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DIW Discussion Papers 2017 / 2022
The advent of cloud computing promises to improve the way firms utilize IT solutions. Firms are expected to replace large and inflexible fixed-cost investments in IT with more targeted variable spending in cloud solutions. In addition, cloud usage is expected to increase the productivity of firms, as it allows them to quickly customize the IT they require to their specific needs. We assess these assertions ...
2022| Tomaso Duso, Alexander Schiersch
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DIW Discussion Papers 2016 / 2022
I use the universe of tax returns in Germany and a regression kink design to estimate the impact of the benefit amount available to high-earning women after their first childbirth on subsequent within-couple earnings inequality. Lower benefit amounts result in a reduced earnings gap that persists beyond the benefit period for at least nine years after the birth. The longer-term impacts are driven by ...
2022| Sevrin Waights
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DIW Discussion Papers 2015 / 2022
Common ownership - when an investor holds shares in two or more companies - has recently attracted significant attention from policy-makers and researchers, studying mainly US firms. European firms, however, are different as top investors with large stakes, like governments, founding families and foundations are much more prevalent. This paper takes a well-known common ownership with micro-economic ...
2022| Nuria Boot, Jo Seldeslachts, Albert Banal Estanol
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DIW Discussion Papers 2014 / 2022
The purpose of this study is to identify whether an innovative company’s likelihood of facing financial constraints is different when the company possesses a public procurement contract (PP). Theory suggests that the treatment effects of public procurement, particularly when mediated by the demand-pull effect, may lower a company’s funding constraints for innovation. We test this theory and apply extended ...
2022| Dorothea Schäfer, Andreas Stephan, Sören Fuhrmeister
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DIW Discussion Papers 2013 / 2022
We assess the incorporation of wind or solar resource quality into renewable auction design as a means to geographically diversify renewable energy production and to reduce costs to consumers by reducing scarcity rents at sites with high resource quality. With a stylized auction model, we model the trade-off between production costs and consumer costs. After exploring the influence of the heterogeneity ...
2022| Mats Kröger, Karsten Neuhoff, Jörn C. Richstein
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DIW Discussion Papers 2012 / 2022
Does central bank collateral policy contribute to financial market integration? We address this question by exploiting that, in 2007, the European Central Bank replaced national collateral frameworks by a single list. Under the single list regime, euro area banks could pledge all euro area bank loans as collateral, not only domestic loans as before the framework change. Banks holding a large share ...
2022| Pia Hüttl, Matthias Kaldorf
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DIW Discussion Papers 2011 / 2022
Although plutonium has been studied by different disciplines (such as technology and innovation studies, political sciences) since its discovery, back in 1940 at the University of California (Berkeley), the resource and environmental economic literature is still relatively scarce; neither does the energy economic literature on nuclear power consider plutonium specifically, e.g. Davis (2012) or Lévêque ...
2022| Christian von Hirschhausen
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DIW Discussion Papers 2010 / 2022
Natural gas prices in Germany saw a strong increase at the end of 2021, subsequently worsening with the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, raising concerns about the distributional consequences. Our study shows that low-income households are affected the most by the natural gas price increase. Low-income households pay at the median 11.70 percent of their equivalent income on gas bills, ...
2022| Mats Kröger, Maximilian Longmuir, Karsten Neuhoff, Franziska Schütze
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DIW Discussion Papers 2009 / 2022
We use the prolonged Greek crisis as a case study to understand how a lasting economic shock affects the innovation strategies of firms in economies with moderate innovation activities. Adopting the 3-stage CDM model, we explore the link between R&D, innovation, and productivity for different size groups of Greek manufacturing firms during the prolonged crisis. At the first stage, we find that the ...
2022| Ioannis Giotopoulos, Alexander S. Kritikos, Aggelos Tsakanikas
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DIW Discussion Papers 2008 / 2022
This study investigates the effects of short-lived rent control regulations introduced in Catalonia in September 2020 and revoked in March 2022. Using the microdata of the largest Spanish housing advertisement portal idealista between January 2017 and May 2022, we analyze the dynamics of prices and supply for dwellings offered for rent and for sale. We also examine separately the rental and sales markets. ...
