A joint research project at the European University Viadrina, DIW Berlin and the Polish Academy of Science has investigated how companies assess their locational conditions and whether there is a relationship between location attributes and the company performance. In both countries the majority of companies assessed the same location attributes as being important or unimportant for the company's performance. Some remarkable differences were found in the evaluation of locational quality. In both countries, the supply of skilled employees is deemed to be the most important quality criterion of a location, and the current situation regarding this location factor is assessed as satisfactory. The companies in Poland more often evaluate the supply of training and qualification facilities as important compared to companies in East Germany, and the availability is assessed as good in both regions. Less important are traffic conditions. This is-not unexpectedly-assessed worse by Polish companies compared to the East German ones. The support by chambers of commerce is more often important for the Polish companies compared to East German ones. This potentially reflects the different importance of commercial authorities in both countries. Local administration is on average rated worse by the East German companies compared to Polish counterparts.

The traditional approach to measuring allocative efficiency exploits input prices, which are rarely known at the firm level. This paper proves allocative efficiency can be measured as a profit-oriented distance to the frontier in a profit-technical efficiency space. This new approach does not require information on input prices. To validate the new approach, we perform a Monte-Carlo experiment providing evidence that the estimates of allocative efficiency employing the new and the traditional approach are highly correlated. Finally, as an illustration, we apply the new approach to a sample of about 900 enterprises from the chemical manufacturing industry in Germany.

Eine möglichst breite Streuung der Geldanlagengilt als eine wichtige Strategie der Risikominimierungbei Investitionsentscheidungen. Die Mehrzahlder Haushalte in Deutschland streut auch ihrGeldvermögen über mehrere Anlageformen. IhrAnlageverhalten stimmt jedoch nur bedingt mitder von Haushaltsvorständen bekundeten Risikobereitschaftüberein. Dies zeigt eine aktuelle empirischeStudie auf Basis des Sozio-oekonomischenPanels (SOEP). So steigt zwar die Wahrscheinlichkeit,seine Anlagen zu streuen tendenziell mit derRisikoaversion an, allerdings nur solange es sichnicht um einen „vollständig gestreuten Anlagekorb“handelt. Die Neigung, ein Portfolio mit allenAnlageformen zu halten, nimmt mit wachsenderScheu vor dem Risiko ab. Offenbar entscheidenHaushaltsvorstände nach dem bereits von Keynespropagierten Prinzip: Sicherheit und Liquiditätkommen zuerst. Die Bereitschaft in riskantere Anlagenzu investieren, steigt mit der Anzahl bereitsbestehender sicherer Anlagen im Portfolio.

This paper explores the relationship between the self-declared risk aversion of private investors and theirpropensity to hold incomplete portfolios of financial assets. The analysis is based on household surveydata from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) that provides a reliable measure of individual attitudestoward financial risk. Our findings suggest that more risk averse households tend to hold incompleteportfolios consisting mainly of a few risk-free assets. We also find that the propensity to acquire additionalassets is highly dependent on whether liquidity and safety needs are met.

The broadest possible diversification of investments is considered an important strategy for minimizing investment risk. Most households in Germany do distribute their financial assets over several types of investment. However, investment behavior is only partially consistent with the overall readiness for risk-taking reported by heads of households. This is demonstrated by a current empirical study based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). The probability of diversification does tend to rise according to the degree of risk aversion, yet not when it comes to a ""fully diversified investment basket."" With a higher fear of risk, the tendency to fill a portfolio with every kind of investment falls. Clearly, households make decisions in keeping with a principle propagated by Keynes: security and liquidity come first. The readiness to invest in riskier assets rises with the number of secure investments already in place in the portfolio.

This paper investigates the link between the optimal level of non-financial firms' liquid assets and uncertainty. We develop a partial equilibrium model of precautionary demand for liquid assets showing that firms alter their liquidity ratio in response to changes in either macroeconomic or idiosyncratic uncertainty. We test this hypothesis using a panel of non-financial US firms drawn from the COMPUSTAT quarterly database covering the period 1993–2002. The results indicate that firms increase their liquidity ratios when macroeconomic uncertainty or idiosyncratic uncertainty increases.

