What causes cross-industry differences of technical efficiency? An empirical investigation

Using micro-level panel data of about 35,000 firms from the German Cost Structure Census, we analyze the differences of technical efficiency across industries. Technical efficiency is estimated by firms fixed effects. One striking result is that the distribution of technical efficiency across industries is positively skewed. This is because the efficiency distribution is truncated at the lower end due to the least efficient firms which exit the market. We investigate the causes of technical efficiency differences across industries. Our econometric analyses provide evidence that capital and human capital intensity, the degree of vertical specialization as well as new firm formation rate are important for explaining the average technical efficiency of an industry. -- Anhand von Mikro-Daten für ca. 35.000 Unternehmen aus der deutschen Kostenstrukturstatistik analysieren wir Branchenunterschiede der technischen Effizienz. Dabei wird die technische Effizienz als ein unternehmensspezifischer fixer Effekt spezifiziert. Ein wesentliches Ergebnis besteht in dem Befund, dass die Verteilung der technischen Effizienz über die Branchen eine positive Schiefe aufweist. Der Grund hierfür ist offenbar darin zu sehen, dass die Effizienzverteilung innerhalb der Branchen jeweils am unteren Ende abgeschnitten ist, da die Unternehmen mit relativ geringer Effizienz aus dem Markt ausscheiden müssen. Nach den Ergebnissen unserer ökonometrischen Analyse spielen die Sachkapital- und Humankapitalintensität, das Ausmaß vertikaler Spezialisierung sowie die das Ausmaß an Marktzutritten für die Erklärung der durchschnittlichen technischen Effizienz einer Branche eine wesentliche Rolle.Technical efficiency,cross-industry study,efficiency distribution,Technische Effizienz,Branchenunterschiede,Effizienzverteilung

Pricing Rare Event Risk in Emerging Markets

This paper solves the pricing problem of an merging market debt contract in which the borrower’s economy is subject to rare event risk. Our model combines elements of a reduced form and a structural model of debt pricing. Rare event risk is modeled as a sudden event in fundamentals, and we study the role of the debt contract in providing risk sharing between the borrower and the lender. The two main frictions under consideration in our equilibrium model are limited participation of the lender through the debt contract, and heterogeneous beliefs between the borrower and the lender about the likelihood of a rare event. We solve for the rate of interest, the credit spread, the risk premium, the write-off (recovery rate) in case of default, and the dynamics of the debt contract in non-default times. We find that limited participation combined with heterogeneous beliefs has strong e®ects on the level and variability of the debt contract propertiesRare Event Risk, Emerging Markets, Exchange Economy, Heterogeneous Beliefs, Incomplete Market

Measuring performance heterogeneity within groups: A two-dimensional approach

We introduce a new two-dimensional measure for the heterogeneity of performance within groups of economic units. This measure accounts both, for the relative performance of the single units of groups and their relative size. We demonstrate that the new measure leads to a much more differentiated description of heterogeneity than alternative measures, for example, the mean or range. In particular, we provide an example to demonstrate that the proposed measure of heterogeneity is relatively robust with regard to extreme values of units ("outliers") with a relatively small size. -- Wir stellen ein neues zweidimensionales Maß für die Heterogenität der Leis-tungsfähigkeit innerhalb von Gruppen ökonomischer Einheiten vor. Dieses Maß berücksichtigt neben der Leistungsfähigkeit auch die relative Größe der betreffen-den Einheiten. Wir zeigen, dass dieses neue Maß die Heterogenität innerhalb von Gruppen wesentlich differenzierter beschreibt als alternative Maße, wie etwa das arithmetische Mittel und die Spannweite. Anhand eines numerischen Beispiels kann gezeigt werden, dass unser Maß vergleichsweise robust gegenüber extremen Werten (Ausreißern) relativ kleiner Einheiten ist.Performance,heterogeneity,dispersion measures,Leistungsfähigkeit,Heterogenität,Streuungsmaße

Purchase and redemption decisions of mutual fund investors and the role of fund families

This paper investigates the purchases and redemptions of a large cross-sectional sample of German equity funds. We find that investors punish bad performance by selling their shares, but also have a tendency to sell winners. Investors in large fund families show higher sales and redemption rates. Furthermore, family size also affects the flow-performance relationship. On the one hand, investors in large families punish bad performance more, on the other, they also tend to sell winners more. Finally, we find that inner-family rankings play an important role for redemptions, with investors strongly redeeming their shares from intra-family losers. --Mutual funds,fund family,flow-performance relationship

Trade and Industrial Policies with Heterogeneous Firms: The Role of Country Asymmetries

This paper explores the role of country asymmetries for trade and industrial policies with heterogeneous firms. Our analysis delivers a number of novel results. First, trade policies, infrastructure policies and industrial policies which improve the business conditions in one country have negative productivity and welfare effects on the trading partner. Second, symmetric trade liberalization is immiserizing for a trading partner whose business conditions are inferior. Third, there are gains from trade even for a country whose monopolistically competitive sector with heterogeneous firms is wiped out by the switch from autarky to trade.firm heterogeneity, welfare, trade policies, industrial policies, business conditions

Trade and Industrial Policies with Heterogeneous Firms: The Role of Country Asymmetries

This paper explores the role of country asymmetries for trade and industrial policies with heterogeneous firms. Our analysis delivers a number of novel results. First, trade policies, infrastructure policies and industrial policies which improve the business conditions in one country have negative productivity and welfare effects on the trading partner. Second, symmetric trade liberalization is immiserizing for a trading partner whose business conditions are inferior. Third, there are gains from trade even for a country whose monopolistically competitive sector with heterogeneous firms is wiped out by the switch from autarky to trade.firm heterogeneity, welfare, trade policies, industrial policies, business conditions

Heterogeneous Firms, Trade, and Economic Policy: Insights from a Simple Two-Sector Model

The robust empirical finding that exporting firms are systematically different from firms that merely serve domestic consumers has inspired the development of a new brand of trade theory, the theory of heterogeneous firms and trade. The establishment of a canonical model due to Melitz (2003) has induced a recent wave of research which explores various policy issues and policy instruments. This paper uses a simple tractable two-sector model of monopolistic competition as unifying framework to bring out key lessons of this recent research. We address the gains from trade, country asymmetries involving technology potentials, market sizes, trade openness and various business conditions as well as the international repercussions that emerge when countries non-cooperatively choose entry subsidies and their levels of basic research. We also reinvestigate the process of market exit.firm heterogeneity, monopolistic competition, economic policies and welfare

1/f noise and long-term memory of coherent structures in a turbulent shear flow

A shear flow of liquid metal (Galinstan) is driven in an annular channel by counter-rotating traveling magnetic fields imposed at the endcaps. When the traveling velocities are large, the flow is turbulent and its azimuthal component displays random reversals. Power spectra of the velocity field exhibit a $1/f^\alpha$ power law on several decades and are related to power-law probability distributions $P(\tau)\sim\tau^{-\beta}$ of the waiting times between successive reversals. This $1/f$ type spectrum is observed only when the Reynolds number is large enough. In addition, the exponents $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are controlled by the symmetry of the system : a continuous transition between two different types of Flicker noise is observed as the equatorial symmetry of the flow is broken, in agreement with theoretical predictions.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure