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DIW Discussion Papers 505 / 2005
This paper examines social agglomeration externalities. Using survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, I examine the link between city size and different measures of consumption, social interaction and social capital. Further, using responses to satisfaction questions, I analyse whether individuals are compensated for diseconomies of agglomeration by positive agglomeration externalities in ...
2005| Rainald Borck
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DIW Discussion Papers 504 / 2005
Following Keen and Marchand (1997), the paper analyses the effect of fiscal competition on the composition of public spending in a model where capital and skilled workers are mobile while low skilled workers are immobile. Taxes are levied on capital and labour. Each group of workers benefits from a different kind of public good. Mobility of skilled workers provides an incentive for jurisdictions to ...
2005| Rainald Borck
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DIW Discussion Papers 503 / 2005
This paper surveys models of voting on redistribution. Under reasonable assumptions, the baseline model produces an equilibrium with the extent of redistributive taxation chosen by the median income earner; if the median is poorer than average, redistribution is from rich to poor. Increasing inequality increases redistribution. However, under different assumptions about the economic environment, redistribution ...
2005| Rainald Borck
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DIW Discussion Papers 502 / 2005
Die Rendite von Sparkassen und Genossenschaftsbanken liegt in Deutschland über der von privaten Geschäftsbanken. Das vorliegende Papier bietet einen theoretischen Erklärungsansatz, der diese Renditeunterschiede auf Differenzen in der Kreditvergabestrategie zurückführt. Dieses Modell zeigt, dass Finanzintermediäre, die ihre Informationen über Kunden durch langfristige Kreditbeziehungen generieren, einen ...
2005| Timo Baas, Mechthild Schrooten
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DIW Discussion Papers 501 / 2005
Many firms fail shortly after inception. Yet individuals continue starting businesses. Prewar economists such as Keynes invoked animal spirits and stressed psychological factors in their explanations of economic behavior. Using a large sample obtained from surveys conducted in 18 countries, we study what variables have a significant impact on an individual's decision to start a business. We find strong ...
2005| Philipp Köllinger, Maria Minniti, Christian Schade
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DIW Discussion Papers 500 / 2005
We model competition between two unregulated mobile phone companies with price-elastic demand and less than full market coverage. We also assume that there is a regulated full-coverage fixed network. In order to induce stronger competition, mobile companies could have an incentive to raise their reciprocal mobile-to-mobile access charges above the marginal costs of termination. Stronger competition ...
2005| Pio Baake, Kay Mitusch
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DIW Discussion Papers 499 / 2005
Climate change is a long-term issue due to the long lifespan of greenhouse gases and the delayed response of the climate system. This paper investigates the long-term economic consequences of both climate change impacts and mitigation efforts by applying the multi-regional, multi-sectoral integrated assessment model WIAGEM based on GTAP-EL coupled with the reduced-form multi-gas climate model ICM. ...
2005| Claudia Kemfert, Truong P. Truong, Thomas Bruckner
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DIW Discussion Papers 498 / 2005
The paper analyses the reasons for departures from strong rationality of German business cycle forecasts based on annual observations from 1963 to 2004. We rely on forecasts from the joint forecast of the so-called "six leading" forecasting institutions in Germany. We test for a non-linear relation between forecast errors and macroeconomic fundamentals and find evidence for such a non-linearity for ...
2005| Ulrich Fritsche, Jörg Döpke
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DIW Discussion Papers 497 / 2005
This study examines the export-led growth hypothesis using annual time series data from Chile in a production function framework. It addresses the problem of specification bias under which previous studies have suffered and focuses on the impact of manufactured and mining exports on productivity growth. In order to investigate if and how manufactured and mining exports affect economic growth via increases ...
2005| Boriss Siliverstovs, Dierk Herzer
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DIW Discussion Papers 496 / 2005
Recent literature on the workhorse model of intra-industry trade has explored heterogeneous cost structures at the firm level. These approaches have proven to add realism and predictive power. This note shows, however, that this added realism also implies that there may exist a positive bilateral tariff that maximizes national and world welfare. Applying one of the simplest specifications possible, ...