This paper examines the link between offshoring and technical change measured by patent and total factor productivity in order to sort out the causality. It applies instrumental variable and matching approaches on a panel of more than 7000 Swedish manufacturing firms over the period 2001?2014, and identify offshoring-related intermediate imports by the United Nations Broad Economic Categories system. Accounting for self-selection and reverse causality, no impact of offshoring on TFP is found and only weak effect on patenting.

This article examines the wage earnings of refugee immigrants in Sweden. Using administrative employer-employee data from 1990 onward, approximately 100,000 refugee immigrants who arrived between 1980 and 1996 and were granted asylum are compared to a matched sample of native-born workers. Employing recentered influence function (RIF) quantile regressions to wage earnings for the period 2011-2015, the occupational-task-based Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach shows that refugees perform better than natives at the median wage, controlling for individual and firm characteristics. This overperformance is attributable to female refugee immigrants. Given their characteristics, refugee immigrant females perform better than native females across all occupational tasks studied, including non-routine cognitive tasks. A notable similarity of the wage premium exists among various refugee groups, suggesting that cultural differences and the length of time spent in the host country do not have a major impact.

This paper examines the wage earnings of fully-employed refugee immigrants in Sweden. Using administrative employer-employee data from 1990 and onwards, about 100,000 refugee immigrants who arrived between 1980 and 1996 and were granted asylum are compared to a matched sample of native-born workers. Employing recentered influence function (RIF) quantile regressions for the period 2011–2015 to wage earnings, the occupational task-based Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition approach shows that refugees perform better than natives at the median wage, controlling for individual and firm characteristics. This overperformance is due to female refugee immigrants, who have higher wages than comparable native-born female peers up to the 8th decile of the wage distribution. Refugee immigrant females perform better than native females across all occupational tasks studied, including non-routine cognitive tasks. A remarkable similarity exists in the relative wage distributions among various refugee groups, suggesting that cultural differences and the length of time spent in the host country do not significantly affect their labor market performance.

Ingress: Flertalet studier av löneskillnader mellan flyktinginvandrare och - inödda svenskar tar inte hänsyn till yrkestillhörighet. På nästan halva den svenska arbetsmarknaden tjänar personer med flyktingbakgrund som etablerat sig på arbetsmarknaden lika mycket eller mer än kontrollgruppen.

This paper investigates the link between the optimal level of nonfinancial firms’ short‐term leverage and macroeconomic and idiosyncratic sources of uncertainty. We develop a structural model of a firm’s value maximization problem that predicts a negative relationship between uncertainty and optimal levels of borrowing. This proposition is tested using a panel of nonfinancial U.S. firms drawn from the COMPUSTAT quarterly database covering the period 1993–2003. The estimates confirm that as either form of uncertainty increases, firms decrease their levels of short‐term leverage. This effect is stronger for macroeconomic uncertainty than for idiosyncratic uncertainty. 

We apply a generalized structural equation model approach to the estimation of the relationship between R&D, innovation and productivity that focuses on the potentially crucial heterogeneity across sectors. The model accounts for selectivity and handles the endogeneity of this relationship in a recursive framework which allows for feedback effects from productivity to future R&D investment. Our approach enables the estimation of the different equations as one system, allowing the coefficients to differ across sectors, and also permits us to take cross-equation correlation of the errors into account. Employing a panel of Swedish manufacturing and service firms observed in three consecutive Community Innovation Surveys in the period 2008–2012, our full-information maximum likelihood estimates show that many key channels of influence among the model's components vary meaningfully in their statistical significance and magnitude across six different sectors based on the OECD classification on technological and knowledge intensity. These results cast doubt on earlier research which does not allow for sectoral heterogeneity.

This paper studies the reaction of the Euro's value againstmajor currencies to sovereign rating announcements from Moody's, S&P and Fitch CRAs during the Eurozone debt crisis in 2010--2012 based on eventstudy methodology combined with GARCH models. We also analyze how theyields of French, Italian, German and Spanish government long-term bondswere affected by CRA announcements. Our results reveal that CRA downgrades, watchlist and outlook announcements had no impact on the value of the Euro currency but increased exchange rate volatility. At the same time, downgrades as well as negative outlook announcements increased the yields of French, Italian, and Spanish bonds and evenaffected the German bond's yields. This shows that the monetary union hasled to a breakdown of the consequences of the rating shocks between currency value and sovereign bond yields. The reason is that part of the rating shock is absorbed by an internal repricing of sovereign bonds.