2022| Konstantin A. Kholodilin, Fernando A. López, David Rey Blanco, Pelayo González Arbués
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DIW Discussion Papers 2007 / 2022
We examine the medium-term impact of COVID-19 for financial well-being and technology adoption in a low-income country. The analysis is based on regionally representative panel data consisting of 1,975 micro-entrepreneurs from rural Uganda. Using a LASSO approach, we first show that several business characteristics predict longer business shutdown due to COVID-19, including running a service business. ...
2022| Jana Hamdan, Yuanwei Xu
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DIW Discussion Papers 2006 / 2022
It is often argued that institutionalized after-school care (ASC) can benefit children lacking adequate homework support at home and, hence, foster equality of opportunity. However, despite considerable policy interest, it is unclear whether these afternoon programs are beneficial for child development and if selection into them is efficient, i.e., whether students benefiting most from the programs ...
2022| Laura Schmitz
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DIW Discussion Papers 2005 / 2022
We propose a test for time-varying impulse responses in heteroskedastic structural vector autoregressions that can be used when the shocks are identified by external proxy variables as a group. The test can be used even if the shocks are not identified individually. The asymptotic analysis is supported by small sample simulations which show good properties of the test. An investigation of the impact ...
2022| Martin Bruns, Helmut Lütkepohl
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DIW Discussion Papers 2004 / 2022
This paper revives the question of whether a temporary VAT change is an adequate instrument for crisis stabilization. In empirical assessments, we find that durable goods consumption fluctuates strongly over the business cycle and that VAT rate changes affect durable goods in particular. Therefore, we build a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model that is capable of addressing this major ...
2022| Marius Clemens, Werner Röger
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DIW Discussion Papers 2003 / 2022
Steam coal exporters face increasing uncertainty about future coal demand and risks of asset stranding. Nevertheless, new export-oriented coal mine projects are still brought forward. In this study, we use the coal sector model COALMOD-World to assess the economic prospects of investments in the export-oriented steam coal sector, and in particular of coal mines in the Galilee Basin, Australia. We parameterize ...
2022| Christian Hauenstein, Franziska Holz, Lennart Rathje, Thomas Mitterecker
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DIW Discussion Papers 2002 / 2022
We investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-employed people’s mental health. Using representative longitudinal survey data from Germany, we reveal differential effects by gender: whereas self-employed women experienced a substantial deterioration in their mental health, self-employed men displayed no significant changes up to early 2021. Financial losses are important in explaining these ...
2022| Marco Caliendo, Daniel Graeber, Alexander S. Kritikos, Johannes Seebauer
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DIW Discussion Papers 2001 / 2022
To obtain a more complete understanding of the persisting gender earnings gap in Germany, this paper investigates both the cross-sectional and biographical dimension of gender inequalities. Using an Oaxaca Blinder decomposition, we show that the gender gap in annual earnings is largely driven by women’s lower work experience and intensive margin of labor supply. Based on a dynamic microsimulation model, ...
2022| Rick Glaubitz, Astrid Harnack-Eber, Miriam Wetter
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DIW Discussion Papers 2000 / 2022
This paper sheds new light on the role of communication for cartel formation. Using machine learning to evaluate free-form chat communication among firms in a laboratory experiment, we identify typical communication patterns for both explicit cartel formation and indirect attempts to collude tacitly. We document that firms are less likely to communicate explicitly about price fixing and more likely ...
2022| Maximilian Andres, Lisa Bruttel, Jana Friedrichsen
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DIW Discussion Papers 1999 / 2022
In 2020, Berlin introduced a rigorous rent-control policy responding to soaring rents by setting a cap on rental prices: the Mietendeckel (rent freeze). The policy was revoked one year later by the German Constitutional Court. Although successful in reducing rents during its duration, the consequences for Berlin’s rental market and adjacent municipalities are not clear. In this paper we evaluate the ...
2022| Anja M. Hahn, Konstantin A. Kholodilin, Sofie R. Waltl, Marco Fongoni
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DIW Discussion Papers 1998 / 2022
Data is often at the core of digital products and services, especially when related to online advertising. This has made data protection and privacy a major policy concern. When surfing the web, consumers leave digital traces that can be used to build user profiles and infer preferences. We quantify the extent to which Facebook can track web behavior outside of their own platform. The network of engagement ...
2022| Luis Aguiar, Christian Peukert, Maximilian Schäfer, Hannes Ullrich