Karsten Kohn

Union Density and Varieties of Coverage: The Anatomy of Union Wage Effects in Germany

Collective bargaining in Germany takes place either at the industry level or at the firm level; collective bargaining coverage is much higher than union density; and not all employees in a covered firm are necessarily covered. This institutional setup suggests to explicitly distinguish union power as measured by net union density (NUD) in a labor market segment, coverage at the firm level, and coverage at the individual level. Using linked employer-employee data and applying quantile regressions, this is the first empirical paper which simultaneously analyzes these three dimensions of union influence on the structure of wages. Ceteris paribus, a higher share of employees in a firm covered by industry-wide or firm-level contracts is associated with higher wages. Yet, individual bargaining coverage in a covered firm shows a negative impact both on the wage level and on wage dispersion. A higher union density reinforces the effects of coverage, but the effect of union density is negative at all points in the wage distribution for uncovered employees. In line with an insurance motive, higher union density compresses the wage structure and, at the same time, it is associated with a uniform leftward movement of the distribution for uncovered employees.

Rising Wage Dispersion, After All! The German Wage Structure at the Turn of the Century

Using register data from the IAB employment sample, this paper studies the wage structure in the German labor market throughout the years 1992-2001. Wage dispersion has generally been rising. The increase was more pronounced in East Germany and occurred predominantly in the lower part of the wage distribution for women and in the upper part for men. Censored quantile wage regressions reveal diverse age and skill patterns. Applying Machado/Mata (2005)-type decompositions I conclude that differences in the composition of the work force only had a small impact on the observed wage differentials between East and West Germany, but changes in the characteristics captured better parts of the observed wage changes over time.

Understanding inter-industry wage structures in the euro area

This article focuses on the euro area wage structure and its potential determinants from a sectoral viewpoint. Merging information from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Structural Analysis database with data from the EU Labour Force Survey, we construct a cross-country panel of 22 industries in eight euro area countries for 1991–2002. Data inspection confirms the existence of a fairly stable inter-industry wage structure that is similar across countries. We then apply panel data techniques to identify factors explaining inter-industry wage differentials in the euro area. Both workforce characteristics (e.g. human capital variables) and firm-related characteristics (e.g. capital intensity, productivity) contribute significantly. However, considerable wage heterogeneity across sectors remains. Idiosyncratic sector and country specifics, reflecting different socio-cultural and institutional backgrounds, appear to bear a major role. While our empirical analysis only uses direct evidence from workforce and firm-related characteristics, we also relate the remaining heterogeneity to institutional characteristics, based on related literature.

The KfW/ZEW Start-up Panel: Design and Research Potential

So far, there has been no data set which observes firm formations in Germany not only on a cross-sectional basis using one-time surveys, but continuously over a number of years. Therefore, the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), KfW Bankengruppe and Creditreform set up a panel study of newly founded firms in Germany: the KfW/ZEW Start-up Panel. In each of the yearly panel waves computer-aided telephone interviews (CATI) are conducted with about 6,000 start-up firms from almost all industries. The KfW/ZEW Start-up Panel will for the first time enable profound analyses of the temporal development of newly founded firms, including studies of firm survival. This paper describes the design of the KfW/ZEW Start-up Panel. The survey’s research potential is illustrated using data from the first panel wave conducted in the year 2008. Data access for external researchers and data protection issues of the confidential micro data are discussed.

The Aftermath of Reunification: Sectoral Transition, Gender, and Rising Wage Inequality in East Germany

Using a large administrative data set, this paper studies the evolution of the East German wage structure throughout the transition period 1992-2001. Wage dispersion has generally been rising. The increase occurred predominantly in the lower part of the wage distribution for women and in the upper part for men. Sectoral transition affected women to a much larger extent than men. A sequential decomposition analysis using quantile regressions reveals that changes in industry-specific remuneration schemes contributed strongly to the rise in wage inequality in the lower part of the distribution for female workers. On the other hand, inter-industry trends away from the manufacturing sector towards service sectors contribute to the smaller increase of inequality in the upper part of the distribution, while causing wage dispersion in the lower part of the distribution to decline. Changes in the industry composition alone would have led to a polarization of wages for female workers. For men, changes in individual characteristics and a general time trend contribute the largest part to the increasing wage dispersion. These gender differences result from employment segregation across industries right after German reunification, and a particularly strong concentration of females in the public sector.

The Interdependence of R&D Activity and Debt Financing of Young Firms

We investigate the interdependence of debt financing and & activities of young firms. Applying a bivariate Tobit model, we find that there is a positive interdependent relationship between the share of loan financing and & intensity. A higher share of loan financing allows for more & in young firms and, at the same time, a higher & intensity allows for a higher loan share. This result is mainly driven by start‐ups exhibiting high values of & intensity or leverage. Another remarkable result of our study is that the positive relationship between & and loan financing can only be detected if we consider that, first, the decisions on & and on loan financing are made simultaneously and, second, the decision on & impacts the decision on loan financing and vice versa.

Start-Up Barriers in Germany: A Review of the Empirical Literature

The paper summarizes what is known about start-up barriers in Germany. A particular emphasis is given to bureacracy, market failure and psychologocial factors.

Household Budget Data and Welfare Comparisons — A Reconciliation

In general, welfare comparisons are impossible when only market data are analyzed. Such comparisons become feasible, however, once identifying assumptions are made, which themselves cannot be tested. Drawing on such assumptions and German household budget data, an empirical analysis of Quadratic Expenditure Systems leads to reasonable results concerning the needs of households with and without children.

Skills, Scope, and Success: An Empirical Look at the Start-up Process in Creative Industries in Germany

Creative industries comprise enterprises focusing on the creation, production, and distribution of creative or cultural goods and services. Following an explorative empirical approach, we analyze start-ups in creative industries regarding three issues along the start-up process: (1) personal characteristics of creative entrepreneurs, (2) their use of labor and capital as input factors, and (3) start-up success as measured by start-up survival, degree of innovativeness, and change in household income. Based on individual-level data from the KfW Start-up Monitor, a large-scale survey on entrepreneurship in Germany, our regression results show that entrepreneurs in creative industries tend to be younger and better educated than entrepreneurs in other economic sectors. Businesses in creative industries are prevalently started on a small scale, as part-time occupations, and with less financial resources. Yet they show a higher persistence and an above-average degree of innovativeness.

A Note on Corporate Valuation Using Imprecise Cost of Capital

We compare the estimator for discount rates according to Elsner and Krumholz (EK) (2013) to the approach propagated in Breuer et al. (2014) (BFM). While the EK estimator is derived analytically and implies a correcting factor by which the original arithmetic mean estimator is adjusted, the BFM approach is based on a simple ad hoc modification and recommends to truncate the time horizon for cash flow projection up to about N = 30 years. The BFM approach is reasonable, as the most relevant bias problems are implied by terminal value computations. Rather surprisingly, for our main simulation analysis based on real-world capital market data for 19 countries over the period 2008-2012, the EK estimator turns out inferior to the BFM approach. However, results depend on the kind of bias measure and on the issue of whether using total historical returns or only excess returns for evaluation purposes. In any case, our findings imply that a rather straightforward rule of thumb for valuation may be of value to practitioners: ‘stick to the simple arithmetic mean estimator without terminal value computation, but consider future cash flows up to a time horizon of about 30 years’.