Browsing Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) by Year Published
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Poutvaara, Panu; Tuomala, Juha; Jordahl, Henrik (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In a recent paper, García-Mainar and Montuenga-Gómez [Econ. Edu. Rev. 24 (2005)] apply the generalized IV model of Hausman and Taylor to estimate education returns of wage earners and the self-employed in Portugal and in Spain. Our examination reveals several problems which relate to the validity and documentation of the instrumental variables, as well as the robustness of the results. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7712 Files in this item: 1
dp 2008-14.pdf (101.6Kb) -
Hagen Jørgensen, Ole (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Using a stochastic overlapping generations model with endogenous labour supply, this paper studies the design and performance of a policy rule for the retirement age in response to fertility and mortality shocks. Two main results are derived: First, to oset a change in the labour force the retirement age should adjust more than proportionally to the fertility change and, second, to be socially desirable the retirement age should be indexed less than proportionally to changes in life expectancy. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7688 Files in this item: 1
dp 2008-03.pdf (361.1Kb) -
Glazer, Amihai; Kanniainen, Vesa; Poutvaara, Panu (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We consider the effects of income redistribution when people can migrate from one country to another, and when land within each country is heterogeneous. Taxes related to income can then affect property values, and can induce migration, which further affects property values. We show that under these conditions a utilitarian government should never equalize after-tax incomes. If migration is impossible, it may even transfer income from the poor to the rich, reducing the rents earned by absentee landlords. The redistributive tax on the rich may be higher or lower when the rich can migrate than when they cannot. A Rawlsian government in the absence of mobility will equalize after-tax incomes. Under mobility, Rawlsian governments cut their taxes if and only if the relative pre-tax income of the poor is sufficiently low. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7689 Files in this item: 1
dp 2008-05.pdf (163.9Kb) -
Keller, Katarina; Poutvaara, Panu; Wagener, Andres (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Economic theory predicts that military conscription is associated with static inefficiencies as well as with dynamic distortions of the accumulation of human and physical capital. Relative to an economy with an allvolunteer force, output levels and growth rates should be lower in countries that rely on a military draft to recruit their army personnel. For OECD countries, we show that military conscription indeed has a statistically significantly negative impact on economic performance. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7714 Files in this item: 1
dp 2008-10.pdf (234.9Kb) -
Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj; Rose Skaksen, Jan (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this paper, we show that the welfare implications of immigration which takes place in upturns, and may be partly reversed in downturns, are very different from the implications of immigration usually found in static models. Abstracting from any gains to capital owners and native workers due to complementarities, we find that (especially temporary) immigration may still benefit native workers in a European type of labour market where minimum wages may bind in downturns. However, in the presence of hiring costs, these effects may be reversed. Thus, promoting temporary immigration schemes may lead to adverse consequences if they also increase the costs of hiring foreign labour. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7700 Files in this item: 1
dp 2008-12.pdf (351.9Kb) -
Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj; Schjerning, Bertel; Sørensen, Anders (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper analyses the importance of entrepreneurs for job creation and wage growth. Relying on unique data that covers all plants, firms and individuals in the Danish private sector, we are able to distil a number of different measures of entrepreneurial plants from the set of new plants, including measures that much more precisely capture the "truly new” or "entrepreneurial” plants than in previous studies. Using these data, we find that while new plants in general account for one third of the gross job creation in the economy, entrepreneurial plants are responsible for between 15% and 25% of this, and thus only account for up to 8% of total gross job creation in the economy. However, entrepreneurial plants seem to generate more additional jobs than other new plants in the years following entry. Finally, the jobs generated by entrepreneurial plants are to a large extent low-wage jobs, as they are not found to contribute to the growth in average wages. However, this insight varies across the different types of entrepreneurial plants. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7713 Files in this item: 1
dp 2008-13.pdf (122.6Kb) -
Koskela, Erkki; Poutvaara, Panu (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We evaluate the effects of international outsourcing and labor taxation on wage formation and equilibrium unemployment in dual labor markets. Outsourcing promotes wage dispersion between the high-skilled and low-skilled workers. Higher domestic low-skilled wage tax, higher payroll tax and lower wage tax exemption increase optimal outsourcing. Outsourcing will reduce equilibrium unemployment of low-skilled workers both in the presence and absence of labor taxation. In the presence of outsourcing, wage tax, tax exemption and payroll tax have an ambiguous effect on equilibrium unemployment. Increasing the degree of tax progression decreases the wage rate and increases the demand of low-skilled workers. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7697 Files in this item: 1