This paper investigates whether board directors interlocked with or employed by innovative firms affect start-up firms’ propensity to be innovators themselves. Drawing upon a sample of more than 50,000 Swedish start-up firms, we find that board connections to incumbent innovators have a causal impact on the new firms’ probability to apply for patents. The results are robust when controlling for industry, geography, firm age, as well as spillovers through worker and managerial mobility, external knowledge sourcing through patent disclosure, access to venture capital and board attributes.

Forschung und Entwicklung (FuE) und Innovation wurden in der ostdeutschen Wirtschaft vorwiegend bei kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen (KMU) sowohl mit bundesweiten als auch mit regionalspezifischen Programmen bis zuletzt kräftig gefördert. Im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie (BMWi) hat das DIW Berlin unter Mitwirkung der SÖSTRA GmbH eine Bilanz dieser Förderung gezogen und deren einzel- und gesamtwirtschaftliche Wirkungen im letzten Jahrzehnt geprüft. In den turbulenten Zeiten der Gründung und Neuorientierung hat die Förderung Anreize für Investitionen in FuE gegeben, die auf das Wachstum und die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Unternehmen zunehmend positiv wirken. Dennoch haben viele der noch jungen KMU weiterhin Probleme bei der Eigenfinanzierung von FuE und Innovation, bei der Gewinnung qualifizierter Nachwuchskräfte und bei der Umsetzung von FuE-Ergebnissen auf dem Markt. Gesamtwirtschaftlich ist die Verbesserung der Leistungsfähigkeit des ostdeutschen wirtschaftsnahen Innovationssystems kaum spürbar, weil es insgesamt nur wenige, überwiegend kleine FuE-treibende Unternehmen gibt. Deshalb sollte der Bund in Ostdeutschland auch künftig besondere Anreize für das innovationsbasierte Wachstum der KMU sowie für die regionale und überregionale Kooperation und Vernetzung mit Forschungseinrichtungen setzen. Dazu gehören auch die Unterstützung technologieorientierter Gründungen und die Ansiedlung FuE-intensiver Produktionen.

A new method for constructing R&D capital stocks is proposed and tested. Following Schumpeter, the development of R&D capital stocks is modelled as a process of creative destruction. Newly generated knowledge is assumed not only to add to the existing R&D capital stocks but also, by displacing old knowledge, to destroy part of that capital. This is in stark contrast to the perpetual inventory method, which postulates a constant rate of depreciation. We compare both methods by estimating the impact of R&D and spillovers on output of 9 industries in 12 OECD countries, and find that the new approach leads to more sensible and robust results.

The authors assess the political economy determinants of budget deficit forecast errors. Their econometric analysis indicates that Eurozone governments have manipulated deficit forecasts before elections since the introduction of the Stability and Growth Pact. The left-right position and the institutional design of governments also affect the quality of deficit forecasts.

This paper proposes a simultaneous-equation approach to the estimation of the contribution of transport infrastructure accumulation to regional growth. We model explicitly the political-economy process driving infrastructure investments; in doing so, we eliminate a potential source of bias in production–function estimates and generate testable hypotheses on the forces that shape infrastructure policy. Our empirical findings on a panel of France's regions over 1985–92 suggest that electoral concerns and influence activities were, indeed, significant determinants of the cross-regional allocation of transportation infrastructure investments. By contrast, we find little evidence of concern for the maximization of economic returns to infrastructure spending, even after controlling for pork-barrel.

This special issue of the Eurasian Economic Review delves into the critical relationships between macro-financial policy frameworks and environmental sustainability, emphasizing the urgent challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. These environmental crises pose significant threats to global economic and financial stability, underscoring the necessity of integrating environmental considerations into macro-financial policies to foster sustainability and resilience in economic policymaking. Through a collection of research papers, this issue explores innovative strategies for developing comprehensive policy frameworks that harmonize monetary, financial, and fiscal policies with environmental objectives. It emphasizes the need for advanced methods to assess and manage the financial risks of climate change and environmental degradation. Underscoring the need for a multidisciplinary approach, the research advocates for the collaboration of economists, environmental scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders to develop effective macro-financial policies. These policies aim to mitigate environmental risks, enhance environmental sustainability, and preserve biodiversity. The issue calls for further research to refine models that accurately predict the macro-financial impacts of environmental risks and assess the effectiveness of policy measures, paving the way for a sustainable future in the face of escalating environmental challenges.

