Browsing Department of Economics (ECON) by Title
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On the Dynamics of Competitive ScreeningLund, Diderik; Nilssen, Tore (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Abstract We discuss the existence of a pooling equilibrium in a two-period model of an insurance market with asymmetric information. We solve the model numerically. We pay particular attention to the reasons for non-existence in cases where no pooling equilibrium exists. In addition to the phenom- enon of cream skimming emphasized in earlier literature, we here point to the the importance of the opposite: dregs skimming, whereby high-risk consumers are proÞtably detracted from the candidate pooling contract. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7596 Files in this item: 1
wpec012003.pdf (380.8Kb) -
Vinten, Frederik; Thomsen, Steen (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We analyze delistings from European stock exchanges 1995-2005 as a function of market conditions, firm effects and governance regulation. We find that investor protection and corporate governance quality reduce the likelihood of going private, bankrupt or liquidated, but increase the likelihood of exit by merger or acquisition. Taking into consideration that corporate governance policy may be endogenously determined, the estimated policy effects turn out to be highly sensitive to model specification, but our best estimates produce qualitatively similar results. We conclude that the evidence is most consistent with efficient regulation: better protection of minority investors and higher corporate governance quality stimulates the market for corporate control (M&A) and reduces the incentive to go private. However, going private transactions have increased significantly while governance standards have been improved over the past decade, and we would not ignore the possibility that more regulation would lead to more delistings. For example, we find indications that the adoption of corporate governance codes and changes in the level of corporate governance indices increase the propensity to go private. It seems likely that increasing investor protection will at some point add more costs than benefits to companies and investors. Governments should therefore consider both costs and benefits of further regulation. Key words: Delisting, public listing, mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcy, liquidation, going private, private equity, investor protection. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7504 Files in this item: 1
wp12-06.pdf (330.3Kb) -
Larsen, Birthe; Waisman, Gisela (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We exploit the regional variation in negative attitudes towards immigrants to Sweden in order to analyse what are the consequences of such attitudes have on immigrants welfare. A well educated immigrant from a non developed country who lives in a municipality with strong negative attitudes earns less than what she would earn if she lived in a municipality where natives are more positive. If attitudes changed from the average level to the most positive level, her wage would increase by 12%. This would reduce the wage gap to well-educated immigrants from developed countries by 70%. We interpret this eect as evidence of labour market discrimination. The same reduction in negative attitudes would increase the welfare of immigrants from Africa and Asia, through their wage and local amenities, by an equivalent to one third of their wage. The analogous amount for immigrants from South America and Eastern Europe is one fourth of their wage if they are well educated and one tenth otherwise. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7587 Files in this item: 1
wp11-2007.pdf (1.182Mb) -
Pérez-González, Francisco; Wolfenzon, Daniel; Bennedsen, Morten (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Abstract. Estimating the value of top managerial talent is a central topic of research that has attracted widespread attention from academics and practitioners. Yet, testing for the importance of chief executive officers (CEOs) on firm outcomes is challenging. In this paper we test for the impact of CEOs on performance by assessing the effect of (1) CEO deaths and (2) the death of CEOs immediate family members (spouse, parents, children, etc), which arguably affects CEOs focus. Using a unique dataset from Denmark, we find that CEO (but not board members ) own and family deaths are strongly correlated with declines in firm operating profitability, investment and sales growth. Our CEO shock-outcome analysis allows us to identify the shocks that are the most (least) meaningful for CEOs: the death of children and spouses (mothers-in-law). We show that individual CEO, firm and industry characteristics seem to affect the impact of these shocks. In particular, CEO effects are larger (lower) for longer-tenured (older) CEOs and for those managers with large investment fixed effects. CEO shocks are relevant across the size distribution of firms but are concentrated on those firms that invested heavily in the past. Lastly, we find that CEO shocks tend to be larger in rapid growth, high investment and R&D intensive industries. Overall, our findings demonstrate managers are a key determinant of firm performance. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7523 Files in this item: 1
