Ingo Geishecker

Can the large swings in russian life satisfaction be explained by ups and downs in real incomes

Russians reported large changes in their life satisfaction over the post-transition years. In this paper, we explore the factors that drove these changes, focusing on exogenous income changes, using panel data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey over the period 1995 to 2001 and implementing a recently developed ordinal fixed-effects estimator. We apply a causal decomposition technique that allows for bias arising from panel attrition when establishing aggregate trends in life satisfaction. Changes in real household incomes explained 10% of the total change in reported life satisfaction between 1996 and 2000, but up to 30% of some year-on-year changes.

Productivity Spillovers through Vertical Linkages: Evidence from 17 OECD Countries

We use industry-level data for OECD countries and investigate the importance of horizontal and vertical spillovers from multinationals. There is evidence for spillovers through backward linkages for all countries. This effect is much higher for CEEC than other OECD countries.

Outsourcing and the Demand for Low-skilled Labour in German Manufacturing: New Evidence

This paper analyses how international outsourcing has affected the relative demand for low skilled workers in Germany during the 1990s. In contrast to previous empirical work, the single elements of the input-output-matrix are used to disentangle international outsourcing and trade in final goods more accurately. The main finding is that during the 1990s international outsourcing had a significant negative impact on the relative demand for low-skilled workers, explaining between 19% and 24% of the overall decline in the relative demand for low-skilled labour.

Ordered Response Models and Non-Random Personality Traits: Monte Carlo Simulations and a Practical Guide

The paper compares dierent estimation strategies of ordered response models in the presence of non-random unobserved heterogeneity. By running Monte Carlo simulations with a range of randomly generated panel data of diering cross-sectional and longitudinal dimension sizes, we assess the consistency and eciency of stan

Keep it simple: estimation strategies for ordered response models with fixed effects

By running Monte Carlo simulations, we compare different estimation strategies of ordered response models in the presence of non-random unobserved heterogeneity. We find that very simple binary recoding schemes deliver parameter estimates with very low bias and high efficiency. Furthermore, if the researcher is interested in the relative size of parameters the simple linear fixed effects model is the method of choice.

The Labour Market Impact of International Outsourcing

Over recent years the phenomenon of international outsourcing has provoked a considerable amount of public concern and anxiety. Despite the advocated benefits in terms of efficiency gains, the prevalent view appears to be that international outsourcing severely threatens domestic jobs and wages, in particular for low-skilled workers. However, this view is mainly fuelled by anecdotal evidence since, despite the strong public interest, academic research which analyses the phenomenon of outsourcing empirically is only in its infancy. Also, from a theoretical point of view, the effects of international outsourcing on the labour market outcomes for low-skilled workers seem to be ambiguous.

Perceived Job Insecurity and Well-Being Revisited: Towards Conceptual Clarity

This paper analyzes the impact of job insecurity perceptions on individual well-being. While previous studies on the subject have used the concept of perceived job insecurity rather arbitrarily, the present analysis explicitly takes into account individual perceptions about both the likelihood and the potential costs of job loss. We demonstrate that any model assessing the impact of perceived job insecurity on individual well-being potentially suffers from simultaneity bias yielding upward-biased coefficients. When applying our concept of perceived job insecurity to concrete data from a large household panel survey we find the true unbiased effects of perceived job insecurity to be more than twice the size of estimates that ignore simultaneity. Accordingly, perceived job insecurity ranks as one of the most important factors in employee well-being and paradoxically can be even more harmful than actual job loss with subsequent unemployment.

The Vertical Investment Controversy: Re-estimating the Knowledge-Capital Model for Different Types of FDI

The knowledge-capital model acknowledges that FDI has both vertical as well as horizontal elements. However, there is much controversy with regard to the empirical relevance of vertical FDI. We re-investigate this issue by looking at FDI at a more disaggregated level, using data on bilateral FDI in manufacturing and services for a number of industrialised countries. Our results are strongly supportive of a vertical FDI component within manufacturing. However, for service FDI our estimation results only give support to horizontal FDI. These findings clearly indicate that, once we take the heterogeneity in types of FDI into account, we can draw a more differentiated picture than previous studies providing evidence for vertical investment in manufacturing but not in services FDI.

Is there a wage premium for volunteer OSS engagement? – signalling, learning and noise

ABSTRACT Volunteer-based open-source production has become a significant new model for the organization of software development. Economics often pictures this phenomenon as a case of signalling: individuals engage in the volunteer programming of open-source software (OSS) as a labour-market signal resulting in a wage premium. Yet, this explanation could so far not be empirically tested. This article fills this gap by estimating an upper-bound composite wage premium of voluntary OSS contributions and by separating the potential signalling effect of OSS engagement from other effects. Although some 70% of OSS contributors believe that OSS involvement benefits their careers, we find no actual labour-market premium for OSS engagement. The presence of other motives, such as fun of play or altruism, renders OSS contributions too noisy to function as a signal.