Our study provides evidence for firms' evaluation of location quality. We use a 2004 survey of 6,000 East German firms that contained questions on the importance and assessment of 15 different location factors ranging from closeness to customers and suppliers, transport infrastructure, and proximity to research institutions and universities, as well as questions about the local financial institutions and region's ""image"". The results show (1) a great dealof heterogeneity in terms of which firm- or regional-level characteristics are important in the evaluation of a specic location factor, (2) that the model's explanatory power is, overall, low and thus neither location characteristics nor internal factors are fully reected in the perceptions, (3) that a firm's business situation and whether a location factor is considered important have explanatory power for perception. One policy-relevant conclusion that we derive from these findings is that location policy should consider firms' perception of a specific location in addition to improving the actual attributes of that location.

Om gruv- och stålindustrin menar allvar med att öka det egna medvetandet om vad som är cirkulärt, så måste omställningen börja nu. Det skriver debattörer i en slutreplik om kalkbrytningen på Gotland. 

Ett Natura 2000-område på Gotland – som sätter stopp för kalkbrytning – kan öppna upp för en omställning av svensk basindustri. Kalk är viktig för industrin. Men mineralerna behöver inte nödvändigtvis tas från jordskorpan, skriver nio forskare.

Beim Vergleich zweier Stichproben werden häufig Unterschiede hinsichtlich von Lagemaβen wie auch hinsichtlich von Streuungsmaβen getestet. Letztere Analyse findet zum Beispiel im Bereich der Qualitätskontrolle Anwendung, in welcher die Verlässlichkeit der Produktion (ausgedrückt durch die Streuung) über die Zeit konstant bleiben soll. Während einige nichtparametrische Methoden wie der Rangkorrelationskoeffizient oder der Mann-Whitney-U Test mittlerweile zum Standardrepertoire der Lehre gehören, werden andere nichtparametrische Methoden nur selten behandelt (Sprent und Smeeton, 2007). McGrath und Yeh (2005) weisen darauf hin, dass insbesondere für die hier vorgestellten Dispersionstests viele einführende Statistiklehrbücher nicht auf die Schwächen des sehr häufig dargestellten F-Testes verweisen und auch keine Alternativen zu diesem Test präsentieren. Der vorliegende Beitrag versucht den Kenntnisstand über alternative nicht-parametrische Dispersionstests zu verbessern.

Den nödvändiga gruvbrytningen bör koncentreras tillområden där den gör störst nytta för klimatet och minst skadaför människor och miljö. Kallak är inget sådant område.

Der Beitrag arbeitet die Heterogenität von Unternehmen innerhalb von Branchen hinsichtlich ihrer technischen Effizienz heraus. Datengrundlage sind die Mikrodaten der Kostentrukturerhebung im Verarbeitenden Gewerbe in Deutschland. Die technische Effizienz wird im Rahmen der Schätzung einer Translog-Produktionsfunktion als unternehmensspezifischer fixer Effekt ermittelt. Innerhalb von Branchen bestehen in der Regel große Unterschiede hinsichtlich der technischen Effizienz. Diese Unterschiede werden beispielhaft für einige Branchen grafisch veranschaulicht. Die durchschnittliche Effizienz der Kleinunternehmen liegt etwas höher als in der Gruppe der Großunternehmen, was auf verschiedene Ursachen zurückgeführt werden kann. Abschließend werden weitere Analysepotenziale der Kostenstrukturerhebung für Forschung und Politikberatung skizziert.

We introduce a two-dimensional measure for the heterogeneity of performance within groups. It leads to a much more differentiated description of heterogeneity than alternative measures and it is relatively robust with regard to extreme values of small units (‘outliers’).