wp13-2007.pdf (1.169Mb) -
Filges, Trine; Larsen, Birthe (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
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Kolm, Ann-Sofie; Larsen, Birthe (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: While examining the macroeconomic effects of government tax and punishment policies, this paper develops a three-sector general equilibrium model featuring matching frictions and worker-firm wage bargaining. Workers are assumed to differ in ability, and the choice of education is determined endogenously. Job opportunities in an informal sector are available only to workers who choose not to acquire higher education. We find that increased punishment of informal activities increases the number of educated workers and reduces the number of unemployed workers. Considering welfare, we show it is optimal to choose punishment rates so to more than fully counteract the distortion created by the government’s inability to tax the informal sector. JEL-codes: H26, I21, J64 Keywords: Tax evasion, underground economy, education, matching, unemployment. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7558 Files in this item: 1
wpec122003.pdf (356.0Kb) -
Dalgaard, Carl-Johan; Schultz, Esben Anton; Sørensen, Anders (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Is the wage gap between majors in human arts and other fields caused by their education per se? If the educational choice is endogenous, the gap may instead be caused by selection. We document that individuals’ educational choice is correlated with that of older students, and argue that it should not influence wages directly. Exploiting this "cohort dependence" as an instrument for educational choice, our 2SLS estimates show that the hourly wage gap is attributable to selection. However, only half of the gap in annual earnings is explained by selection, whereas the other half is due to lower work hours. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8521 Files in this item: 1
dalgaard_schultz_sorensen_2012.pdf (476.2Kb) -
Munch, Jakob Roland; Rose Skaksen, Jan; Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this paper, we propose and test a novel effect of immigration on the wages of native workers. Existing studies have focused on the wage effects that result from changes in the aggregate labour supply in a competitive labour market. We argue that if labour markets are not fully competitive, the use of immigrants may also affect wage formation at the most disaggregate level – the workplace. Using linked employeremployee data, we find that an increased use of workers from less developed countries has a significantly negative effect on the wages of native workers at the workplace – also when controlling for potential endogeneity of the immigrant share using both fixed effects and IV. Additional evidence suggests that this effect works at least partly through a general effect on the wage norm in the firm of hiring employees with poor outside options (the immigrants). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7665 Files in this item: 1
wp7-2008.pdf (243.0Kb) -
Preliminary Experimental Evidence from Matrilineal and Patriarchal SocietiesBulte, Erwin; List, John A.; Gneezy, Uri; Andersen, Steffen (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
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Andersen, Steffen; Harrison, Glenn W.; Lau, Morten Igel; Rutström, Elisabet E. (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The most popular models of decision making use a single criteria to evaluate projects or lotteries. However, decision makers may actually consider multiple criteria when evaluating projects. We consider a dual criteria model from psychology. This model integrates the familiar tradeoffs between risk and utility that economists traditionally assume, allowance for rank-dependent decision weights, and consideration of income thresholds. We examine the issues involved in full maximum likelihood estimation of the model using observed choice data. We propose a general method for integrating the multiple criteria, using the logic of mixture models, which we believe is attractive from a decision-theoretic and statistical perspective. The model is applied to observed choices from a major natural experiment involving intrinsically dynamic choices over highly skewed outcomes. The evidence points to the clear role that income thresholds play in such decision making, but does not rule out a role for tradeoffs between risk and utility or probability weighting. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7798 Files in this item: 1
wp2-2009.pdf (282.4Kb) -
Lagrange versus the HamiltonianKleis Frederiksen, Niels (København, 1998)[More information][Less information]
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Bennedsen, Morten; Wolfenzon, Daniel (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
