Papers by Alexander Schiersch
Research Papers in Economics, 2016
Die Industrie ist für die Leistungsfähigkeit der deutschen Wirtschaft ein zentraler Bereich. Hier... more Die Industrie ist für die Leistungsfähigkeit der deutschen Wirtschaft ein zentraler Bereich. Hier konnte Ostdeutschland die Lücke im Produktivitätsniveau zu Westdeutschland zwischen 2004 und 2014 um ein Drittel verringern. Ostdeutsche Unternehmen liegen im Effizienzniveau (Totale Faktorproduktivität) aber noch immer gut 20 Prozent zurück. Die strukturellen Unterschiede in der Unternehmenslandschaft sind dafür nicht ausschlaggebend. Sie erklären gerade einmal ein Fünftel der Produktivitätslücke. Entscheidend sind immer noch bestehende Produktivitätsunterschiede zwischen gleichartigen Unternehmenstypen. Insbesondere kleinere ostdeutsche Unternehmen haben – unabhängig von ihrer Branche und in welchem Regionstyp sie ihren Standort haben – durchgängig einen Produktivitätsrückstand. Hier scheinen die Pfadabhängigkeiten sehr groß, so dass auch weiterhin nur mit langsamen Fortschritten bei der Produktivitätsangleichung zu rechnen ist. Bei großen Unternehmen besteht hingegen eine starke Hete...
DIW Economic Bulletin, 2015
DIW Berlin has examined the effects of investment in research and development on economic growth ... more DIW Berlin has examined the effects of investment in research and development on economic growth in Germany and other OECD countries. Their results show that an increase of one percentage point in research and development spending in the economy as a whole leads to a short-term average increase in GDP growth of approximately 0.05 to 0.15 percentage points. The coefficient for Germany is at the upper end of that range. The analysis shows, however, that it is difficult to separate the effect of aggregate R&D into contributions from private- and public sector R&D. R&D investment in both sectors has seen strong growth in Germany in recent years, particularly when compared internationally. For a country that owes its prosperity largely to its research-intensive manufacturing sector and to production-related, knowledge-intensive services, research and development remains key to future growth. It is therefore essential that Germany does not ease up on its efforts to increase R&D investment.
Pearl millet flour was utilized in kibbeh formulations instead of whole-wheat flour. Physicochemi... more Pearl millet flour was utilized in kibbeh formulations instead of whole-wheat flour. Physicochemical properties, oxidation stability and sensorial characteristics of control kibbeh made with whole-wheat flour (CT) were compared with kibbehs prepared with millet flour (roasted or wet) and stored for 90 days (-18 °C). Kibbeh prepared with millet flour presented good oxidation stability (TBARS concentration). Baked kibbehs (with roasted millet flour) presented good acceptability and kibbeh samples did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) from the whole-wheat flour sample, when global appearance, texture and flavor were evaluated. Millet flour could be a suitable ingredient for kibbeh formulations, maintaining their nutritional value and sensorial quality in addition to being a gluten-free product.
Unternehmen investieren in Forschung und Entwicklung (FuE), um ihre Wettbewerbsfahigkeit zu siche... more Unternehmen investieren in Forschung und Entwicklung (FuE), um ihre Wettbewerbsfahigkeit zu sichern und die Produktivitat zu erhohen. Mit umfangreichen Unternehmensdaten fur Deutschland kann hier gezeigt werden, dass forschende Industrieunternehmen in zentralen stadtischen Agglomerationsraumen besonders produktiv sind. Sie profitieren dort unter anderem von Wissen, das durch die FuE-Aktivitaten anderer Unternehmen und die offentliche Forschung geschaffen wird. Dabei unterscheiden sich die regionalen Forschungssysteme der grosten stadtischen Regionen erheblich. Diese Unterschiede erfordern eine jeweils spezifische forschungs- und technologiepolitische Unterstutzung des Ausbaus der regionalen Forschungs- und Innovationssysteme. Ziel muss dabei sein, die regionalen Wissenstransfers zwischen Unternehmen, Hochschulen und auseruniversitaren Forschungseinrichtungen zu starken. Dabei mussen die regionalen Unterschiede in den Problemlagen beachtet werden, weil Masnahmen auf Bundesebene in de...
DIW Economic Bulletin, 2016
Although the federal government has been taking steps to strengthen investment in Germany, it rem... more Although the federal government has been taking steps to strengthen investment in Germany, it remains considerably low. This includes private investment, on which thepresent study focuses. German companies are barely investing more than they did before the crisis, but this is not the case elsewhere: in the US, for example, the level of investment is nearly 14 percent higher than it was in 2007. One year ago, the Experts Commission “Strengthening Investment in Germany,” presented a plan comprising concrete recommendations for mitigating or even eliminating Germany’s investment weakness. The report contained proposals for increasing public investment, as well as measures for strengthening private investment. Since then, however, far too little progress has been made in the four primary fields of action for private investment identified by the Experts Commission (digital networks, energy infrastructure, innovations, and young enterprises). The need for action remains high; among other ...