Die jeweiligen Standortfaktoren in einer Region sind für die Innovationsfähigkeit von Unternehmen von großer Bedeutung. Dies ist das zentrale Ergebnis einer vom DIW Berlin im Juni 2004 veranstalteten internationalen Konferenz, an der namhafte Experten aus Wissenschaft und Politik teilnahmen. Die vorgelegten Studien zeigen, dass sich die positiven Einflussfaktoren auf die Innovationstätigkeit regional erheblich unterscheiden können. Dies legt eine stärkere regionale Differenzierung der Innovationspolitik nahe. Darüber hinaus kann Regionalisierung auch bedeuten, die regionale Ebene stärker bei der Implementation der Maßnahmen einzubeziehen. Projekt- bzw. Ideenwettbewerbe zwischen den Regionen scheinen vielversprechende Instrumente zu sein, um zu einer erfolgreichen regionalisierten Innovationspolitik zu gelangen.

This paper uses network approaches to subsidiary theory to investigate the performance impacts of interactions among the factors of autonomy, intra-organizational network relationships, and inter-organizational network relationships. The paper offers an analysis of both direct and indirect interactions among these factors. This study develops and extends existing research that uses network-based approaches in studies of subsidiary performance by considering the roles of autonomy and network relationships. In addition, the study examines changes in terms of increases in the interactions between the main factors rather than the levels of these factors. The examination of the interactions between increases in autonomy and networks and the subsequent impact of this change on performance contributes to a better understanding of subsidiary evolution. The results, which are based on data gathered from a survey of 350 foreign-owned subsidiaries in the UK, Germany, and Denmark, reveal complex interactions between increases in autonomy and network relationships, and the subsequent impact of these changes on performance. The results also highlight the central role of inter-organizational network relationships in the interaction between the factors, which produce significant and positive effects.

This paper considers the proportion of skilled labour employed by subsidiaries in small countries in the context of the strategic role of subsidiaries. Strategic role is connected to autonomy and intra-organisational relationships and the mandates given to the subsidiary. In the paper, we draw on the literature on the strategic development of multinational corporations, and insights from inward foreign direct investments in small developed countries. This ispresented in a unifying framework in order to predict diverse categorizations of the impact of subsidiary role on the proportion of their employment of skilled labour. The paper derives two propositions that postulate interactions between three roles containing different levels of autonomy and intra-organisational relationships in small developed countries that lead to different proportions of skilled labour in subsidiaries. We predict the highest proportion of skilled labour by subsidiaries located in small developed countries in the case of world mandates when autonomous-based operations are emphasized. When there is an emphasis on intra-organizational relationships, measured by product flowsand integrated international value-chain configurations, we predict the proportion of skilled labour to be highest in the cases of specialized contributors. We propose the proportion of skilled labour to be lowest in the case of local implementers.

This paper examines several characteristics of foreign subsidiaries with low autonomy. Data derived from a survey of 381 MNC subsidiaries located in Denmark, Germany and the UK demonstrate that low-autonomy subsidiaries are highly embedded in their respective MNC networks and that they establish a high number of intra-organizational relationships. Furthermore, such subsidiaries are typically managed by nationals of the MNC’s headquarters home country. Despite the fact that such subsidiaries have low autonomy, they employ a high proportion of professional staff members. We find a negative relationship between lower autonomy and the production activities carried out by the subsidiary. In fact, low-autonomy subsidiaries appear to be specialized in that they focus on a few value-chain activities and they typically serve as marketing outlets.

The worldwide telecommunications equipment industry has experienced an enormous number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). This article examines the innovation determinants of M&A activity and the consequences of M&A on technological potential and innovation performance. We extend the resource-based theory in elucidating external technology sourcing and provide empirical evidence on the keen reliance of the equipment firms on M&A as a technology sourcing strategy for the period 1988–2004. Employing the matching propensity score approach, this study provides evidence that mergers realize a significant growth in the innovation performance of firms. The postmerger innovation performance, in turn, is driven by both the prior success of in-house R&D commitment and the deterioration of internal technological capabilities at acquiring firms.