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Ghiglino, Christian; Shell, Karl (København, 1998)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In overlapping-generations economies with perfect financial markets and lumpsum taxation, restrictions on the government budget deficits do not limit the set of achievable allocations. For economies in which tax instruments are distortionary and limited in number, deficits are irrelevant only in the unrealistic case in which the number of tax instruments is large relative to the number of policy goals. In particular, if the government can use only anonymous consumption taxes, then achieving the prescribed deficits without changing the equilibrium allocation will typically be impossible when the number of consumers exceeds the number of commodities. A similar result holds if consumer credit is (exogenously) restricted. Surprisingly, in this case, distortionary taxes may be more likely than lump-sum taxes to lead to the irrelevance of government deficits. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D51, D91, E32. Keywords: Balanced Budget, Balanced-Budget Amendment, Burden of the Public Debt, Comparative Statics, Consumption Taxes, Credit Restrictions, Distortionary Taxes, Economic Policy, Government Budget Deficit, Maastricht Treaty, Optimal Taxation, Overlapping Generations. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7542 Files in this item: 1
1998_3.pdf (310.4Kb) -
Urban, Dieter (Frederiksberg, 1999)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Denne Ph.D. afhandling søger af sammenknytte to nationaløkonomiske problemkredse: Økonomisk vækst og økonomisk geografi. Afhandlingens centrale spørgsmål er: Vil økonomisk vækst føre til industriel koncentration eller industriel spredning? Hvordan påvirker en ændring i industriens lokalisering regional og national vækst? Hvilken indflydelse har den stadig tættere integration på økonomisk vækst og industrikoncentration? Afhandlingen består af fem kapitler. Kapitlerne er nært forbundne, men kan læses uafhængigt af hinanden. Kapitel 1 er et introduktionskapitel. Det indeholder en oversigt over litteraturen på området og et resume af de i denne afhandling fremlagte forskningsbidrag. Udgangspunktet for min forskning har været Krugman’s banebrydende artikel “Economic Geography and Increasing Returns” fra 1991. Heri udvikler han en model, der kan forklare, under hvilke omstændigheder, industrier tenderer at koncentrere sig i en land eller en region. Artiklen mangler imidlertid en fulstændig analytisk løsning af modellen, og intuitionen bag dens centrale sammenhænge er uklar. Kapitel 2 tilstræber at råde bod på disse svagheder. Kapitlet indeholder dels en rigoristisk analytisk løsning, dels en simpel grafisk illustration af Krugman’s model. Det påpeges, at der er en nær analogi mellem Krugman’s model og neoklassisk udenrigshandelsteori baseret på antagelsen om heterogene agenter. I kapitel 3 vises, at Krugman’s model har en unik kortsigtet ligevægt, men multiple langsigtede ligevægte. Afhængig af industriens initiale fordeling vil en relativt mindre industrialiseret økonomi enten af-industrialiseres eller konvergere mod samme udviklingstrin som den mere industrialiserede økonomi. Den mulige eksistens af en “fattigdomsfælde”, hvoraf en økonomi ikke kan udvikle sig ved egen kraft, giver en teoretisk begrundelse for, at aftaler om fri bevægelse for varer og kapital (eksempelvis inden for EU) kædes sammen med aftaler om strukturstøtte til de mindre industrialiserede regioner. I kapitel 4 integreres økonomisk geografi og neoklassisk vækstteori i en model, der simultant forklarer økonomisk vækst og industriens fordeling. Det påvises, at der er to regimer: Et neoklassisk “catching-up” regime, hvor økonomierne gradvis konvergerer, og et fattigdomsregime”, hvor forskellen i økonomisk udvikling udvides. Det påvises, at afvikling af handelsbarrierer kan eliminere fattigdomsfælden, således at mere tilbagestående lande med tiden vil tilnærme sig de mere udviklede økonomier. Kapitel 5 er en empirisk test af den model, der udvikles i kapitel 4, mod data for USA og Japan. Testen viser, at modellen ikke kan afvises for så vidt angår perioden efter Bretton Woods fast-kurs systemets sammenbrud i 1972. Under Bretton Woods systemet synes de to økonomer at have udviklet sig uafhængigt af hinanden, hvorfor modellen må afvises for denne periode. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7914 Files in this item: 1
Dieter_Urban.pdf (1.410Mb) -
Blomgren-Hansen, Niels (København, 1998)[More information][Less information]
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Cost-benefit-beregningHøjbjerg Jacobsen, Rasmus (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: I perioden januar-august 2011 har CEBR udført en analyseopgave for Landsforeningen BEDRE PSYKIATRI. Formålet med projektet har været at undersøge det samfundsøkonomiske potentiale for forøget inddragelse af pårørende i behandlingen af personer med psykisk sygdom i Danmark. Specifikt har det været formålet at gennemføre en cost-benefit beregning af familieintervention og inddragelse af pårørende på baggrund af de faktiske livsforløb for patienter med psykisk sygdom i Danmark og de resultater af effekter af familieintervention og pårørendeinddragelse, der kan findes i faglitteraturen. Undervejs har en række personer givet værdifulde kommentarer til projektet, og forfatteren vil gerne takke alle herfor. Særlig tak skal rettes til Martin Junge fra CEBR, professor Søren Bo Nielsen, CBS, samt Thorstein Theilgaard og Jens Peter Dam Eckardt Jensen fra BEDRE PSYKIATRI. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8578 Files in this item: 1
