Das Produktivitätswachstum in der deutschen Industrie hat sich in den letzten Jahren verlangsamt. Zugleich ist die Heterogenität bei den Verläufen unter den Industriebranchen enorm. Was sind die ökonomischen Hintergründe, und lässt sich daraus eine tatsächliche Produktivitätsschwäche...

Das Thema Digitalisierung im Handel ist aktueller denn je, nicht nur in Bezug auf den Onlinehandel und die Auswirkungen auf den lokalen Absatz, sondern auch mit Blick auf die vielen neuen Möglichkeiten, die die digitalen Technologien dem stationären Handel bieten.

Die Steigerung der Produktivität ist kein Selbstzweck, sondern dient dem Erhalt und Ausbau der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit. Nicht nur vor dem Hintergrund verstärkt protektionistischer Tendenzen im handelspolitischen Umfeld ist dieses Motiv von zentraler Bedeutung. Allerdings hat sich das...

Die Steigerung der Produktivität ist kein Selbstzweck, sondern dient dem Erhalt und Ausbau der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit. Nicht nur vor dem Hintergrund verstärkt protektionistischer Tendenzen im handelspolitischen Umfeld ist dieses Motiv von zentraler Bedeutung. Allerdings hat sich das...

Diese wirtschaftsethische Reflexion geht angesichts einer sehr lautschrillen öffentlichen Debatte der Frage nach, ob ein profitabler Weltkonzern wie Siemens Betriebsstandorte in strukturschwachen Regionen Ostdeutschlands schließen darf. Dem die Öffentlichkeit dominierenden Wahrnehmungsmuster...

Dieser Kurzaufsatz versucht, Karl Marx als Klassiker ernst zu nehmen. Wir vertreten folgende Thesen: (1) Marx war ein Kämpfer für individuelle Freiheit. (2) Marx war ein Pionier des Systemdenkens. (3) Marx war ein ökonomischer Autodidakt. Als solchem ist ihm ein kapitaler Fehler unterlaufen....

Gibt es „Wachstumszwänge“? Wir definieren den Begriff relativ eng, strukturieren die diskutierten Mechanismen in sechs Gruppen und analysieren sie. Technischer Fortschritt erweist sich mit seiner Kostendynamik und „technologischer Arbeitslosigkeit“ als Hauptursache für das „grow or...

Eine Reihe von Autoren - vor allem im deutschsprachigen - Raum begründet die Notwendigkeit regulatorischer Eingriffe in Profisportmärkte damit, dass der Wettbewerb auf diesen Märkten systematisch versage. Als wesentliche Ursache für Wettbewerbsprobleme innerhalb dieser Ligen oder...

Der im Jahr 2007 zwischen Bund und Ländern beschlossene Hochschulpakt, eingeführt mit dem Ziel, für die zunehmende Anzahl an Studienberechtigten einen Studienplatz bereitzustellen, läuft 2020 und damit in absehbarer Zeit aus. Entsprechend beraten die Länder bereits heute, wie sie trotz...

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are indispensable watchdogs against corrupt practices and global challenges found in complex, modern societies. Yet sometimes, CSOs themselves can struggle to live up to the ambitious standards they demand of others, such as responsible advocacy, ethical...

This paper explains the different trajectories of German and American competition policy and its permissiveness towards economic concentration in the last few decades. While the German political economy had moved to a stronger antitrust regime after 1945 and stuck to it even after the economic...

Women are globally under-represented in top-tier jobs, and according to recent data, in 2013 only around 20 percent of board members in OECD countries were female (OECD, 2013). In addition, empirical studies using different research strategies and rich data consistently find that women earn less...

The existence and causes of gender gaps in pay and in occupational choice have been increasingly at the centre of research in economics, sociology, psychology, managerial science, and other fields. The research findings across countries and over time generally suggest that gaps exist and are...

Das Land Niedersachsen gehört zu den größten Anteilseignern beim VW-Konzern, die Bundesregierung gesteht Air Berlin Bürgschaften zu. Sind dies wettbewerbsverzerrende politische Interventionen, die aus den besonderen Beziehungen zwischen Wirtschaft und Politik entstehen, oder nur das Setzen...

This paper examines the effects of campaign spending limits on political competition and incumbency advantage. We study a reform in Brazil that imposed limits on campaign spending for mayoral elections. These limits were implemented with a discontinuous kink which we exploit for causal...

We report on two experiments investigating whether there is a gender difference in thewillingness to compete against oneself (self-competition), similar to what is found whencompeting against others (other-competition). In one laboratory and one online marketexperiment, involving a total of...

