Browsing Ph.D. theses (ECON) by Title
Now showing items 1-19 of 19
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Berg, Petter (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: During the last ten years there has been a rigorous debate on how to improve anti-cartel enforcement in Europe. Introducing private enforcements systems, like in the US, was early in the process regarded as one of the most important steps for significant improvements. In contrast to public enforcement, private enforcement relies on adequate compensation to customers harmed by a cartel. But cartel damages are hard to calculate and the European Commission has therefore presented a draft guideline on how to quantify harm to assist courts and claimants. The focus in the guidance is on price effects, but cartels are also likely to cause other types of damage, such as efficiency effects. For example, a Swedish committee investigating cartels in the 1950’s stated that ”A monopolist or a cartel can charge too high prices in relation to its costs. A cartel determines prices after the least efficient firm in the cartel, and hence protects it” (SOU 1951:27). This statement reflects an early awareness that pricing and efficiency effects from cartels are deeply related, and jointly determines the harm for consumers. This thesis aims at re-joining the discussion of cartel prices and efficiencies for the purpose of determining cartel damages. It will focus on the issue outlined above, i.e. cartel behaviour and the harm caused by cartels when a cartel consists of members that are not symmetric in costs. Cost asymmetries can be both exogenous and endogenous to cartel formation, but rather than discussing why asymmetries arise, I will in the four chapters focus on the effect the asymmetries have on cartel prices and hence consumer harm. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8407 Files in this item: 1
Petter_Berg.pdf (1.385Mb) -
Webber, Stuart (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This dissertation analyzes ways in which Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) shift profits from one country to another to reduce their income tax expense. This is an important topic for a number of reasons. From a country’s perspective, its income tax rates and policies can have a significant impact upon its tax revenue, economic competitiveness, and the vibrancy of its economy. From the MNE’s perspective, income tax rates and policies determine a firm’s tax obligations, and thus affect net income and enterprise value. The dissertation examines several ways in which MNEs shift profits to reduce income taxes, and consists of five chapters. The introductory chapter reviews the economic evidence demonstrating firms shift profits from one country to another in response to tax rates. In the past two decades a number of economic studies have shown firms use tax and accounting techniques to shift reported profits to low tax jurisdictions, and that chapter reviews key articles that have demonstrated this. The second paper explains how MNEs finance international investments to shift interest income to low-tax jurisdictions. It reviews government tax policies in a number of countries that have been enacted to limit interest income shifting, and recommends an approach to control this activity. The third paper examines tax efficient supply chains, in which tax departments and supply chain organizations collaborate to site business operations to achieve supply chain objectives and reduce tax obligations. The fourth chapter analyzes how some U.S.-headquartered firms have moved their corporate headquarters from the U.S. to tax havens, to reduce their tax expense and avoid U.S. international tax policies. The fifth and final chapter examines new U.S. tax regulations that propose to value intellectual property transfers in the same way outside investors would, which the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) calls its “investor model.” It also makes recommendations concerning how the investor model can be improved. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8457 Files in this item: 1
Stuart_Webber.pdf (1.230Mb) -
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) -
Skibsted, Marie Kruse (Frederiksberg, 2016)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis focuses on individuals’ educational achievements and labor market outcomes in a Danish context. Particularly, the thesis aims at determining the returns to specific tertiary educational decisions and understanding the mechanisms underlying such decisions. These related objectives are addressed using econometric methods applied on Danish micro data. All four chapters are empirical studies and combine data from different sources. The main source of data is an administrative data set obtained from Copenhagen Business School (CBS) that contains detailed educational information on students enrolled at CBS. I combine this data with register data obtained from Statistics Denmark. The educational data is the core of Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 4 and defines the sample in these chapters. Chapter 1 relies exclusively on data from Statistics Denmark. Chapter 1 (a joint work with Anders Sørensen from Copenhagen Business School) estimates the wage premium of those with a master’s degree in business economics and management when compared to the wages of those with master’s degrees in other fields in the social sciences. By means of an Instrumental Variable (IV) approach, we identify the returns to a business education by addressing the endogenous selection of master’s programs. Using season of birth as an exogenous determinant of master’s degree choice, we find that a master’s degree in business economics and management results in a wage premium of around 12% compared to other master’s degrees in the social sciences. Moreover, we find that the probability of private sector employment is significantly larger for individuals with a master’s degree in business economics and management. Finally, in contrast to the literature that finds significant reductions in the gender wage gap when controlling for educational fields, controlling for a master’s degree in business economics and management does not affect the large and robust gender wage gap prevalent in our sample. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9318 Files in this item: 1
Marie_Skibsted.pdf (2.867Mb) -
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) -
Overgaard Olesen, Jan (, 2001)[More information][Less information]
