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DIW Discussion Papers 915 / 2009
This paper quantifies the impact of incentives related to potential membership on institutional change as measured by the World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI). Based on a panel of 25 transition countries for the period from 1996 to 2008 we show that pre-accession incentives provided by EU and NATO clearly matter for institutional development. In addition, path-dependency determined by cultural norms ...
2009| Ansgar Belke, Ingo Bordon, Inna Melnykovska, Rainer Schweickert
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DIW Discussion Papers 912 / 2009
The effects of inter-government fiscal arrangements on variation in regional economic growth are analyzed for Russia, a country with large cross-regional differences and considerable fiscal redistribution. Moreover, fiscal reforms implemented in the first half of 2000s, which followed to some extent scientific advice, make analysis of this case particularly interesting. We observe that post-reform ...
2009| Lev Freinkman, Konstantin A. Kholodilin, Ulrich Thießen
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DIW Discussion Papers 911 / 2009
The purpose of this contribution is to illustrate the mechanism by which higher oil prices might lead to lower interest rates in the context of a simple model that takes into account the global external savings equilibrium. The simple model has interesting implications for how one views the huge US current account deficit and how the emergence of China's savings surplus and oil supply shocks impact ...
2009| Ansgar Belke, Daniel Gros
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DIW Discussion Papers 909 / 2009
This paper estimates a time-varying AR-GARCH model of inflation producing measures of inflation uncertainty for the euro area, and investigates the linkages between them in a VAR framework, also allowing for the possible impact of the policy regime change associated with the start of EMU in 1999. The main findings are as follows. Steady-state inflation and inflation uncertainty have declined steadily ...
2009| Guglielmo Maria Caporale, Luca Onorante, Paolo Paesani
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DIW Discussion Papers 906 / 2009
This study assesses the relative performance of Greek equity funds employing a non-parametric method, specifically Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Using an original sample of cost and operational attributes we explore the effect of each variable on funds' operational efficiency for an oligopolistic and bank-dominated fund industry. Our results have significant implications for the investors' fund ...
2009| Vassilios Babalos, Guglielmo Maria Caporale, Nikolaos Philippas
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DIW Discussion Papers 898 / 2009
This paper examines the interactions between money, consumer prices and commodity prices at a global level from 1970 to 2008. Using aggregated data for major OECD countries and a cointegrating VAR framework, we are able to establish long run and short run relationships among these variables while the process is mainly driven by global liquidity. According to our empirical findings, different price ...
2009| Ansgar Belke, Ingo G. Bordon, Torben W. Hendricks
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DIW Discussion Papers 896 / 2009
In a standard dynamic stochastic general equilibrium framework, with sticky prices, the cross sectional distribution of output and inflation across a population of firms is studied. The only form of heterogeneity is confined to the probability that the ith changes its prices in response to a shock. In this Calvo setup the moments of the cross sectional distribution of output and inflation depend crucially ...
2009| Jörg Döpke, Michael Funke, Sean Holly, Sebastian Weber
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DIW Discussion Papers 895 / 2009
Low international competitiveness of a set of euro area countries, which have become evident by large current account deficits and rising risk premiums on government bonds, is one of the most challenging economic policy issues for Europe. We analyse the role of private restructuring and public structural reforms for the urgently needed readjustment of intra-euro area imbalances. A panel regression ...
2009| Holger Zemanek, Ansgar Belke, Gunther Schnabl
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DIW Discussion Papers 891 / 2009
This paper analyses the long memory properties of quarterly real output per capita in the US (1948Q1 - 2008Q3) using non-parametric, semi-parametric and parametric techniques. The results vary substantially depending on the methodology employed. Evidence of mean reversion is obtained in a parametric context if the underlying disturbances are weakly autocorrelated. We also examine the possibility of ...
2009| Guglielmo Maria Caporale, Luis A. Gil-Alana
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DIW Discussion Papers 885 / 2009
This paper examines the integration of stock markets in Germany, France, Netherlands, Ireland and UK over January 1973-August 2008 at the aggregate market and industry level considering the following industries: basic materials, consumer goods, industrials, consumer services, health care and financials. The analysis is carried out by using correlation analysis, ß-convergence and s-convergence methods. ...
2009| Burcu Erdogan