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DIW Discussion Papers 2158 / 2026
This paper highlights an underexplored margin of heterogeneity that shapes resilience to disruptions in global maritime trade - the differential reliance of countries and sectors on specific categories of vessels. We combine US bills of lading records with ship registry and AIS-based port call data to document new stylized facts on vessel deployment, including switching patterns across ships, country ...
2026| Sonali Chowdhry, Inga Heiland, Hendrik Mahlkow
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DIW Discussion Papers 2154 / 2026
This paper examines the “right” geographic definition of relevant markets by analyzing how excise tax pass-through varies with local competition in the retail gasoline market of a large metropolitan city. Using a natural experiment from three unanticipated and exogenous fuel tax hikes and detailed station-level price data, we show that average pass-through is invariant to the number of nearby competitors ...
2026| Christos Genakos, Themistoklis Kampouris
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DIW Discussion Papers 2145 / 2025
Trade conflicts, geopolitical tensions, digital disruption, and the climate crisis pose major challenges for the European Union (EU) and its member states. As called for in the Draghi Report, industrial policy measures can increase competitiveness, strengthen resilience, and facilitate the twin transformation. This article explores ways in which competition policy can be realigned to better accommodate ...
2025| Tomaso Duso, Martin Peitz
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DIW Discussion Papers 2144 / 2025
This paper studies the labor market impact of structural change by distinguishing between industry- and occupation-based measures of manufacturing and service employment. Using German data from 1975–2019, we find that 67% of manufacturing jobs lost in manufacturing industries are offset by new manufacturing jobs in service industries. Linking these aggregate patterns to worker-level outcomes, we show ...
2025| Dominik Boddin, Thilo Kroeger
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DIW Discussion Papers 2136 / 2025
This paper shows that in an economy where distortions prevent firms from using their profit-maximizing amounts of capital and labor, removing these distortions can generate both an efficiency gain and a higher aggregate labor share. We use firm-level data on Chinese manufacturing, mining, and public utilities in 2005 and estimate a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous productivity, technology, ...
2025| Xiaoyue Zhang, Junjie Xia
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DIW Discussion Papers 2133 / 2025
Carbon pricing policies are usually combined with compensation for exposed firms to prevent adverse competitiveness effects. In cap-and-trade systems, this carbon cost compensation mostly occurs through free allocation of emission permits. Using an administrative panel of German manufacturing firms, this paper investigates how free allocation in the European Union Emissions Trading System affects firms’ ...
2025| Till Köveker, Robin Sogalla
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DIW Discussion Papers 2131 / 2025
Competition authorities increasingly rely on economic screening tools to identify markets where firms deviate from competitive norms. Traditional screening methods assume that collusion occurs through secret agreements. However, recent research highlights that firms can use public announcements to coordinate decisions, reducing competition while avoiding detection. We propose a novel approach to screening ...
2025| Tomaso Duso, Joseph E. Harrington Jr., Carl Kreuzberg, Geza Sapi
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DIW Discussion Papers 2128 / 2025
This paper provides empirical evidence on which M&A deals spur innovation, and which stifle it. To do so, we consider not only the product market position of the acquiring firm, but also the position of both target and acquirer in the technology space. Focusing on the antidiabetic drugs market, our dataset tracks the lifecycle and patenting of all individual antidiabetic projects in development between ...
2025| Jan Malek, Jo Seldeslachts, Reinhilde Veugelers
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DIW Discussion Papers 2126 / 2025
This paper revisits the exporter’s environmental premium (EEP) by incorporating emissions embodied in domestically and internationally sourced intermediate inputs. Combining administrative firm-level data and customs records for German manufacturers with an environmentally extended input-output table and fuel specific emission factors, we document three stylized facts: (i) embodied emissions account ...
2025| Till Köveker, Philipp M. Richter, Alexander Schiersch, Robin Sogalla
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DIW Discussion Papers 2116 / 2025
The Covid-19 pandemic caused a global economic crisis, leading governments to provide substantial State Aid to support firms. This paper examines the effectiveness of Covid-related financial support in Spain and Italy, focusing on its impact on firm recovery. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach combined with propensity score weighting, it compares outcomes of similar firms receiving aid ...
2025| Giulia Canzian, Elena Crivellaro, Tomaso Duso, Antonella Rita Ferrara, Alessandro Sasso, Stefano Verzillo