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Essays on sorting and globalizationScheuer, Christian (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: "Leaping into the future of labor economics: the research potential of linking employer and employee data" is the title of a paper by Daniel S Hammermesh published in Labour Economics in 1999. I quote it here, since it captures much of my motivation for the work included in this thesis. Considering applied micro econometrics and labor economics my main elds of interest, the development of linked employer-employee data that took place in Denmark around the time of the new millennium, marked new and exciting possibilities. For some years Danish researchers have had access to very detailed information on all people living in Denmark, but at the beginning of this century also data on all companies linked to these persons was being made available for research. Combined with modern computer technology this meant access to a linked database following all employers and all employees in Denmark over time. I had no doubt that this should be the centerpiece of my Ph.D. The result has been two lines of research, one studying the e¤ect of globalization on labor demand in Denmark, and one studying sorting, that is, how and why employers meet employees in the labor market. In the summary I treat each line of research independently although I would like to emphasize, that studying a labor market where fi rms and workers reacts to one another is the corner stone in both. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7928 Files in this item: 1
Christian_Scheuer.pdf (1.312Mb) -
Bennett, Patrick (Frederiksberg, 2016)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: With a limited budget and resources, governments must decide how to allocate funds across a variety of factors which benefit society such as education, crime deterrence, and public safety. Each increase in spending on one area comes with the knowledge that this money cannot be spent on social problems in another area. As such, externalities and unexpected spillover effects impact the costs and benefits of public spending to society and may have large and meaningful implications on how to most effectively allocate resources across a multitude of outcomes. For example, an increase in education corresponds to an increase in the opportunity cost of engaging in criminal activity, decreasing the probability an individual commits crime. Likewise, loss of employment decreases the opportunity cost of engaging in criminal activity, increasing the probability an individual commits crime. Discrimination towards immigrants can impact their employment prospects which, in turn, impacts their decision to further pursue education. Identifying how these individual level factors have an impact on society is key to informing and designing effective public policy. This Ph.D. thesis, entitled “Essays in Education, Crime, and Job Displacement”, analyzes the determinants and social implications of these three factors. While independent, each essay within this thesis examines the impact of factors such as education, in terms of reduced crime, job loss, in terms of increased crime, and discrimination, in terms of its impact on the educational attainment of immigrants, on society. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9308 Files in this item: 1
Patrick Bennett.pdf (3.850Mb) -
Nielsen, Steen (Frederiksberg, 2000)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This dissertation adresses various issues regarding the functioning of financial markets. It consists of introduction and five independent chapters of which the first four are empirical and the last one is theoretical. The introduction provides a brief background on some of the data used in subsequent chapters and a discussion of the main results of the dissertation URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7935 Files in this item: 1
Steen_Nielsen.pdf (17.09Mb) -
Evidence from Danish Micro DataSchultz, Esben Anton (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis consists of four empirical essays within the broad field of modern labor economics. All four essays are self-contained and can be read independently of the others. Chapter 1 investigates the distinct effects on information technology and communication technology on firm’s skill demand. Chapter 2 studies whether the observed wage gab between majors in human arts and other fields are caused by their education per se or by selection. Chapter 3 examines taxable income responses to variation in marginal tax rates. Chapter 4 analyzes the effect of income taxation on the international migration of top earners. Each chapter provides an independent and separate analytical contribution to their specific field. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8442 Files in this item: 1
Esben_Anton_Schultz.pdf (4.890Mb) -
Jessen, Lasse J. (Frederiksberg, 2016)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis consists of three independent chapters on the elicitation of individual discount rates and on the estimation of gambling prevalence in Denmark. The first chapter, “Discount Rate Sensitivity to Background Consumption and Consumption Smoothing,” studies the sensitivity of individual discount rates with respect to background consumption and consumption smoothing. I use simulated choice data from standard decision tasks in time preference experiments and show that individual discount rates are sensitive to assumptions with respect to background consumption and consumption smoothing if the utility function is non-linear and exogenous. However, if discount rates and the utility function are elicited jointly, discount rates are robust to assumptions on time-invariant background consumption and consumption smoothing. The analysis clarifies mixed conclusions from previous studies and indicates which elicitation methods provide robust estimates of individual discount rates. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9325 Files in this item: 1
Lasse_J_Jessen.pdf (3.019Mb) -
