This paper is an analysis of the impact of different bargaining regimes on firm-specific wages and wage dispersion. In recent years, firms in Germany favored more flexible than collective bargained wages. Opening clauses were introduced to combine collective bargaining and flexible adaptation of...

Many theoretical models show that trade openness has positive welfare implications. Yet, openness might affect different social groups and regions asymmetrically, even within a given country. We use Italian regional data to answer the question whether trade openness affects within-country income...

Recent initiatives to hold back cross-border mergers and acquisitions for ‘strategic’ reasons have made headline news. We discuss whether the initiatives may mark the start of a new protectionist era. We argue that standard globalization indicators show no such signs. However, an increasing...

Die Mehrzahl der bisherigen empirischen Studien zu den Produktivitätswirkungen der betrieblichen Gewinnbeteiligung gelangt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Beteiligung der Mitarbeiter am Unternehmenserfolg einen positiven Produktivitätseffekt induziert. Problematisch ist jedoch, dass bisherige...

The question whether international openness causes higher domestic growth has been subject to intense discussions in the empirical growth literature. This paper addresses this issue using the fall of the Berlin wall in 1990 as a natural experiment. We analyze whether the slow-down in convergence...

In this paper we analyze the microeconomic determinants and effects of FDI using data on a representative sample of establishments in the German south-west region of Baden-Württem¬berg. With 11 million inhabitants, Baden-Württemberg exceeds the size of Sweden or Belgium. Furhter we discuss...

The prevalence of opening clauses in collective bargaining agreements may indicate a tendency to a higher decentralised wage settlement. Increasing competition on international product markets is assumed to be one reason for wage-setting decentralisation, whereas theoretical explanations focus...

This paper explores the links between macroeconomic conditions and individual bank risk. Using capital adequacy ratios as a broad measure of risk sustainability, a linear mixed effects model for a large international panel of banks for the years 2001-2005 is estimated. In OECD countries, banks...

Macroeconomic risks could magnify individual bank risk. Mitigating the influence of economy-wide risks on banks could therefore be very important to maintain a smooth-running banking system. In this paper, we explore the extent to which macroeconomic risks affect banks. We use a bank-level...