This paper addresses the relationship between the utilization of temporary agency workers by firms and their competitiveness measured by unit labor costs, using a rich, newly built, data set of German manufacturing enterprises. The analysis is conducted by applying different panel data models...

This paper estimates the effect of innovation on employment at the firm level. Our uniquely long innovation panel data set of German manufacturing firms covers more than 20 years and allows us to use various innovation measures. We can distinguish between product and process innovations as well...

A recent survey of 54 micro-econometric studies reveals that exporting firms are more productive than non-exporters. On the other hand, previous empirical studies show that exporting does not necessarily improve productivity. One possible reason for this result is that most previous studies are...

In order to simplify the representation of a technological relationship between inputs and outputs, a production unit's technology must typically satisfy some restrictive conditions, some of them being well known in the literature. This paper presents new results for aggregating labour inputs...

In many countries, the transition process towards a low-carbon economy has been associated with increasing electricity prices. Microeconometric evaluations of the causal impact of electricity price changes on plant-level outcomes are rare, though. By exploiting local randomization induced by...

The paper aims at estimating the innovation impact of the vertical integration of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) into manufacturing. Referring to the vertically integrated sectors of an economy allows innovative knowledge, which is transferred directly and indirectly from KIBS to...

The manufacturing sector accounts for a substantial share of German GDP, employment and carbon emissions. Therefore, the manufacturing sector's energy use and carbon emissions are of crucial importance for reaching Germany's climate goals. In this paper, we analyse energy use patterns in German...

We study the importance of intangible capital (R&D, software, patents) for the measurement of productivity using firm-level panel data from German manufacturing. We first document a number of facts on the evolution of intangible investment over time, and its distribution across firms. Aggregate...

I investigate the relationship between the extensive margins of imports and exports (the number of countries traded with and the number of goods traded) and firm productivity using a newly constructed and rich panel data set of German manufacturing firms for the years 2009-2014. I do for the...

Am 7. November 2012 fand der diesjährige ifo Branchen-Dialog statt. Wie üblich folgten auf Ausführungen zur allgemeinen wirtschaftlichen Lage und den Perspektiven für das nächste Jahr vier Foren: zur Industrie, zum Handel, zur Bauwirtschaft und zu den Dienstleistungen. Der Beitrag fasst die...