Economic disparities between the regions of the European Union are of constant concern both for policy and economic research. In this paper, we examine whether there are overlapping trends of regional development in the EU: overall convergence, on the one hand, and persistent or even increasing spatial concentration (agglomeration), on the other. Kernel density estimation, Markov chain analysis and cross-sectional regressions provide evidence that convergence of regional per-capita income in the EU15 has become considerably stronger in the 1990s. The reduction of income disparities, however, is a phenomenon between nations but not between regions within the EU countries. European integration (and possibly European regional policy) fosters the catching-up of lagging countries but at the same time forces towards agglomeration of economic activities tend to increase disparities within the EU member states.

Using the framework provided by the Porter hypothesis, we study the impact of environmental regulations and enforcement policies on plant-level green total factor productivity (TFP) growth and its components related to efficiency change and technical change. The detailed microdata we use are from Sweden and for the pulp and paper industry. This industry is the source of significant amounts of water and air pollution and is one of the most heavily environmentally regulated manufacturing industries. Sweden has a unique decentralized regulatory structure where the manufacturing plants have to comply with plant-specific regulatory standards stipulated at the national level, as well as decentralized local supervision and enforcement. Our empirical results point to beneficial impacts of the environmental policies on plants' green TFP growth and sustainable production practices. We also find that political economy considerations are important, as the presence of the Green Party and aspects like plant size (with corresponding local and regional economic effects) matter in enforcement of the standards.

The governments of most advanced countries offer some type of financial subsidy to encourage firm innovation and productivity. This paper analyzes the effects of innovation subsidies using a unique Swedish database that contains firm level data for the period 1997–2011, specifically informa tion on firm subsidies over a broad range of programs. Applying causal treatment effect analysis based on matching and a diff-in-diff approach combined with a qualitative case study of Swedish innovation subsidy programs, we test whether such subsidies have positive effects on firm performance. Our results indicate a lack of positive performance effects in the long run for the majority of firms, albeit there are positive short-run effects on human capital investments and also positive short-term productivity effects for the smallest firms. These findings are interpreted from a robust political economy perspective that reveals that the problems of acquiring correct information and designing appropriate incentives are so complex that the absence of significant positive long-run effects on firm performance for the majority of firms is not surprising.

Die stochastische Frontier Analyse (SFA-Methode) ist entsprechend der Anreizregulierungsverordnung Bestandteil des Benchmarkingverfahrens zur Ermittlung der individuellen Effizienzwerte der deutschen Strom- und Gasverteilnetzbetreiber. Angesichts benchmarkrelevanter Netzkosten in Höhe von ca. 10 Mrd. € p. a. im Strom- und ca. 4 Mrd. € p. a. im Gasbereich sowie der enormen wirtschaftlichen Auswirkung der durch die Methode geschätzten Effizienzwerte, stellt sich die Frage nach der Nachvollziehbarkeit und Validität der Ergebnisse. Mittels einer Funktions- und Softwareanalyse zur SFA wird im Folgenden anhand systematisierter und nachprüfbarer Modellrechnungen gezeigt, dass unterschiedliche Rechenprogramme unterschiedliche Ergebnisse liefern und dabei häufig die realen Sachverhalte nicht wiedergeben.

The problem of how to maximize the return on a given portfolio of assets within the theory of Markowitz has been given considerable attention in the literature and improvements of standard methods continues to progress. Recent developments, often based on Stein estimators or other regularized estimators, usually focus on settings when the numbers of assets (say p) is close to the number of observations (n) since this is the scenario met in most real applications. Before any specific method is applied investors would want to know the basic properties and the relative performance of them. The performance of any estimation method, however, depends on which quality criterea of judgement is being used. Proposed methods may be optimal with respect to precision of the parameters involved in the portfolio procedure, on the proximity between estimated vs true global minimum variance portfolio (GMVP) weights, on the out-of-sample performance etc. Moreover, regularized estimators are often associated with very complicated or even unknown sampling distributions, which in turn complicate statistical inference drastically. The extent to which a method allows for statistical inference therefore also becomes an important matter when judging the properties of a data driven GMVP estimator. In this paper we give an in-depth discussion of risk critereas and their impact on GMVP optimization. A Monte Carlo simulation investigating the properties of some common estimators, including a new one proposed by the authors, with respect to several quality critereas is included to compare and contrast recent proposals. An empirical study is also included using Stockholm stock exchange data.