Vorträge des DIW Berlin

Cost Efficiency and Economies of Scale and Density in German Water Distribution

This paper studies the cost structure of water distribution utilities in Germany. Stochastic cost frontier models are applied to an unbalanced panel of 371 observations of 72 companies in the period from 1998 to 2007. The results suggest that some utilities could reduce their costs by more than 20%. Water losses and elevation differences in a service area turn out to be significant cost drivers....

Europe - Challenges after the Economic and Financial Crisis

Structuring Public Support to Address Private Sector Needs

Zur Entwicklung von Forschung, Entwicklung und Innovation in Ostdeutschland

How to Measure Conflict in Micro-Level Surveys

A Topological Analysis of the European Natural Gas Network

Determinants of Internationalization: Differences Between Service and Manufacturing SMEs

Trajectoires professionelles et stratégies de "réussite": le cas de descendants de migrants dans des quartiers défavorisés de Paris et Berlin

Innovative Regionen und Globalisierung

Industrie und Stadt - Symbiose mit Zukunft?

Revisiting the Income-Health Nexus: The Importance of Choosing the 'Right' Indicator

The Effects of Expanding the Generosity of the Statutory Sickness Insurance System

In 1999, in Germany, the statutory sick pay level was increased from 80 to 100 percent of foregone earnings for sickness episodes of up to six weeks. We show that this reform has led to an increase in average absence days of about 10 percent or one additional day per employee, per year. The estimates are based on SOEP survey data and parametric, nonparametric, and combined matching-regression...

Forecasting the Fragility of the Banking and Insurance Sector

Linkages between banks and insurance companies are important when forecasting the fragility of the banking and insurance sectors. We propose a novel empirical framework that allows us to estimate unobserved linkages in panel data sets that contains observed regressors. We find that taking unobserved common factors into account reduces the root mean square forecasts error of firm specific forecasts...

Testing Stock Market Convergence: A Non-linear Factor Approach

This paper applies the Phillips and Sul (2007) method to test for convergence in stock returns to an extensive dataset including monthly stock price indices for five EU countries (Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK) as well as the US over the period 1973-2008. We carry out the analysis on both sectors and individual industries within sectors. As a first step, we use the Stock and...

The Carry Trade and the Adjustment of the Japanese Yen: Evidence from a Markov-Switching Vector Autoregression Model

Carry trades are speculative activities which involve simultaneously going short a low-rate currency and long a high-rate currency. They are profitable as long as the gains from interest rate differentials are not offset by exchange rate movements. In this paper I investigate the dynamic relationships amongst exchange rate changes, interest rate spreads and carry trades by means of a Markov...

Credit Crunch in Germany, Novelty or Reality?

The availability of credit has been an issue of particular concern in Germany during the financial meltdown of 2008-2009. Contraction of loans, especially business loans, together with an ongoing recession led to a growing fear about an upcoming shortage in lending. This paper analyses existence of a possible "credit crunch" in Germany by employing a disequilibrium model. The downward course of...

Assessing the Real-Time Informational Content of Macroeconomic Data Releases for Now-/Forecasting GDP: Evidence for Switzerland

This study utilizes the dynamic factor model of Giannone et al. (2008) in order to make now-/forecasts of GDP quarter-on-quarter growth rates in Switzerland. It also assesses the informational content of macroeconomic data releases for forecasting of the Swiss GDP. We find that the factor model offers a substantial improvement in forecast accuracy of GDP growth rates compared to a benchmark naive...

The German Data Forum - Its Role for Germany and Europe

Frauen in Führungspositionen: wann kommt Frau Ackermann?: Frauen und Männer in Führungspositionen in der Privatwirtschaft in Deutschland

Innovation and Regional Policy in Europe