Rasmus_H_Jacobsen_2011.pdf (390.7Kb) -
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Abstract: Denne analyse af folkeskolen anvender DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) som et redskab til at foretage ”realistisk benchmarking”, hvor der i for-hold til den enkelte folkeskole identificeres relevante forbilleder, der på den ene side ligner skolen meget, men på den anden side gør det bedre. Sammenligningen tager udgangspunkt i de karakterer eleverne opnår ved afgangseksamen i 9. klasse. KREVIs analyse af folkeskolens faglige kvalitet viste, at forskelle i skolernes faglige kvalitet spiller en signifikant rolle, når karakterforskellene skal forklares. Selvom forskelle i elevernes sociale baggrund og individuelle forskelle under alle omstændigheder er den mest væsentlige årsag til forskelle i karakterer. Der er således god grund til at sammenligne skoler med relevante forbilleder. Da der desuden er væsentlige forskelle i skolernes ressourceforbrug, giver det god mening at lave realistisk benchmarking på sammenhængene mellem faglighed og ressourceforbrug for at vurdere effektiviteten. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8574 Files in this item: 4
Bilag_1_Wittrup_Bogetoft_2011.pdf (439.9Kb)Bilag_2_Wittrup_Bogetoft_2011.pdf (353.0Kb)Bilag_3_Wittrup_Bogetoft_2011.pdf (528.0Kb)Rapport_Wittrup_Bogetoft_2011.pdf (1.306Mb) -
Bennedsen, Morten; Nielsen, Kasper (København, 2001)[More information][Less information]
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Theory and ExperimentsAndersen, Steffen; Fountain, John; Harrison, Glenn W.; Rutström, E. Elisabet (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Subjective beliefs play a role in many economic decisions. There is a large theoretical literature on the elicitation of beliefs, and an equally large empirical literature. However, there is a gulf between the two. The theoretical literature proposes a range of procedures that can be used to recover beliefs, but stresses the need to make strong auxiliary assumptions or “calibrating adjustments” to elicited reports in order to recover the latent belief. With some notable exceptions, the empirical literature seems intent on either making those strong assumptions or ignoring the need for calibration. We make three contributions to bridge this gulf. First, we offer a general theoretical framework in which the belief elicitation task can be viewed as an exchange of state-dependent commodities between two traders. Second, we provide a specific elicitation procedure which has clear counterparts in field betting environments, and that is directly motivated by our theoretical framework. Finally, we illustrate how one can jointly estimate risk attitudes and subjective beliefs using structural maximum likelihood methods. This allows the observer to make inferences about the latent subjective belief, calibrating for virtually any well-specified model of choice under uncertainty. We demonstrate our procedures with an experiment in which we elicit subjective probabilities over three future events and one fact. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7799 Files in this item: 1
wp2009-3.pdf (2.043Mb) -
Fosse, Henrik Barslund (Copenhagen Business School, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The thesis consists of an introduction followed by three numbered chapters (independent papers). It covers topics in international trade, and in di¤erent ways the thesis investigates aspects of heterogeneity. The rst chapter is coauthored with Pascalis Raimondos-Møller. The version of this chapter is published in the CESifo Working Paper Series and serves as the nal background paper for the compressed journal article published in Review of Development Economics, May 2012. The second chapter is coauthored with Madhura Maitra, senior PhD student at Columbia University at the time. The third chapter is a solo paper. In the rst chapter we introduce a traditional macro model of trade and change the com- petitive environment by introducing state-owned enterprises. We also include heterogenous households to analyze e¤ects on the income distribution. The chapter focuses on Vietnam s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007. Upon entry, Vietnam was granted an accession period lasting till 2014. During this period tari¤s would have to fall according to the accession agreement. This rst chapter evaluates this 2007-2014 trade liberalization by building an applied general equilibrium model and calibrating it to the Vietnamese data. The model pays careful attention to the fact that Vietnam has many state-owned enterprises that do not behave in a pro t maximizing way. The model simulations show that the WTO imposed tari¤ reforms will reduce the overall welfare level of the Vietnamese households. Moreover, the biggest loss of income will take place among the poor rural households in Vietnam. We propose other tari¤ reforms that both raise overall welfare and reduce income inequality. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8541 Files in this item: 1
Henrik_Barslund_Fosse.pdf (1.149Mb)