future directions

The supply chain management discipline has seen a tremendous growth in the use of experimental methods. Given the large number of published studies, the time seems opportune to systematically review the use of such approaches. In this note, we consider multiple dimensions of experimental design used in articles published in six of our premier journals. We present these findings and contemplate opportunities for future applications of experimental methods. In particular, we highlight a need to more regularly conduct and report on the results of power analyses and experimental checks, more carefully contemplate the justification and use of WEIRD (Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic) participants, develop and test mediated theoretical models, and increase our focus on teams as the unit of analysis when using experimental methods.     

Impacts of Patent Expiry on Daily Cost of Pharmaceutical Treatments in Eight OECD Countries, 2004–2010

Variability in regulatory frameworks, industrial policy, physician/pharmacy autonomy, brand/generic distinctions, and the practice of medicine contribute to ambiguous interpretations of cross-country pharmaceutical cost comparisons. Here, we report cross-country comparisons that: (i) focus on ten therapeutic classes experiencing patent expiration and loss of exclusivity 2004–2010 in eight industrialized countries; (ii) convert revenues and unit sales to cost per day of treatment and number patient days treated using the World Health Organization’s Defined Daily Dosage metrics; (iii) compare patterns in costs per day of treatment with price index measures based on average price per day of treatment for each molecule computed over all molecule versions; (iv) utilizing econometric methods, model and quantify various factors affecting variations in daily treatment price indexes such as national regulatory and reimbursement policy changes, physician/pharmacy autonomy, and other factors; and (v) simulate changes in expenditures by country and therapeutic class had counterfactual policies been implemented.     

The takeover and selection effects of foreign-owned establishments: an analysis using linked employer–employee data

We provide the first estimates of the effect of foreign ownership on wages in Germany, controlling for the observed and unobserved characteristics of workers and plants. We also test whether the wage gains from joining a foreign-owned firm are subsequently lost when leaving that firm, and we examine whether wage gains vary across the sample. We find large selection effects in terms of worker and plant components of wages. Once the selection effect is taken into account, the takeover effect is small and in some cases insignificantly different from zero.

Income comparisons and attitudes towards foreigners - Evidence from a natural experiment

We exploit a natural experiment related to the German re-unification to address whether disutility from income comparisons affects attitudes towards foreigners. Our empirical approach rests upon East German individuals with West German relatives and friends. We use the exogenous variation of wealth of West Germans shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall as an instrument to identify the effect of disutility from income comparisons on East Germans’ attitudes. We find robust evidence that East Germans express more negative attitudes towards foreigners, particularly from low-wage countries, if they worry about their economic status compared to better-off West Germans.     

Cross-country variation in educational attainment: structural change or within-industry skill upgrading?

Educational attainment varies greatly across countries and within countries over time. This paper asks whether the variation in education is primarily due to industry composition or to within-industry skill intensities. The main finding is that within-industry variation accounts for at least two-thirds of the cross-country and the time-series variation in educational attainment. The within-industry education gaps are broadly consistent with a model of industry neutral cross-country differences in skilled labor productivity. These results suggest that theories of educational development should focus on skill upgrading within industries rather than structural change.