In Germany, the productivity of professional services, a sector dominated by micro and small firms, declined by 40 percent between 1995 and 2014. This productivity decline also holds true for professional services in other European countries. Using a German firm-level dataset of 700,000 observations between 2003 and 2017, we analyze this largely uncovered phenomenon among professional services, the ...
We study the impact of broadband availability on firms’ total factor productivity (TFP) using German firm-level data between 2010 and 2015. We adopt a control function approach to causally identify and separately estimate productivity for 46 two-digit manufacturing and service sectors. Over the sample period, broadband availability, measured by 16 Mbps transmission rates, more than doubled in German ...
After arriving in a new country, refugees are most often dependent on professional support to reestablish their livelihood. It is however well documented that refugees face barriers when seeking access to services aimed at facilitating their settlement and integration. This study examines refugees’ support service needs and their actual utilization and investigates the impact of social and human capital ...
Adding to the rich literature on the economic integration of refugees, this article extends the scope towards the role of institutions by focusing on the transfer of human capital by means of credential recognition. The 2012 Federal Act of Recognition in Germany is a new institution that provides the possibility to study the transfer of human capital in depth. I argue that analysing the decision for ...
This is an online seminar using Cisco Webex. You will receive the login data with the invitation to the talk. Abstract: A fast growing and diverse literature has addressed one of the riddles of economic developments: the declining labor productivity growth in almost all advanced economies. One of the reasons discussed is the shift towards service industries with inherently low...
We here assess the impact of DSL internet access on a set of labour market outcomes of working-age individuals in Germany between 2008 and 2012. Assuming internet access improves the quality of employer-employee matching by reducing search costs, we focus on indicators of job quality: the working hours mismatch, job satisfaction, and the probability of changing job. We draw...
DIW-WissenschaftlerInnen analysieren Auswirkungen von regionalen Beihilfen auf Investitionstätigkeit von Unternehmen – Neue EU-Leitlinien von 2014 erschweren unter anderem Vergabe von Beihilfen an große Unternehmen – Investitionen von Großunternehmen gehen in Folge zurück – Europäisches Rahmenwerk für Regionalbeihilfen sollte nachjustiert werden – ...
Es ist sehr viel passiert seit der Wiedervereinigung, aber die Produktivität ostdeutscher Unternehmen liegt immer noch um die 20 Prozent hinter den westdeutschen Unternehmen zurück. Martin Gornig betont, dass wir einen langen Atem brauchen.