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DIW Discussion Papers 1097 / 2011
Despite political activities to foster a low-carbon energy transition, Germany currently sees a considerable number of new coal power plants being added to its power mix. There are several possible drivers for this "dash for coal", but it is widely accepted that windfall profits gained through free allocation of ETS certificates play an important role. Yet the quantification of allocation-related investment ...
2011| Michael Pahle, Lin Fan, Wolf-Peter Schill
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DIW Discussion Papers 1096 / 2011
Whether Europe will be able to stand up to its internal and external challenges crucially depends on its ability to manage its internal mobility and inflows of international migrants. Using a unique expert opinion survey, we document that Europe needs skilled migrants, and skill mismatch is to be expected. A review of current immigration policies shows that despite a number of positive recent developments ...
2011| Martin Kahanec, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 1095 / 2011
The standard approach of analysing gaps in social and labor market outcomes of different ethnic groups relies on analysis of statistical data about the affected groups. In this paper we go beyond this approach by measuring the views of expert stakeholders involved in minority integration. This enables us to better understand the risk of minority exclusion; the inner nature of discrimination, negative ...
2011| Amelie Constant, Martin Kahanec, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 1094 / 2010
Studies of peer-to-peer lending in the USA find that female borrowers have better chances of getting funds than males. Is differential treatment of borrowers of different sexes a common feature of peer-to-peer lendingmarkets or is it subject to specific businessmodels, ways of fixing loan contracts and even national financial systems? We aim at answering this question by providing evidence on loan ...
2010| Nataliya Barasinska, Dorothea Schäfer
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DIW Discussion Papers 1093 / 2010
We provide, for the first time, comparative evidence of the impact of various types of extreme events - natural disasters, terrorism, and violent conflicts - on the perceptions of entrepreneurs concerning some key entrepreneurial issues - such as fear of failure in starting a business venture, whether individuals expect that good opportunities are likely to emerge in the next six months, and the expected ...
2010| Tilman Brück, Fernanda Llussá, José Tavares
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DIW Discussion Papers 1092 / 2010
Das ökonomische Potenzial ethnischer und kultureller Vielfalt wird häufig verkannt. Die Ergebnisse neuerer Studien, die in diesem Beitrag zusammengefasst werden, zeigen jedoch, dass sich "weiche" Faktoren wie etwa Einstellungen, Wahrnehmungen und Identitäten, hier insbesondere ethnische Identitäten, wesentlich auf ökonomische Ergebnisse auswirken können. Dies geht sowohl aus Analysen des Prozesses ...
2010| Ulf Rinne, Simone Schüller, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 1091 / 2010
The social and labor market integration of ethnic minorities in the EU is still a major political, societal and economic challenge. Based on evidence presented in Kahanec and Zimmermann (2011), this policy paper proposes an agenda for diversity and minority integration in the European labor markets. Policies to foster the labor market and social integration of ethnic majorities can work. But they need ...
2010| Martin Kahanec, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 1090 / 2010
This paper sheds light on the labor market situation of ethnic minorities in the European Union. Facing a serious measurement challenge and lacking adequate data, we apply several measures of ethnicity and examine various data sources as well as secondary evidence. We find significant gaps between ethnic minority and majority populations in terms of labor market outcomes. In particular, ethnic minorities ...
2010| Martin Kahanec, Anzelika Zaiceva, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 1089 / 2010
This paper analyzes the reservation wages of first and second generation migrants. Based on recently collected and rich survey data of a representative inflow sample into unemployment in Germany, we empirically test the hypothesis that reservation wages increase from first to second generation migrants. Two extensions of the basic job search model, namely an unknown wage offer distribution and different ...
2010| Amelie Constant, Annabelle Krause, Ulf Rinne, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 1088 / 2010
In this paper we study the economic effects of risk attitudes, time preferences, trust and reciprocity while we compare natives and second generation migrants. We analyze an inflow sample into unemployment in Germany, and find differences between the two groups mainly in terms of risk attitudes and positive reciprocity. Second generation migrants have a significantly higher willingness to take risks ...