We evaluate the effect of a pro-competition reform gradually introduced in France over the 2004-2008 period on hospital quality measured with the mortality of heart-attack patients. Our analysis distinguishes between hospitals depending on their status: public (university or non-teaching),...

A large number of recent experimental studies show that women are less likely to sort into competitive environments. While part of this effect may be explained by gender differences in risk attitudes and overconfidence, previous studies have attributed the majority of the gender gap to gender...

We compare a discriminatory pricing regime with a non-discriminatory regime in a competitive bottleneck model where content providers endogenously sort into single or multi-homers. We find that consumer prices rise when the share of single-homers increases in the non-discriminatory case, while...

Eine Reihe von Autoren - vor allem im deutschsprachigen - Raum begründet die Notwendigkeit regulatorischer Eingriffe in Profisportmärkte damit, dass der Wettbewerb auf diesen Märkten systematisch versage. Als wesentliche Ursache für Wettbewerbsprobleme innerhalb dieser Ligen oder...

Several countries have recently introduced national capital standards exceeding the internationally coordinated Basel III rules, which is inconsistent with the 'race to the bottom' in capital standards found in the literature. We study regulatory competition when banks are heterogeneous and give...

Efficient transport links are critical to enhancing the integration of markets in Southern Africa. This paper assesses the structure of markets, competition, and prices and costs of road transportation between urban hubs in Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Key findings are...

A recent literature emphasizes the importance of the gender gap in willingness to compete as a partial explanation for gender differences in labor market outcomes. However, whereas experiments investigating willingness to compete typically do so in anonymous environments, real world competitions...

This paper analyses the role of the intensity of output market competition, firm's technology and of the incidence of collective wage-bargaining on firm's adjustment strategies to adverse shocks using firm-level data for Macedonia. We find that international character of product market...

The EDSA bus market is fiercely competitive. In theory, allowing competition among many bus operators is expected to result in cost-effective and reliable transport services, and efficient use of roads. However, in reality, the outcomes are far different: daylong traffic jam and poor bus service...

A recent literature emphasizes the importance of the gender gap in willingness to compete as a partial explanation for gender differences in labor market outcomes. However, whereas experiments investigating willingness to compete typically do so in anonymous environments, real world competitions...

After numerous attempts over more than a decade, the Philippine government finally enacted a comprehensive competition law, the Philippine Competition Act (Republic Act 10667) in July 2015. Before this breakthrough legislation, competition policy and law was scattered in about 30 different laws...

Many competitive health insurance markets adjust payments to participating health plans according to their enrollees' risk - including based on diagnostic information. We investigate responses of German health plans to the introduction of morbidity-based risk adjustment in the Statutory Health...

This paper investigates the role of social capital in determining one's competitiveness. The analysis exploits the data of the PISA test in math because competitive occupational choices often require high quantitative skills. The empirical results highlight that a higher level of trust in school...

This paper examines the effects of campaign spending limits on political competition and incumbency advantage. We study a reform in Brazil that imposed limits on campaign spending for mayoral elections. These limits were implemented with a discontinuous kink which we exploit for causal...

A recent literature emphasizes the importance of the gender gap in willingness to compete as a partial explanation for gender differences in labor market outcomes. However, whereas experiments investigating willingness to compete typically do so in anonymous environments, real world competitions...

This paper empirically investigates the advertising competition in the French broadcast television industry within a two-sided market framework. We use a unique dataset on the French broadcast television market including audience, prices, and quantities of advertising of twenty-one TV channels...

To test and replicate the superstar effect reported by Brown (2011) we empirically study contests where a single entrant has an endogenously higher probability of winning. Unlike the previous literature, we test for the presence of the superstar effect in several different contexts. Ultimately,...

This paper investigates the effects of changes in retail market concentration when input prices are negotiated. Results are derived from a model of bilateral Nash-bargaining between upstream and downstream firms which allows for general forms of demand and retail competition. Whether...

Women are less willing than men to compete against others. This gender gap can partially explain the differences between women’s and men’s education and career choices, and the labor market disparities that result. The experiments presented here show that even though women are less willing...

Competition in the US banking industry as measured by the Lerner Index has on average increased substantially during the last decade. At the same time, regional differences in competition on the state level have decreased considerably. Based on a dynamic panel framework we find that these...

We show that increasing the intensity of product market competition can reduce discrimination against female managers, even in an environment in which all employers have a preference for discrimination. The reason is that due to the glass ceiling effect, female managers will, on average, be more...