FG VWL, insbesondere Makroökonomik
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Lusatia, a rural-peripheral region in Eastern Germany, currently faces structural change due to the planned phase-out of lignite mining. Against the backdrop of the EU Smart Specialisation (S2) strategy, structural change funds need to be invested where it can strengthen Lusatia’s Regional Innovation System (RIS). With Lusatia’s history, energy seems a promising topic S2. However, it is questionable if there is a critical mass of actors and research for energy topics in the region that could enable regional competitiveness. This paper addresses this issue by analysing the current state of Lusatia’s RIS and the potentials for S2. I use empirical data from statistical offices and the “Förderkatalog” as well as data on new research projects and institutes for my analysis. The gathered data suggest that the region’s RIS is rather thin. While the proclaimed image of an “energy region” is not reflected in the data yet, this may change due to the structural change program and the strategic orientation of the region. S2 may be successful if the new institutes and research projects enable the attraction of skilled workers and firms and at the same time manage to increase the absorption capacity of existing firms in the region. Building a critical mass for cooperation and innovation is achievable, at least in the larger cities such as Cottbus. Monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of the invested funds will be crucial.
We use plant-level evidence for Germany to explore the productivity effects of offshoring of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and compare them to those derived for a sample of large German companies. SMEs usually face tighter resource constraints than larger companies, thus making it harder for them to reap the potential productivity gains associated with offshoring. We find evidence for the group of SMEs that plants that offshore business activities tend to be among the more productive ones, ex ante. However, offshoring plants lose this edge over their non-offshoring counterparts. The initial productivity gap is reversed, and the productivity of offshoring plants lags behind even several years after off-shoring has actually taken place. Neither observation can be confirmed for large companies.
We investigate an inhomogeneous Ising model in the context of tax evasion dynamics where different types of agents are parametrised via local temperatures and magnetic fields. Our work focuses on the dynamic behavioural change of agents after an audit which either corresponds to a temporal reduction or enhancement of compliance and is also known under the terms 'bomb crater' and 'target effect', respectively. We analyse this effect for different types of agents: endogenously non-compliant types, agents that have the tendency to copy (non-)compliant behaviour from their social environment, ethical agents with strong endogenous morale attitudes and random types that show large uctuations between compliant and non-compliant behaviour. Each type in uences the overall tax evasion differently, and interestingly, our model predicts that increasing the audit probability can have the counterintuitive effect of increasing tax evasion under certain circumstances. We analyse audit strategies that can suppress this effect and thus contribute to the burgeoning literature on the actual impact of tax audits.
The ecological and societal problems caused by product obsolescence and consumerism in modern economies constitute a “wicked human-made problem” of significant magnitude. Current (old) ways of thinking cannot address these problems. Accordingly, in this paper, we critically explore the novel idea of integrated personhood and worldviews to theorize research on self-repairers and their repair behaviours to extend product lifetimes. We conducted a structured and systematic review of published work (n = 183) to identify the conceptual content of the field to inform our theorization. Our findings highlight three key issues. First, constricted theorization undermines understanding of self-repairers and their product lifetime extension (and spillover) behaviours. Second, the underlying conceptual complexity is typically underestimated. Third, the dominance of voluntarist and deterministic studies impedes new directions in research. From our review, an integrated worldview–personhood framework emerges that can deepen understanding of avant-garde self-repairers’ engagement with product lifetimes.
Die Studie beginnt mit einer überblicksartigen Bestandsaufnahme der aktuell vorliegenden Gutachten zur Lausitz und ihrem Strukturwandel (Teil A). Es folgt ein breiter und dabei, soweit es die Datenlage erlaubt, auch möglichste feinkörniger Überblick über die aktuelle Situationder Lausitz und ihrer Teilräume (Teil B). Dieser Überblick ist gegliedert in die Bereiche Wirtschaftsstruktur und Wertschöpfung (Teil B.I), Arbeitsmarkt (Teil B.II), sowie Infrastruktur und Lebensraum (Teil B.III). Es folgen eine Analyse der Integration und Kooperationsmöglichkeiten im Dreiländereck (Teil C) sowie der Erreichbarkeit der relevanten Märkte aus der Region und der regionsüberschreitenden Beziehungen (Teil D). Darauf aufbauend werden die endogenen Potentiale der Lausitz und ihrer Teilräume wiederum so feinkörnig wie möglich analysiert (Teil E). Eine Diskussion von Stärken und Schwächen der Strukturpolitik in einzelnen anderen deutschen Regionen soll auf Fallstricke hinweisen und das Lernen aus erfolgreichen struktur-und regionalpolitischen Ansätzen ermöglichen (Teil F). Die Studie schließt mit einer zusammenfassenden Darstellung von Handlungsempfehlungen, die sich aus den zuvor durchgeführten Analysen ergeben, sowie von Ansätzen für die weitere Forschung (Teil G).
In this article, we study fiscal decentralization and inequality as driving forces of the shadow economy in advanced economies. Our empirical analysis suggests that a reduction in income inequality will contain the shadow economy, whereas expenditure and tax decentralization do not significantly impact it. As decentralization is generally believed to increase government efficiency, this result is indicative of already highly efficient public administrations. Our results further indicate that redistributive policies positively affect the size of the shadow economy, whereas the tax burden does not have any discernible effect on the shadow economy in our sample.
We examine the efficiency of banking regulation in a federation with two tiers of government and highly integrated banking systems. We assume that policy makers have incomplete information about banks’ true health, and banking sector turmoil can generate cross-border spill-over effects. We show that, in such an environment, the decentralisation of policy responsibilities for the regulation of banks can achieve the first-best allocation and ensure financial stability. While national governments design banking regulations, the federal policy maker authorises inter-regional income redistribution payments throughout the federation. Our results suggest that strengthening national responsibilities in banking regulation and supervision in the course of the further development of the European banking union may be advisable.