This paper examines the extent to which sectoral diversification can act as an insurance mechanism against fluctuations in regional gross value‐added growth rates. Portfolio theory is applied to the ...growth‐instability properties of German districts. Furthermore, a comprehensive diversification measure is defined. Stochastic Frontier Analysis is deployed in order to estimate whether diversification allows regions to achieve more efficient growth‐instability combinations. The results confirm that diversification does generate such effects. Spatial interactions do also play a role: The effects are less pronounced for regions whose economic performance is mainly driven by the surrounding regions.
•We examine the nexus between public charging infrastructure and EV registrations.•The long-run relationship is estimated by a dynamic heterogeneous panel approach.•Different charging infrastructure ...measures have varying effects on EV registrations.•We find indications of a positive causal long-run relationship but on a low scale.•EV consumers respond more to charging speed and less to the number of chargers.
A comprehensive roll-out of public charging infrastructure will be costly. However, its impact on the diffusion of electric vehicles (EVs) is not clear. Our study aims at estimating the extent to which an increasing availability of public charging infrastructure promotes consumers decisions to switch to EVs. We make use of a German data set including monthly registrations of new cars at the ZIP-code level between 2012 and 2017 and match it with the official registry of charging stations. We measure charging infrastructure by its quantity, capacity and abundance in order to estimate its impact on EV adoption. A dynamic heterogeneous panel approach is deployed in order to identify the structural long-run relationship between charging infrastructure and monthly EV registrations. We find evidence of a positive long-run relationship (and also of a causal link) but on a rather low scale. We conclude that consumers do not necessarily react to the mere number of public chargers but attach more importance to charging speed and are to a large extent influenced by unobservable common factors.
The share of renewable energies has to increase significantly in the ongoing energy transition. Such a shift in production technology is expected to have noticeable effects on the energy sector’s ...input structure that is required for its output. This study examines how changes in a country’s energy mix affect its energy sector’s input coefficients within an input–output framework, using Austria’s renewable expansion act as a case study. Predicting input coefficients can be time-consuming and often relies on trends in past data. Our empirical approach is based on a fractional econometric model using panel data on the energy mix and input structures of energy sectors for 26 European countries, and can be efficiently and readily applied to the 26 countries covered in the model. We illustrate the prediction of input coefficients for Austria’s energy sector in 2030. We find that input shares from the energy sector to itself would remain high, while mining inputs would decrease. Our model also predicts that increasing the share of renewable energy sources comes with a significant decrease in the share of labor inputs, mainly because operating renewable energy technologies requires less labor than operating non-renewable ones. The presented method allows to assess renewable energy policy plans to anticipate the effects of structural changes in national energy sectors.
•A novel approach for modeling the energy sector’s input coefficients is presented.•Input coefficients are explained by the energy mix in a fractional multinomial logit (FMNL) model.•The effects of Austria’s renewable energy expansion act are analyzed in a case study.•An increase in renewable sources reduces the labor share and inputs from mining.•The approach is readily applicable for 26 European countries.
The uniqueness of human labour is at question in times of smart technologies. As computing power and data available increases, the discussion on technological unemployment reawakens. Prominently, ...Frey and Osborne (Technol Forecast Soc Change 114:254–280, 2017) estimated that half of US employment must be considered exposed to computerization within the next 20 years; followed by a series of papers expanding the research with information on heterogeneous job-specific tasks within the same jobs diminishing digitization potentials to only smaller fractions of workers at high risk. The main contribution of our work is to show that the diversity of previous findings regarding the degree of digitization is additionally driven by model selection. For our case study, we consult experts in machine learning and industry professionals on the susceptibility to digital technologies in the Austrian labour market. Our results indicate that, while clerical computer-based routine jobs are likely to change in the next decade, professional activities, such as the processing of complex information, are less prone to digital change.
Eine starke Spezialisierung auf bestimmte Branchen kann zweifellos wirtschaftliche Vorteile mit sich bringen. Viele Regionen in Deutschland profitieren zum Beispiel von ihrer Einbettung in starke ...Cluster, z. B. in der Automobilindustrie. Wenn diese Branchen jedoch in Schwierigkeiten geraten, dann können sie ganze Regionen in Schieflage bringen. Eine zu einseitige, auf besonders wachstumsstarke Sektoren ausgerichtete Wirtschaft birgt also Risiken. Eine diversifizierte Wirtschaft kann dagegen wie eine Art Versicherung gegen sektorspezifische Schocks wirken. Dieser Artikel zeigt, dass sich breit aufgestellte Regionen deutlich stabiler entwickeln, obwohl sie kaum langsamer wachsen. Sektorale Diversifikation ermöglicht also besonders vorteilhafte Verhältnisse aus Wachstum und Risiko.
This paper aims at identifying relevant indicators of TFP growth in EU countries during the recovery phase following the 2008/09 economic crisis. We proceed in three steps: First, we estimate TFP ...growth by means of stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Second, we perform a TFP growth decomposition in order to get measures for technical progress (TP), changes in technical efficiency (CTE), in scale efficiency (CSC) and in allocative efficiency (CAE). And third, we use BART—a non-parametric Bayesian technique from the realm of statistical learning—in order to identify relevant predictors of TFP growth and its components from the Global Competitiveness Reports. We find some indicators to show quite stable relationships with TFP growth. In particular, indicators that characterize technological readiness, such as broadband internet access, are outstandingly important in order to predict technical progress. The inflation rate is a major predictor of TFP growth in lower-income new EU members. Our results identify areas in which further action could be taken in order to increase economic growth. It becomes obvious that machine learning techniques might not be able to replace sound economic theory but they help separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to selecting relevant indicators of TFP growth.
Summary
This paper investigates the impact of the intensity of political competition on the leviathan behavior of local politicians. While we find only weak effects of strong parties on total ...expenditures and, thus, only weak traces of standard leviathan behavior, we find strong evidence that the spending pattern during a legislative period depends on the distribution of power in local councils. In municipalities with weak political competition, the public spending reaches a peak in election years. If parties face politically strong opponents, they do not initiate a political budget cycle. Our results indicate that local politicians act as self‐preserving leviathans.
Um den CO2-Ausstoß wirkungsvoll zu reduzieren und damit die Erderwärmung doch noch zu begrenzen, müssen auch im Verkehrssektor schnell Ergebnisse erzielt werden. Aktuell wird dabei der Umstellung auf ...Elektroantriebe die größte Bedeutung zugeschrieben. Der vorliegende Artikel soll die aktuellen Entwicklungen im Bereich der Elektromobilität in Deutschland und den Zusammenhang zwischen regionaler Ladeinfrastruktur und regionalen Zulassungszahlen von Elektro-Pkw beleuchten.
Decomposing the German East–West wage gap Kluge, Jan; Weber, Michael
The economics of transition,
January 2018, 2018-01-00, 20180101, Volume:
26, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Open access
Wages in East Germany are persistently lower than in West Germany. We study the micro‐level determinants of this spatial wage gap, using an Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition and rich linked ...employer–employee data. In total, up to one half of the aggregate wage differential can be attributed to structural differences in worker, establishment and regional characteristics. Regional price and establishment size differentials alone account for one quarter of the wage gap at the median. Price level differentials are even more relevant towards the top of the wage distribution. Towards the bottom, differences in union coverage become more important. Our findings are quite stable over the period from 1996 to 2010.
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