dp 2008-09.pdf (203.0Kb) -
Glazer, Amihai; Kanniainen, Vesa; Poutvaara, Panu (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper develops a theory of consumer boycotts. Some consumers care not only about the products they buy but also about whether the firm behaves ethically. Other consumers do not care about the behavior of the firm but yet may like to give the impression of being ethical consumers. Consequently, to affect a firm’s ethical behavior, moral consumers refuse to buy from an unethical firm. Consumers who do not care about ethical behavior may join the boycott to (falsely) signal that they do care. In the firm’s choice between ethical and unethical behavior, the optimality of mixed and pure strategies depends on the cost of behaving ethically. In particular, when the cost is (relatively) low, ethical behavior arises from a prisoners’ dilemma as the firm’s optimal strategy. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7706 Files in this item: 1
dp 2008-08.pdf (225.8Kb) -
Kolm, Ann-Sofie; Nielsen, Søren Bo (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: To examine the effects on labor market performance of government tax and enforcement policies, this paper develops an equilibrium model featuring tax evasion, matching frictions, and worker-firm wage bargains. In the wage bargains, workers and firms can agree on the amount of remuneration that should not be reported to the tax authorities. We find that increased taxation actually reduces unemployment, whereas more zealous enforcement has the opposite effect. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7699 Files in this item: 1
artikel 10.pdf (464.6Kb) -
Harr, Thomas; Rønde, Thomas (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We study the optimal regulation of banking groups ("banks”), taking both minimum capital requirements and legal structure into account. A bank can set up either as one legal unit facing limited liability jointly (branch structure) or as a bank holding company with subsidiaries (subsidiary structure). Banks are exposed to risk from their unobservable asset choices and to exogenous risk from their environment. We show that banks with branches are more prudent in normal times than banks with subsidiaries, but are also less prudent when problems arise. A regulator that observes banks’ exogenous risk should optimally determine both capital requirements and legal structure. If the exogenous risk is private information to banks, it can be optimal to screen banks according to risk by setting capital requirements appropriately, and letting banks choose their legal structure. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7708 Files in this item: 1
artikel 01.pdf (717.4Kb) -
Omfang, udvikling og konsekvenserMalchow-Møller, Nikolaj; Rose Skaksen, Jan; Munch, Jakob Roland; Aastrup Jensen, Claus (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
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Munch, Jakob Roland; Rose Skaksen, Jan; Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: While immigration is unlikely to affect the employment of native workers in the long run, employment of immigrants may be associated with significant short-run adjustment costs for native workers as they have to fi nd alternative employment or are temporarily pushed into unemployment. In this paper, we therefore study the impact of immigrants at the workplace on the employment of native co-workers using a rich matched worker-fi rm data set for Denmark. Estimation of a single risk duration model for job spells of native workers shows that job separation rates increase if more immigrants are hired, especially when it comes to immigrants from Eastern Europe and less developed countries (LDCs). Furthermore, in a competing risks duration model, we fi nd that while immigrants from LDCs increase the unemployment risk for native workers, immigrants from Eastern Europe instead increase the job change probability of native workers. Thus, adjustment costs for native workers are more likely in the case where LDC immigrants are hired. Finally, we fi nd that the results only apply for low-skilled native workers. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7510 Files in this item: 1
wp17-2007.pdf (729.2Kb) -
Junge, Martin; Meisner Nielsen, Kasper; Torp Jespersen, Svend; Kragh Jacobsen, Jesper; Bennedsen, Morten (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Firms in the European countries today have the possibility of choosing from a range of control enhancing mechanisms giving the controlling owners an amount of influence which is disproportional to their share of cash flow. The list of control enhancing mechanisms includes dual class shares, pyramidal ownership structures and several others. The justification for these control enhancing mechanisms is currently the subject of much debate within the European Union. The opposing positions in the debate can be stated briefly as i) the control enhancing mechanisms are an impediment to takeovers and should therefore be removed to improve the market for corporate control. ii) Removing the control enhancing mechanisms reduces the contractual freedom to decide desirable ownership structures. This report investigates whether ownership structures affect firm performance. To do so this study provides a description of the current ownership structures in European countries and the economic outcomes for firms using different ownership structures. The results are presented in the tables below. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7491 Files in this item: 1