Amore, Mario Daniele (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The effect of corporate governance and managers on the value of companies has received great attention in the recent public debate. In the academic research, this increased attention has been associated with an effort to develop finer conceptual frameworks and analytical techniques to assess how governance and financial characteristics influence corporate policies and profitability. While theoretical models represent a successful approach under specific hypotheses, the econometric analysis of corporate governance and managerial characteristics has proven to be extremely challenging. Because governance and managerial characteristics are equilibrium outcomes largely determined by the firm itself, it is methodologically difficult to separate out their determinants from their consequences to infer causal effects. Since its infancy the empirical corporate governance and corporate finance research has faced this problem, which is often responsible for mixed empirical results. In my dissertation, I adopt a common methodological framework developed in the “program evaluation” literature to shed new light on the effects of governance and managerial characteristics on a variety of corporate policies and, ultimately, firm performance. In particular, I estimate a class of difference-in-differences models deriving the empirical identifications from policy changes that generate “quasi-natural experiments”. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8451 Files in this item: 1
Mario_Daniele_Amore.pdf (1.242Mb) -
Zhou, Haoyong (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The dissertation examines corporate performance and capital structure of family firms, contributing to the limited empirical research on family firms. Family firms are prevalent in national economies all over the world. It is the prevalence that makes family firms receive increasing attentions from academia. The dissertation consists of an introduction and three chapters. Each chapter is an independent paper. The first chapter is a joint work with Professor Morten Bennedsen and Dr. Markus Ampenberger. The version of in the dissertation will be published as Chapter 6 in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurial Finance by Oxford University Press. The second paper and third paper are single-authored papers. In the first chapter, we discuss the capital structure of family firms, with a focus on the debtequity mix. Two parts comprise the chapter. In the first part, we provide a literature review on existing theoretical and empirical research in the capital structure of family firms. The literature review shows that the most important theories to explain capital structure in family firms seem to be risk aversion, agency theory, and control considerations. We argue that risk aversion and control considerations have opposing impacts on the optimal choice of debt leverage of family firms. On one hand, controlling families of family firms are typically non-diversified investors with most of their wealth and human capital tied to the company and consequently family firms use less debt. On the other hand, controlling families want to maintain the control over their companies. This control consideration restricts the willingness to raise new equity outside the family and therefore often lead to a stronger dependence on banks and other debt instruments. The literature review also shows that evidence on capital structure choices of family firms is inconclusive. Large-scale evidence on private family firms is almost missing. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8607 Files in this item: 1
Haoyong_Zhou.pdf (2.035Mb) -
Vinten, Frederik Christian (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We study the impact of stock market valuations on delistings from European stock exchanges 1996-2004. Previous research has found that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) occur more often when market valuations are high. This is paradoxical since it implies that companies are more likely to engage in M&A when it is most expensive. In accordance with prior research we find that delistings by mergers and acquisitions are more likely when industry market-to-book values (q) are high. In contrast, we find no effect of industry q on going private transactions. The data also suggest that M&A are more likely to take place in bull years while going private transactions are relatively more likely in bear years. Our study is the first comprehensive study of delistings in Europe and the first study to demonstrate that going private transactions appear to be driven by different causal mechanisms than M&A. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7682 Files in this item: 1
frederik_vinten.pdf (1.449Mb) -
Danø, Bo (Frederiksberg, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Afhandlingen består af en introduktion og fire selvstændige kapitler. kapitlerne omhandler dels forskellige aspekter af valutakurseksponering og dels prisfastsættelse af valutakursrisiko, og alle de empiriske data er gennemført på danske data. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7926 Files in this item: 1
Bo_Danø.pdf (10.38Mb) -
Svane, Minna Selene (Frederiksberg, 1999)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This dissertation consists of five self-contained chapters on fiscal policy within a two sector endogenously growing economy. The main focus of the dissertaion is on educational and environmental issues and in particular on the optimal subsidy to education and the optimal environmental policy. The frameworks, which are used to investigate these issues, are all extensions of the Uzawa-Lucas model of endogenous growth. Chapter 1 and 2 investigate the effects of factor income taxation and subsidization of educational effort, whereas Chapter 3, 4 and 5 investigate the transitional dynamics and the long run effects of environmental policy URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7927 Files in this item: 1
Minna_Selene_Svane.pdf (7.345Mb) -
Misir, Nihat (Frederiksberg, 2015)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This dissertation is at the crossroads of electricity markets, industrial organization and real options literature. The main contribution of the dissertation is to investigate the effects of market power when the strategic producers own a portfolio of generation technologies and have ability to affect prices while facing demand or production uncertainties. The dissertation presents three chapters that deal with the short and long term impacts of market power in the electricity markets. Specifically, the first chapter provides a thorough look at the start up and shut down decisions of the peakload generators and paves way to a better assessment of the extent of the market power of a strategic firm. The second chapter shows the significance of wind power generator ownership on the peakload firms production decisions and market outcomes. Finally, the third chapter investigates how the investment decisions and technology choice differ between fixed and flexible production