2005| Jan G. Jorgensen, Philipp J. H. Schröder
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DIW Discussion Papers 495 / 2005
The article argues that IT continues to have strategic relevance for companies because it en-ables innovation. A conceptual link between the adoption of IT and innovation is established. This conceptual link allows a market-based, economic explanation for variations in IT payoffs among firms: The successful adoption of new IT leads to innovation. Depending on the be-havior of customers and competitors, ...
2005| Philipp Köllinger
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DIW Discussion Papers 494 / 2005
In this paper a dynamic bi-factor model with Markov switching is proposed to measure and predict turning points of the German business cycle. It estimates simultaneously the composite leading indicator (CLI) and composite coincident indicator (CCI) together with corresponding probabilities of being in recession. According to the bi-factor model, on average, CLI leads CCI by 3 months at both peaks and ...
2005| Konstantin A. Kholodilin
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DIW Discussion Papers 493 / 2005
The paper analyzes the network structure of international trade. Adapting a network approach developed in the physical sciences, we propose that international trade functions like a scale-free network. For each commodity group we calculate a characteristic parameter which reflects the structure of its trading network. We then insert this variable into an expanded gravity model to explore the effect ...
2005| Thushyanthan Baskaran, Tilman Brück
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DIW Discussion Papers 492 / 2005
Structural and behavioural factors drive the growth and change of spatial mobility in the industrialised countries: on the macro level we have observed tremendous increases in travel demand as measured by person miles travelled. This paper studies this development of mobility of tripmaking adult persons on working days by analysing micro data as it is provided by the four National Travel Surveys (NTS) ...
2005| Oliver Lipps, Uwe Kunert
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DIW Discussion Papers 491 / 2005
Although left-right items are a standard tool of public opinion research, there remains some difference of opinion on the optimal response format. Two disputes can be identified in the literature: (a) whether to provide respondents with a small or large number of answer categories and (b) whether or not to administer the response scale including a midpoint. This study evaluates the performance of the ...
2005| Martin Kroh
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DIW Discussion Papers 490 / 2005
We analyse consent patterns and consent bias in the context of a large general household survey, the 'Improving survey measurement of income and employment' (ISMIE) survey, also addressing issues that arise when there are multiple consent questions. Using a multivariate probit regression model for four binary outcomes with two incidental truncations, we show that there are biases in consent to data ...
2005| Stephen P. Jenkins, Lorenzo Cappellari, Peter Lynn, Annette Jäckle, Emanuela Sala
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DIW Discussion Papers 489 / 2005
Linkages of household survey responses with administrative data may be based on unique individual identifiers or on survey respondent characteristics. The benefits gained from using unique identifiers need to be assessed in the light of potential problems such as non-response and measurement error. We report on a study that linked survey responses to UK government agency records on benefits and tax ...
2005| Stephen P. Jenkins, Peter Lynn, Annette Jäckle, Emanuela Sala
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DIW Discussion Papers 488 / 2005
This report derives from the project "Improving survey measurement of income and employment (ISMIE)" which investigates measurement error in survey data on income and employment, using a UK sub-sample of the European Household Community Panel (ECHP). In this paper we describe the process of collecting validation data and the outcomes of the process. Validation data were obtained from two sources: employers' ...
2005| Annette Jäckle, Emanuela Sala, Stephen P. Jenkins, Peter Lynn
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DIW Discussion Papers 487 / 2005
Using an experimental design, we compare two alternative approaches to dependent interviewing (proactive and reactive) with traditional independent interviewing on a module of questions about sources of income. We believe this to be the first large-scale quantitative comparison of proactive and reactive dependent interviewing. The three approaches to questioning are compared in terms of their impact ...
2005| Peter Lynn, Annette Jäckle, Stephen P. Jenkins, Emanuela Sala
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DIW Discussion Papers 486 / 2005
The promise of empirical evidence to inform policy makers about their population's health, wealth, employment and economic well being has propelled governments to invest in the harmonization of country specific micro data over the last 25 years. We review the major data harmonization projects launched over this period. These projects include the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), the Cross-National Equivalent ...
2005| Richard V. Burkhauser, Dean R. Lillard