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DIW Discussion Papers 1075 / 2010
We analyze the dynamic effect of prices and price volatility on current oil production, both on the level of country groups and the major individual producer countries. A comprehensive dataset at monthly frequency allows us to include a rich lag structure while controlling for key global and local determinants as well as seasonality. Our set of explanatory variables also includes real economic activity, ...
2010| Aleksandar Zaklan, Georg Zachmann, Anne Neumann
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DIW Discussion Papers 1071 / 2010
Subsidies are considered important means to facilitate the provision of public transit, yet the empirical evidence implies that they can have harming effects on costs and possibly also on operators' performance. This paper examines the impacts of deficit-balancing subsidies on the cost inefficiency of local public bus companies in Germany, where a complex system allocates ample financial support. Our ...
2010| Maria Nieswand, Matthias Walter
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DIW Discussion Papers 1035 / 2010
To quickly adapt to technological change and developments, and thus remain competitive, firms increasingly resort to the use of external technology. This paper investigates whether and to what extent the acquisition of external disembodied technology affects the efficiency and productivity in innovation of technology acquiring firms. Using the stochastic frontier analysis combined with a difference-in-difference ...
2010| Tseveen Gantumur, Andreas Stephan
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DIW Discussion Papers 1030 / 2010
Boone (2008a) proposes a new competition measure based on Relative Profit Differences (RPD) with superior theoretical properties. However, the empirical applicability and robust-ness of the Boone-Indicator is still unknown. This paper aims to address that question. Using a rich, newly built, data set for German manufacturing enterprises, we test the empirical valid-ity of the Boone-Indicator using ...
2010| Alexander Schiersch, Jens Schmidt-Ehmcke
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DIW Discussion Papers 1018 / 2010
It is argued that the observed return rates on capital at firm-level have an upward bias if firms are producing with unobserved intangible capital. Using EUKLEED, a comprehensive firm level data base for Germany, this theoretical preposition is proved empirically. Furthermore, making unobserved capital observable the dispersion in return rates reduces dramatically. The results clearly support the assumption ...
2010| Bernd Görzig, Martin Gornig
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DIW Discussion Papers 994 / 2010
Better understanding the innovative process of renewable energy technologies is important for tackling climate change. Though concentrating solar power is receiving growing interest, innovation studies so far have explored innovative activity in solar technologies in general, ignoring the major differences between solar photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies. This study relies on patent data to ...
2010| Frauke G. Braun, Liz Hooper, Robert Wand, Petra Zloczysti
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DIW Discussion Papers 993 / 2010
This paper studies technological change in renewable energies, providing empirical evidence on the determinants of innovative activity with a special emphasis on the role of knowledge spillovers. We investigate two major renewable energy technologies - wind and solar - across a panel of 21 OECD countries over the period 1978 to 2004. Spillovers may occur at the national level, either within the same ...
2010| Frauke G. Braun, Jens Schmidt-Ehmcke, Petra Zloczysti
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DIW Discussion Papers 990 / 2010
The paper investigates whether the presence and tenure of Private Equity (PE) investment in European companies improves their performance. Previous studies documented the unambiguous merit of a buyout during the 1980s and 1990s for listed firms in the US and UK markets. This study analyzes such influences in both listed and unlisted European firms during 2002-2007. Our analysis suggests that shortterm ...
2010| Oleg Badunenko, Christopher F. Baum, Dorothea Schäfer
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DIW Discussion Papers 966 / 2009
When unemployed persons go into business, they often are characterized as necessity entrepreneurs, because push factors, namely their unemployment, likely prompted their decision. In contrast to this, business founders who have been previously employed represent opportunity entrepreneurs because pull factors provide the rationale for their decision. However, a data set of nearly 1,900 business start-ups ...
2009| Marco Caliendo, Alexander S. Kritikos
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DIW Discussion Papers 962 / 2009
This paper provides an empirical demonstration for a practical approach of efficiency evaluation against the background of limited data availability in some regulated industries. Here, traditional DEA may result in a lack of discriminatory power when high numbers of variables but only limited observations are available. We apply PCA-DEA for radial efficiency measurement to US natural gas transmission ...
2009| Maria Nieswand, Astrid Cullmann, Anne Neumann