generators. Overall, this dissertation mainly adopts a real options methodology where the optimal decisions of the producers have a direct impact on the electricity prices contrary to the vast majority of the real options literature. The first chapter studies the effects of operational characteristics of power plants on optimal dispatch decisions and estimation of market power. Specifically, I give a real options model to show how operational characteristics of power plants and market uncertainty affect start up and shut down decisions. I show that in the case of ownership of multiple generation technologies, optimal dispatch decisions cause capacity withholding for the peakload generator in both the monopoly and the social planner cases. Moreover, the difference between the start up trigger prices for the social planner and the marginal cost reveals significant levels of real options premium. Overall, the existence of significant real options premium levels shows that ignoring market uncertainties and operational characteristics of individual generators, results in overestimating the extent of market power of the firms in the industry. Therefore, I conclude that real options analysis can be an asset for more accurate investigations and decisions on the exercise of market power. The second chapter shifts the focus to the ownership of wind generators as the fixed baseload generation in the first chapter is assumed to be replaced by the stochastic wind generation. Specifically, this chapter investigates the short term effects of wind generator ownership by the owners of fossil-fueled peakload generators. I show that aggregate wind generator ownership reduces the positive impact of the wind generation on the market outcomes and as a result the total peakload production decreases and the market price increases. Furthermore, when all wind generators are owned by the peakload firms, the impact of wind generation on the market outcomes vanishes. Additionally, start up and shut down (suspension) price thresholds are significantly higher when the owner of peakload capacity also owns a share of wind power generators. I also find that a feed-in premium support scheme does not affect the peakload firms production levels and hence the market outcomes. However, under a feed-in tariff type of support scheme, there is an increase in the total production and a decrease in the market price. The third chapter, coauthored with Rune Ramsdal Ernstsen, compares the investment timing and the optimal level of investment for a hypothetical monopolist and a social planner that have a one-time opportunity to invest in a generator with either fixed or flexible production. It specifically investigates how the investment triggers, optimal capacities and technology choices change with the changes to the investment cost function, demand uncertainty and the level of installed capacity in the market. The main contribution of this paper is to document that the choice to invest between generators with fixed or flexible production does not only depend on the differences in costs for different technologies but also on the differences in operation of those technologies. We find that the strategic firm tends to invest at a higher demand trigger level and lower capacity compared to the social planner for both the baseload and the peakload investment cases. Hence, the strategic firm is expected to invest at a later date while incurring lower investment costs. Furthermore, for both the strategic firm and the social planner, fixed baseload generation is preferable during low uncertainty cases whereas high uncertainty tends to result in the choice of flexible peakload generation. We additionally find that highly convex investment costs greatly diminishes the impact of market power on the investment decisions. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9135 Files in this item: 1
Nihat_MISIR.pdf (5.364Mb) -
Three papers laying the foundation for regional CGE models with agglomeration characteristicsTermansen, Lars Brømsøe (Frederiksberg, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The paper analyses the effects of introducing taxes and regional transfers on the equilibrium properties in a standard Core-Periphery model. A central government levies taxes on production factors and redistributes the revenue to all agents regardless of their location. In the case of Core-Periphery economy this is in effect a re-allocation of agglomeration rents. Simulations show that taxes and transfers alter the Core-Periphery model’s properties by moving the Break and Sustain points. The range of freeness of trade with Core-Periphery outcomes is reduced for transfers to the periphery, and increased for transfers to the core. The width of the overlap where the models exhibit hysteresis effects remains the same regardless of the transfers. The analysis reveals that in the Core-Periphery outcome the agglomeration rents can be taxed without exhausting the core’s scale effects. The tax revenues can then be redistributed such that periphery regions and the central government have incentives in promoting core regions, which function as industrial locomotives for the whole economy. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7739 Files in this item: 1
Lars_B_Termansen.pdf (1.846Mb) -
Schwenen, Sebastian (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The regulatory approach to supply security in electricity markets has been substantially altered since power markets were partly privatized and reregulated in the mid 1990’s, when regulators chose to rely on market based prices and decentralized commercially based decisions on generation capacities. Prior to this market restructuring power systems basically worked as planned economies, however, the decentralization of production decisions introduced stochastic elements to electricity systems. Additionally, since the early 2000’s, power generating companies, often incentivized by the state, started increasing the share of renewable but intermittent energy sources in their generation portfolios. Due to its intermittency the production process of wind, solar and hydro power is difficult to plan and therefore the final amount of power that enters the market at each point in time becomes difficult to predict. As the level of power supply intermittency increases, so also do the number of challenges that market based approaches face in organizing secure power systems.... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8376 Files in this item: 1
Sebastian_Schwenen.pdf (781.2Kb)
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