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DIW Discussion Papers 525 / 2005
Economic disparities between the regions of the European Union are of constant concern both for policy and economic research. In this paper we examine whether there are overlapping trends of regional development in the EU: overall convergence on the one hand and persistent or even increasing spatial concentration (agglomeration) on the other. Kernel density estimation, Markov chain analysis and cross-sectional ...
2005| Kurt Geppert, Michael Happich, Andreas Stephan
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DIW Discussion Papers 513 / 2005
The vast majority of regions in West Germany, and the EU, have become more similar in terms of per-capita income and productivity between 1980 and 2000. But a number of rich areas - generally large agglomerations - have succeeded in departing from this trend of convergence. They are continuing to rise above the average productivity level. We examine whether this development can also be seen as due ...
2005| Kurt Geppert, Martin Gornig, Axel Werwatz
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DIW Discussion Papers 508 / 2005
We estimate the political economy determinants of budget deficit forecast errors. Since the adoption of the Stability Pact, Eurozone governments have manipulated forecasts before elections. The political orientation and the institutional design of governments also affects the quality of forecasts.
2005| Tilman Brück, Andreas Stephan
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DIW Discussion Papers 507 / 2005
While previous research found no other variable than corruption to have a negative impact on (the growth rate of) the African countries' elephant populations, we show that one further significant impact is exerted by what one might call neighbourhood effects. Elephants travel long distances, often crossing borders. Using spatial econometric tools, we find that elephant population changes in one country ...
2005| Björn Frank, Per Botolf Maurseth
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DIW Discussion Papers 480 / 2005
In this paper we investigate the link between entrepreneurship and financial constraints. We develop a dynamic partial equilibrium model of an individual utility maximization that predicts that the person is more likely to start her business when financial constraints are eased. We test this hypothesis using German Socio-Economic Panel data covering the periods 2000 - 2002 and measure release from ...
2005| Dorothea Schäfer, Oleksandr Talavera
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DIW Discussion Papers 479 / 2005
Competition is claimed to be beneficial in development projects promoting micro and small enterprise finance although there are still some doubts whether these loans can be developed into a profitable business. Actually nothing is known about how many MSE banking units optimally should be created and supported in a certain region. Our research aims at shedding new light on this important issue in development ...
2005| Dorothea Schäfer, Boriss Siliverstovs, Eva Terberger
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DIW Discussion Papers 478 / 2005
A new approach in German innovation policy organizes contests of proposals for developing innovation networks. Based on an overview of the different programs, we investigate the advantages, problems and limitations of such an approach. We find that this type of policy may have a relatively large impact and can, therefore, be regarded as a rather efficient instrument of innovation policy. Compared to ...
2005| Alexander Eickelpasch, Michael Fritsch
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DIW Discussion Papers 458 / 2004
This paper proposes a simultaneous-equation approach to the estimation of the contribution of transport infrastructure accumulation to regional growth. We model explicitly the political-economy process driving infrastructure investments; in doing so, we eliminate a potential source of bias in production-function estimates and generate testable hypotheses on the forces that shape infrastructure policy. ...
2004| Olivier Cadot, Lars-Hendrik Röller, Andreas Stephan
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DIW Discussion Papers 457 / 2004
Using micro-level panel data of about 35,000 firms from the German Cost Structure Census, we analyze the differences of technical efficiency across industries. Technical efficiency is estimated by firms' fixed effects. One striking result is that the distribution of technical efficiency across industries is positively skewed. This is because the efficiency distribution is truncated at the lower end ...
2004| Michael Fritsch, Andreas Stephan
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DIW Discussion Papers 453 / 2004
This paper analyzes the distribution of technical efficiency within manufacturing industries. Using a representative sample of 35,000 firms in 255 industries of the German cost structure census, technical efficiencies are estimated by applying a deterministic frontier production function with firmspecific fixed effects. A new measure is also introduced for characterizing the extent of heterogeneity ...
2004| Michael Fritsch, Andreas Stephan