rep03-2007.pdf (359.3Kb) -
Munch, Jakob Roland; Rose Skaksen, Jan; Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We propose a complementary approach to analyze the impact of immigration on the wages of native workers. Using linked employer-employee data from Denmark for a relatively long time period (1993-2004), we study the consequences of an increased use of immigrants at the most disaggregate level – the workplace. We find that an increase in the share of workers from less developed countries at the workplace has a signifi cantly negative effect on the wages of natives – also when controlling for potential endogeneity using both fi xed effects and IV. The use of immigrants from more developed countries also appears to be correlated with wages. However, these correlations disappear when controlling for unobserved fi rm and worker characteristics and are thus likely to reflect selection rather than a causal effect of these immigrants. Finally, we find a positive impact on the wages of native workers from having Eastern European co-workers. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7638 Files in this item: 1
wp18-2007.pdf (697.2Kb) -
Konsekvenserne for løn og beskæftigelseMunch, Jakob Roland; Rose Skaksen, Jan; Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
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Määttänen, Niku; Poutvaara, Panu (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We study the welfare effects of earnings testing flat-rate old-age benefits in a quantitative overlapping generations model with idiosyncratic labor income risk. In our model economy, even a moderate earnings testing reduces individuals’ expected lifetime utility, whenever other taxes are taken into account. Moreover, it also lowers the realized lifetime utilities of those at the bottom of the lifetime utility distribution. Social security; Retirement; Means-testing URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7705 Files in this item: 1
artikel 09.pdf (315.4Kb) -
Do Police Reduce Group Violence?Priks, Mikael; Poutvaara, Panu (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
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Poutvaara, Panu; Siemers, Lars (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We study the social interaction of non-smokers and smokers as a sequential game, incorporating insights from social psychology and experimental economics into an economic model. Social norms a®ect human behavior such that non-smokers do not ask smokers to stop smoking and stay with them, even though disutility from smoking exceeds utility from social interaction. Overall, smoking is unduly often accepted when accommodating smoking is the social norm. The introduction of smoking and non-smoking areas does not overcome this speci¯c ine±ciency. We conclude that smoking bans may represent a required (second-best) policy. smoking policy, health, social norms, guilt aversion, social interaction URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7702 Files in this item: 1
artikel 14.pdf (283.5Kb) -
Rosholm, Michael; Scheuer, Christian; Sørensen, Anders (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of globalization, in the sense of increasing international trade, on the demand for skills in Danish manufacturing companies. The study is based on a unique data set that enables us to develop rich measures of international outsourcing and import penetration. Moreover, the data also allows several strategies to strengthen the causal interpretation of our results. The main finding of the analysis is that it is of crucial importance to distinguish imports - both in the form of outsourcing and overall imports - by country-of-origin. We find that international trade with low-wage countries leads to skill-upgrading. This is especially pronounced for import penetration with a ceteris paribus contribution of around fifty percent to skill-upgrading. Moreover, we find that import penetration in goods originating from high-wage countries lead to skill-downgrading. This latter result suggests that Danish manufacturing has comparative advantage in skill intensive production when compared to low-wage countries, but in unskill-intensive production when compared to high-wage countries. Skill-upgrading, Low-wage country outsourcing, Low-wage country import penetration, Comparative advantage URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7709 Files in this item: 1
artikel 20.pdf (389.3Kb) -
Fehr, Hans; Habermann, Christian (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The present paper studies the growth and efficiency consequences of tax-favored individual retirement accounts in a general equilibrium overlapping generations model with idiosyncratic lifespan and labor income uncertainty. We distinguish between economies with rational and with hyperbolic consumers and compare the consequences of mandatory and voluntary retirement plans with and without annuitized benefits. While a full taxation of capital income yields the highest efficiency gains in the rational consumer model, annuitization and hyperbolic discounting substantially improve the economic efficiency of IRAs. We also show that annuitization alters the intergenerational welfare consequences of the reform substantially, since it reduces accidental bequests. Finally, even if mandatory saving programs have a clear cost advantage, they are only recommendable if consumers are myopic. individual retirement accounts, annuities, stochastic general equilibrium, hyperbolic consumers URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7710 Files in this item: 1
artikel 11.pdf (258.2Kb)