DIW Economic Bulletin, 2014
Based on capital stock, in total, over six trillion euros less was invested in the European Union... more Based on capital stock, in total, over six trillion euros less was invested in the European Union between 1999 and 2007 than in the non-European OECD countries, including the US, Canada, and Japan. In the euro area, investment was more than 7.5 trillion euros less than in non-European OECD countries. In virtually all EU member states, gross fixed assets (capital stock) are older than the OECD average and also demonstrate slower growth. This is particularly true for industry, which is expected to play a key role in Europe’s recovery. In order to achieve a higher growth rate, Europe must tackle this lack of investment across the board. Just implement investment programs in individual countries, such as the southern European crisis countries is not enough. In order to launch a broad investment offensive across the EU as a whole, specific steps must be taken. With a view to tackling the lack of investment in the long term, measures include an efficient competition policy and investmentf...
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020
Understanding the causes of the slowdown in aggregate productivity growth is key to maintaining t... more Understanding the causes of the slowdown in aggregate productivity growth is key to maintaining the competitiveness of advanced economies and ensuring long-term economic prosperity. This paper is the first to provide evidence that investment in Knowledge-Based Capital (KBC), despite having a positive effect on productivity at the micro level, is a driver of the weak productivity performance at the aggregate level, by accentuating divergence between a group of "frontier" firms and the rest of the economy. Using detailed firm-level administrative data for Germany, we find evidence that the effect of KBC on productivity is heterogeneous across firms within industries: this effect is 3 times larger for firms in the top quintile of the KBC distribution compared to firms in the bottom quintile of the KBC distribution. We document the existence of divergence in productivity growth between top KBC users and the rest of firms at the industry level, and find that industries where this gap is larger are also those industries where the heterogeneity in the effect of KBC is highest and where average productivity growth was lower. The evidence hence supports the view that the use of KBC plays a role in explaining weak productivity growth, by accentuating differences between firms.
Intereconomics, 2016
If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Comm... more If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
DIW Roundup: Politik im Fokus, 2014
Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch ge... more Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
Veranstaltungen des Instituts: Wählen Sie bei der Anmeldung die Themen und Formate aus, die Sie i... more Veranstaltungen des Instituts: Wählen Sie bei der Anmeldung die Themen und Formate aus, die Sie interessieren. Ihre Auswahl können Sie jederzeit ändern, oder den Newsletter abbestellen. Nutzen Sie hierfür bitte den entsprechenden Link am Ende des Newsletters. >> Hier Newsletter des DIW Berlin abonnieren: www.diw.de/newsletter
In Ostdeutschland ist die Produktivität nach der Vereinigung rasant gestiegen. In dem für die Lei... more In Ostdeutschland ist die Produktivität nach der Vereinigung rasant gestiegen. In dem für die Leistungsfähigkeit der Wirtschaft zentralen Bereich der Industrie jedoch ist der Annäherungsprozess zu Westdeutschland seit der Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise zum Erliegen gekommen. Die Lücke im Produktivitätsniveau zwischen Ost und West ist dabei immer noch beachtlich. Vergleicht man allerdings gleichartige Regionen in West und Ost, schmilzt diese Produktivitätslücke. Sowohl in ostdeutschen Großstädten als auch in ländlichen Regionen setzen Industrieunternehmen Arbeit und Kapital ähnlich effizient ein wie ihre Konkurrenten in vergleichbaren Westregionen. Deutlich zurück liegt das ostdeutsche Produktivitätsniveau jedoch im Vergleich von verstädterten Regionen. Deshalb sollten gerade diese Regionen im Osten durch eine Strategie des Ausbaus von Forschung und Infrastruktur gepaart mit Clusterbildungen gestärkt werden. Fortschritte in der Angleichung der Produktivität zwischen Ost- und Westdeutsc...
Note: *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1 1 Estimations for the years 2010-2014 due to missing data fo... more Note: *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1 1 Estimations for the years 2010-2014 due to missing data for software (S) and licenses and patents (Z). Year, sector, legal status, and regional dummies are taken into account in the first stage of the estimations. Interpretation aid: A one percent increase in the stock of software capital increases the productivity in the information and communication sector by 0.041 percent when keeping all other variables unchanged. Sources: German Statistical Offices (AfiD Panels on industrial companies and services); authors' own calculations.
In Germany, around 200 billion euros are invested every year in knowledge-based capital, which en... more In Germany, around 200 billion euros are invested every year in knowledge-based capital, which encompasses assets such as research and development, software and databases, organizational capital, marketing and advertising, and technical design. Yet investments in traditional capital (such as machinery and non-residential buildings) still significantly outweigh knowledge investments, standing at over 320 billion euros across the whole economy. Nevertheless, at the sector level, manufacturing, information and communication services, professional services, and financial services stand out: Investments there are dominated by knowledge-based capital. More importantly, in the years since the financial crisis, there has been no increase in the investment intensity in knowledge-based assets. DIW Berlin compiled a novel dataset on company investments in knowledge-based capital covering almost 2 million records to explore the relationship between investments and company productivity. Initial ...
Uploads
Papers by Alexander Schiersch