External refereed essays

One-Stop Shopping as a Cause of Slotting Fees: A Rent-Shifting Mechanism

Consumers increasingly prefer to bundle their purchases into a single shopping trip, inducing complementaries between initially independent or substitutable goods. Taking this one-stop shopping behavior into account, we show that slotting fees may emerge as a result of a rent-shifting mechanism in a three-party negotiation framework, where a monopolistic retailer negotiates sequentially with two suppliers ...

Implications of Mandatory Registration of Mobile Phone Users in Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa ranks among the top regions in terms of growth in the number of mobile phone users. The success of mobile telephony is attributed to the opening of markets for private players and lenient regulatory policy. However, markets may be increasingly saturated and new regulations introduced across Africa could also have a negative impact on future growth. Since 2006, the majority of countries ...

Optimación de las redes de trasmisión eléctrica en Norteamérica

El modelo HRV para la expansión óptima de redes de transmisión: una aplicación a la red eléctrica de Ontario

This paper presents the application of a mechanism that provides incentives to promote transmission network expansion in the electricity system of the Ontario province. Such mechanism combines a merchant approach with a regulatory approach. It is based on the rebalancing of a two-part tariff within the framework of a wholesale electricity market with nodal pricing. The expansion of the network is carried ...

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 rate 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 rate compared to a benchmark naive constant-growth ...

Green Jobs? Economic Impacts of Renewable Energy in Germany

The labor market implications of large investment into renewable energy (RE) are analyzed in this text. Although a growing RE industry can be observed in Germany the overall effect of large increases of RE based electricity and heat generating technologies on the German economy require a careful model based analysis. The applied model PANTA RHEI has been used among others to evaluate the German energy ...

Do Regions with Entrepreneurial Neighbours Perform Better? A Spatial Econometric Approach for German Regions

A Neoclassical production function is used to analyse the effects of knowledge spillovers via entrepreneurship on economic performance of 337 German districts. To take the spatial dependence structure of the data into account, a spatial Durbin model was estimated. The importance of the choice of the appropriate weight matrix is highlighted. Positive knowledge spillover effects via entrepreneurship ...

Entwicklung der Einkommensungleichheit in Deutschland und in der Schweiz seit der Jahrtausendwende

Dieser Beitrag beschreibt und vergleicht die Entwicklung der Einkommensungleichheit in der Schweiz und Deutschland von 2000 bis 2009 mit harmonisierten Daten des SOEP und des SHP. Während die Ungleichheit in Deutschland stark angestiegen ist, hat sie in der Schweiz beim Markteinkommen nur wenig zugenommen und beim verfügbaren Einkommen sogar leicht abgenommen. Die Zerlegung der Ungleichheit nach Altersgruppen, ...

Funding Self-Employment: The Role of Consumer Credit

This article investigates whether self-employed households use consumer loans - in particular, instalment loans and overdrafts - to finance business activities. Controlling for financial and nonfinancial household variables, we show that self-employed households particularly use personal overdrafts significantly more often than employee households. When analysing the correlation between consumer loan ...

A Cross-National Perspective on Unemployment and First Births

This article investigates the impact of unemployment on the likelihood of having a first child. Using micro-data from the European Community Household Panel, I apply event history methods to analyze first-birth decisions in France, West Germany, and the UK (1994-2001). The results highlight weak negative effects of unemployment onfamily formation among men, which can be attributed to the inability ...

What about Coal? Interactions between Climate Policies and the Global Steam Coal Market until 2030

Because of economic growth and a strong increase in global energy demand the demand for fossil fuels and therefore also greenhouse gas emissions are increasing, although climate policy should lead to the opposite effect. The coal market is of special relevance as coal is available in many countries and often the first choice to meet energy demand. In this paper we assess possible interactions between ...

The End of Cheap Coal? A Techno-Economic Analysis until 2030 Using the COALMOD-World Model

Questions about the future availability of inexpensive coal supplies are rising. In this paper a numerical model is developed to investigate the evolution of the international market for steam coal used for electricity generation. The "COALMOD-World" model is an equilibrium model that computes future trade flows, infrastructure investments and prices until 2030. The model includes the major domestic ...

Das Sozio-oekonomische Panel (SOEP)

Das Sozio-oekonomische Panel (SOEP) ist die derzeit größte und am längsten laufende multidisziplinäre Langzeitstudie in Deutschland. Die erste Erhebungswelle fand 1984 in Westdeutschland statt; die Studie wurde dann im Juni 1990 auch auf Ostdeutschland ausgedehnt. Für das SOEP werden seit 1984 in Westdeutschland und seit 1990 in Ostdeutschland jedes Jahr mehr als 20.000 Menschen in über 10.000 Haushalten ...

Analyzing the Costs of Military Engagement

The Strategic Use of Private Quality Standards in Food Supply Chains

We explore the strategic role of private quality standards in food supply chains. Considering two symmetric retailers that are exclusively supplied by a finite number of producers and endogenizing the suppliers' delivery choice, we show that there exist two asymmetric equilibria in the retailers' quality requirements. Our results reveal that the retailers use private quality standards to improve their ...

Dealing with Incomplete Household Panel Data in Inequality Research

In trying to capture complete within-household heterogeneity, household panel surveys typically try to interview all adult household members. Following from this, such surveys tend to suffer from partial unit nonresponse (PUNR), that is, the nonresponse of at least one member of an otherwise participating household, most likely yielding an underestimation of aggregate household income. Using data from ...

Tragen ältere Menschen ein erhöhtes Armutsrisiko? Eine Dekompositions- und Mobilitätsanalyse relativer Einkommensarmut für das wiedervereinigte Deutschland

The Political Economy of the German Länder Deficits: Weak Governments Meet Strong Finance Ministers

We analyse the deficits of the German Länder (regional states) for the period 1960 to 2005 and test a number of hypotheses derived from the literature on the political economy of public deficits. We find evidence for the weak government hypothesis, that is, coalition governments issue significantly more debt than single party governments - a result that is typically explained by the common pool problem. ...

Der Einfluss von Erhebungsformen auf den Postmaterialismus-Index

Locational and Internal Sources of Firm Competitive Advantage: Applying Porter's Diamond Model at the Firm Level

This paper employs Porter's diamond model to examine the relationships between a firm's locational environment, its innovation capabilities, and competitive advantage assessed in terms of various performance indicators. The study implements a structural equation model estimated with the partial least squares (PLS) approach and reveals that frequent cooperation spurs innovation and performance but that, ...