2010| Amelie F. Constant, Annabelle Krause, Ulf Rinne, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 1087 / 2010
Leaders are critical to a country's success. They can influence domestic policy via specific measures that they enforce, and they can also influence international public opinion towards their country. Foreign Direct Investments are also essential for a country's economic growth. Our hypothesis is that foreign-educated leaders attract more FDI to their country. Our rationale is that education obtained ...
2010| Amelie Constant, Bienvenue N. Tien
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DIW Discussion Papers 1086 / 2010
Recent global peer-review reports have concluded on importance of buildings in tacking the energy security and climate change challenges. To integrate the buildings energy efficiency into the policy agenda, significant research efforts have been recently done. More specifically, the public domain provides a bulk of literature on the application of buildings-related efficiency technologies and behavioural ...
2010| Aleksandra Novikova
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DIW Discussion Papers 1085 / 2010
Experimental evidence reveals that there is a strong willingness to trust and to act in both positively and negatively reciprocal ways. So far it is rarely analyzed whether these variables of social cognition influence everyday decision making behavior. We focus on entrepreneurs who are permanently facing exchange processes in the interplay with investors, sellers, and buyers, as well as needing to ...
2010| Marco Caliendo, Frank M. Fossen, Alexander S. Kritikos
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DIW Discussion Papers 1084 / 2010
We analyze the impacts of a hypothetical fleet of plug-in electric vehicles on the imperfectly competitive German electricity market with a game-theoretic model. Electric vehicles bring both additional demand and additional storage capacity to the market. We determine their effects on prices, welfare, and electricity generation for various cases with different players being in charge of vehicle operations. ...
2010| Wolf-Peter Schill
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DIW Discussion Papers 1083 / 2010
This paper empirically investigates distributional and welfare effects of Germany's year 2000 income tax reform. The reform is simulated in an ex-ante behavioral microsimulation approach. Dead weight loss of changes in capital income taxation is estimated in a structural model for household savings and asset demand applied to German survey data. Significant reductions in tax rates result in income ...
2010| Richard Ochmann
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DIW Discussion Papers 1082 / 2010
The recent extensive package introduced by the Commission is the "most comprehensive reinforcement of economic governance in the EU and the euro area since the launch of the Economic and Monetary Union. Broader and enhanced surveillance of fiscal policies, but also macroeconomic policies and structural reforms are sought in the light of the shortcomings of the existing legislation. New enforcement ...
2010| Ansgar Belke
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DIW Discussion Papers 1081 / 2010
For many analysts, the Chinese economy is spurred by a bubble in the housing market, probably driven by the fiscal stimulus package and massive credit expansion, with pos-sible adverse effects to the real economy. To get insights into the size of the bubble, the house price evolution is investigated by panel cointegration techniques. Evidence is based on a dataset for 35 major cities. Cointegration ...
2010| Christian Dreger, Yanqun Zhang
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DIW Discussion Papers 1080 / 2010
Using high-frequency transaction data for the three largest European markets (France, Germany and Italy), this paper documents the existence of an asymmetric relationship between market liquidity and trading imbalances: when quoted spreads rise (fall) and liquidity falls (increases) buy (sell) orders tend to prevail. Risk-averse market-makers, with inventory-depletion risk being their main concern, ...
2010| Guglielmo Maria Caporale, Alessandro Girardi, Paolo Paesani
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DIW Discussion Papers 1079 / 2010
This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the international naval mission in the Gulf of Aden from 2008-2010, both in terms of its counter-piracy and its counter-terrorism objectives. We draw on arguments developed in the literature of law and economics, detailed statistical analyses and a large number of in depth interviews. Counter-piracy operations are a qualified success: their main effects are ...
2010| Anja Shortland, Marc Vothknecht
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DIW Discussion Papers 1078 / 2010
We study the determinants of sovereign bond yield spreads across 10 EMU countries between Q1/1999 and Q1/2010. We apply a semiparametric time-varying coefficient model to identify, to what extent an observed change in the yield spread is due to a shift in macroeconomic fundamentals or due to altering risk pricing. We find that at the beginning of EMU, the government debt level and the general investors' ...
2010| Kerstin Bernoth, Burcu Erdogan