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DIW Discussion Papers 906 / 2009
This study assesses the relative performance of Greek equity funds employing a non-parametric method, specifically Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Using an original sample of cost and operational attributes we explore the effect of each variable on funds' operational efficiency for an oligopolistic and bank-dominated fund industry. Our results have significant implications for the investors' fund ...
2009| Vassilios Babalos, Guglielmo Maria Caporale, Nikolaos Philippas
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DIW Discussion Papers 905 / 2009
Although there are a variety of studies on the gender pay gap, only a few relate to managerial positions. The present study attempts to fill this gap. Managers in private companies in Germany are a highly selective group of women and men, who differ only marginally in their human capital endowments. The Oaxaca/Blinder decomposition shows that the gender pay gap in the gross monthly salary can hardly ...
2009| Anne Busch, Elke Holst
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DIW Discussion Papers 904 / 2009
Both crime and terrorism impose costs onto society through the channels of fear and worry. Identifying and targeting groups which are especially affected by worries might be one way to reduce the total costs of these two types of insecurity. However, compared to the drivers of the fear of crime, the determinants of concerns regarding global terrorism are less well known. Using nationally representative ...
2009| Tilman Brück, Cathérine Müller
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DIW Discussion Papers 903 / 2009
In developing and transition economies, microlending has become an effective instrument for providing micro businesses with the necessary financial resources to launch operations. In the industrialized countries, with their highly developed banking systems, however, there has been ongoing debate on the question of whether an uncovered demand for microlending services exists. The present pilot study ...
2009| Alexander S. Kritikos, Christoph Kneiding, Claas Christian Germelmann
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DIW Discussion Papers 902 / 2009
We analyze the properties of progressive water tariffs that are often applied in the sector in the form of discretely increasing block tariffs (IBT). We are particularly interested in water tarification in a poverty context where a subsistence level of water has to be allocated to each household. Our approach is "semi-welfarist" to the extent that we analyze second-best pricing schemes that may be ...
2009| Georg Meran, Christian von Hirschhausen
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DIW Discussion Papers 901 / 2009
The paper investigates the motives of activity (entry and exit) of Private Equity (PE) investors in European companies. Investment of a PE firm is not viewed unambiguously. First, it is claimed that PE investment is made for the sake of seeking short-term gains by taking control and utilizing the company's resources. Second, a PE firm invests because of prior identification of chances to add value ...
2009| Oleg Badunenko, Nataliya Barasinska, Dorothea Schäfer
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DIW Discussion Papers 900 / 2009
Several empirical minimum wage studies have recently been published that simulate employment effects of a federal minimum wage in Germany. We disentangle various factors that explain the variation in previous simulation results. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the newly available "Verdienststrukturerhebung 2006" we conduct robustness analyses that systematically test the range ...
2009| Kai-Uwe Müller
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DIW Discussion Papers 899 / 2009
The current economic crisis requires fast information to predict economic behavior early, which is difficult at times of structural changes. This paper suggests an innovative new method of using data on internet activity for that purpose. It demonstrates strong correlations between keyword searches and unemployment rates using monthly German data and exhibits a strong potential for the method used ...
2009| Nikos Askitas, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 898 / 2009
This paper examines the interactions between money, consumer prices and commodity prices at a global level from 1970 to 2008. Using aggregated data for major OECD countries and a cointegrating VAR framework, we are able to establish long run and short run relationships among these variables while the process is mainly driven by global liquidity. According to our empirical findings, different price ...
2009| Ansgar Belke, Ingo G. Bordon, Torben W. Hendricks
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DIW Discussion Papers 897 / 2009
With banking sectors worldwide still suffering from the effects of the financial crisis, public discussion of plans to place toxic assets in one or more bad banks has gained steam in recent weeks. The following paper presents a plan how governments can efficiently relieve ailing banks from toxic assets by transferring these assets into a publicly sponsored work-out unit, a so-called bad bank. The key ...
