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Business Cycle Volatility in Germany
Buch, Claudia M.; Doepke, Joerg; Pierdzioch, Christian - Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW) - 2002
Stylized facts suggest that output volatility in OECD countries has declined in recent years. However, the causes and … structural breaks in the dynamics and the volatility of the real output process in Germany can be detected. We report evidence … that output volatility has declined in Germany. Yet, this decline in output volatility is not as clear-cut as it is in the …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005755211
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A New Global Index of Infrastructure: Construction, Rankings and Applications
Donaubauer, Julian; Meyer, Birgit; Nunnenkamp, Peter - Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW) - 2014
We construct comprehensive and comparable indices on the most relevant components of economic infrastructure. An unobserved components model is employed to cover the largest possible number of developing and developed countries over the period 1990-2010. We map major findings from the new...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010886848
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Closing the Gap between Absolute and Relative Measures of Localization, Concentration or Specialization
Bickenbach, Frank; Bode, Eckhardt; Krieger-Boden, Christiane - Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW) - 2010
This paper solves one of the puzzles in the analysis of regional and industrial distributions of economic activity, the discrepancy between absolute and relative measures. It shows that the difference between an absolute and a relative Theil index of localization can be expressed in terms of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008693817
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Regional Inequality of Higher Education in China and the Role of Unequal Economic Development
Bickenbach, Frank; LIU, Wan-Hsin - Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW) - 2011
Over the past decade the scale of higher education in China has expanded substantially. Regional development policies attempted to make use of the scale expansion as a tool to reduce the inequality of higher education among different regions with different development levels through providing...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008922944
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Disproportionality Measures of Concentration, Specialization, and Polarization
Bickenbach, Frank; Bode, Eckhardt - Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW) - 2006
The paper extends the methodological toolbox of measures of industrial concentration and regional specialization. First, a taxonomy is proposed which gives rise to a modular construction system for disproportionality measures based on three characteristic features: the projection function, the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005818782
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International transmission of financial stress: evidence from a GVAR
Dovern, Jonas; Roye, Björn van - Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW) - 2013
We analyze the international transmission of financial stress and its effects on economic activity. We construct country specific monthly financial stress indexes (FSI) using dynamic factor models from 1970 until 2012 for 20 countries. We show that there is a strong co-movement of the FSI during...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010886840
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Uncertainty shocks, banking frictions, and economic activity
Bonciani, Dario; Roye, Björn van - Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW) - 2013
In this paper we investigate the effects of uncertainty shocks on economic activity using a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model with heterogenous agents and a stylized banking sector. We show that frictions in credit supply amplify the effects of uncertainty shocks on economic...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010886850
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Fixing the Phillips Curve: The Case of Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity in the US
Reitz, Stefan; Slopek, Ulf. D. - Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW) - 2012
Whereas microeconomic studies point to pronounced downward rigidity of nominal wages in the US economy, the standard Phillips curve neglects such a feature. Using a stochastic frontier model we find macroeconomic evidence of a strictly nonnegative error in an otherwise standard Phillips curve in...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010886866
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The Optimal Inflation Rate and Firm-Level Productivity Growth
Weber, Henning - Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW) - 2012
Empirical data show that firms tend to improve their ranking in the productivity distribution over time. A sticky-price model with firm-level productivity growth fits this data and predicts that the optimal long-run inflation rate is positive and between 1.5% and 2% per year. In contrast, the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010886886
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Skill-Biased Technological Change and the Business Cycle
Balleer, Almut; Rens, Thijs van - Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW) - 2012
Over the past two decades, technological progress in the United States has been biased towards skilled labor. What does this imply for business cycles? We construct a quarterly skill premium from the CPS and use it to identify skill-biased technology shocks in a VAR with long-run restrictions....
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010886889