2009| Dorothea Schäfer, Klaus F. Zimmermann
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DIW Discussion Papers 896 / 2009
In a standard dynamic stochastic general equilibrium framework, with sticky prices, the cross sectional distribution of output and inflation across a population of firms is studied. The only form of heterogeneity is confined to the probability that the ith changes its prices in response to a shock. In this Calvo setup the moments of the cross sectional distribution of output and inflation depend crucially ...
2009| Jörg Döpke, Michael Funke, Sean Holly, Sebastian Weber
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DIW Discussion Papers 895 / 2009
Low international competitiveness of a set of euro area countries, which have become evident by large current account deficits and rising risk premiums on government bonds, is one of the most challenging economic policy issues for Europe. We analyse the role of private restructuring and public structural reforms for the urgently needed readjustment of intra-euro area imbalances. A panel regression ...
2009| Holger Zemanek, Ansgar Belke, Gunther Schnabl
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DIW Discussion Papers 894 / 2009
We examine why firms change their main bank and how this affects loans, interest payments and firm performance after switching. Using unique firm-bank matched Ukrainian data, the treatment effect estimates suggest that more transparent and riskier companies are more likely to switch their main bank. Importantly, main bank power, measured by equity holdings, appears to be one of the main drivers of ...
2009| Andreas Stephan, Andriy Tsapin, Oleksandr Talavera
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DIW Discussion Papers 893 / 2009
In this paper I evaluate the effect of student aid on the success of academic studies. I focus on two dimensions, the duration of study and the probability of actually graduating with a degree. While there is an extensive literature on the impact of student aid on its intended outcome, the uptake of tertiary education, the impact on the outcome and on study incentives has been mainly ignored. But introducing ...
2009| Daniela Glocker
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DIW Discussion Papers 892 / 2009
Results from travel demand research in many countries show that - on average - women are less mobile and have different mobility patterns than men. Recent longitudinal studies of gender specific travel demand reveal converging mobility of males and females. Moreover, in some countries results show convergence between cohort and gender specific travel demand: women and men display more and more similar ...
2009| Dominika Kalinowska, Uwe Kunert
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DIW Discussion Papers 891 / 2009
This paper analyses the long memory properties of quarterly real output per capita in the US (1948Q1 - 2008Q3) using non-parametric, semi-parametric and parametric techniques. The results vary substantially depending on the methodology employed. Evidence of mean reversion is obtained in a parametric context if the underlying disturbances are weakly autocorrelated. We also examine the possibility of ...
2009| Guglielmo Maria Caporale, Luis A. Gil-Alana
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DIW Discussion Papers 890 / 2009
In contrast to unemployment, the effect of non-participation and parttime employment on subjective well-being has much less frequently been the subject of economists' investigations. In Germany, many women with dependent children are involuntarily out of the labor force or in part-time employment because of family constraints (e.g., due to lack of available and appropriate childcare). Using data from ...
2009| Eva M. Berger
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DIW Discussion Papers 889 / 2009
This paper applies semiparametric regression models using penalized splines to investigate the profile of well-being over the life span. Splines have the advantage that they do not require a priori assumptions about the form of the curve. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), the analysis shows a common, quite similar, age-specific ...
2009| Christoph Wunder, Andrea Wiencierz, Johannes Schwarze, Helmut Küchenhoff, Sara Kleyer, Philipp Bleninger
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DIW Discussion Papers 888 / 2009
Sick leave payments represent a significant portion of public health expenditures and labor costs. Reductions in replacement levels are a commonly used instrument to tackle moral hazard and to increase the efficiency of the health insurance market. In Germany's Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) system, the replacement level for periods of sickness of up to six weeks was reduced from 100 percent to 80 ...
2009| Nicolas R. Ziebarth
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DIW Discussion Papers 887 / 2009
In Europa bestehen deutliche Unterschiede im Ausmaß und in der Struktur von Armut von Erwerbstätigen. Die vorliegende Untersuchung analysiert in einem Vergleich von 20 Ländern, inwieweit dies auf die unterschiedliche Ausgestaltung der institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen eines jeweiligen Landes zurückzuführen ist. Die Analysen basieren auf Mikrodaten aus der EU Statistik zu Einkommen und Lebensbedingungen ...
2009| Henning Lohmann