Publications

The KCG has various series of publications to provide research findings and policy implications to different interested groups, e.g., students, academics, policy makers and the public.

Incentives through Inventory Control in Supply Chains

19th June 2018
KCG Secretary
Authors: Zhan Qu, Horst Raff and Nicolas Schmitt (International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2018, Vol. 59, 486-513)

The paper shows that taking inventory control out of the hands of competitive or exclusive retailers and assigning it to a manufacturer increases the value of a supply chain especially
for goods whose demand is highly volatile. This is because doing so solves incentive distortions[…]

Attracting FDI in Middle-skilled Supply Chains

15th June 2018
KCG Secretary
Authors: Theordore Moran, Holger Görg, Adnan Seric and Christiane Krieger-Boden (Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, Vol. 12 (2018-26), 1-9)

While popular opinion often pictures FDI flowing in search of lowest-wage, lowest-skilled activities in emerging markets, actual FDI to such countries increasingly addresses medium to high-skilled manufacturing sectors. Such FDI might be called “Quality FDI” that contributes to the creation of decent and value-adding jobs, enhancing the skill base of host economies, facilitating transfer of technology, knowledge and know-how, boosting competitiveness of domestic firms and enabling their access to world-wide markets[…]

KCG Working Paper No. 12: International Trade and Retail Market Performance and Structure: Theory and Empirical Evidence

14th June 2018
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Authors: Philipp Meinen and Horst Raff

Based on a theoretical model featuring heterogeneous retailers that may source globally and operate as chains, we derive a number of hypotheses that link trade integration to retail firm performance and to the structure of retail markets. We empirically test these predictions using Danish microdata for the period 1999 to 2008. We find that importing retailers are larger, more profitable[…]

Financial Frictions and Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Japanese Microdata

5th April 2018
KCG Secretary
Authors: Horst Raff, Michael Ryan and Frank Stähler (Journal of International Economics, 2018, Vol. 112, 109-122)

Using Japanese microdata for the period 1980 to 2000 we find evidence for two transmission channels from financial shocks to foreign direct investment: a collateral channel, whereby changes in the value of investors’ landholdings affect their borrowing ability; and a lending channel[…]

KCG Working Paper No. 10: Financial Frictions and Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Japanese Microdata

16th March 2018
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Authors: Horst Raff, Michael Ryan and Frank Stähler

Using Japanese microdata for the period 1980 to 2000 we find evidence for two transmission channels from financial shocks to foreign direct investment: a collateral channel, whereby changes in the value of investors’ landholdings affect their borrowing ability; and a lending channel, whereby changes in bank health affect banks’ lending ability. Decreasing land values[…]

FAZ Article on Corporate Morality and Manager Behaviour by Ludger Heidbrink

15th March 2018
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Business ethics has been a widely discussed topic for years. The need for further research to gain more insights into this area has been enhanced particularly against the background with more and more business scandals emerged in the real life like VW’s software manipulation in diesel powered vehicles and diesel emissions tests on monkeys and humans[…]

KCG Working Paper No. 9: Markups of Exporters and Importers: Evidence from Hungary

8th March 2018
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Authors: Cecilia Hornok and Balázs Muraközy

This paper studies the relationship between firm-level markups and trade status using balance sheet information linked to detailed trade data from Hungary between 1995-2003. We find that importing is strongly positively correlated with markups both across and within firms. We argue that this correlation can reflect three channels: self-selection, higher physical productivity resulting from access to a larger variety of inputs and quality upgrading based on high-quality imported intermediate inputs[…]

Markups of Exporters and Importers: Evidence from Hungary

1st March 2018
KCG Secretary
Authors: Cecília Hornok and Balázs Muraközy (The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2019, Vol. 121(3), 1303-1333)

This paper studies the relationship between different proxies of firm-level markups and trade status using balance sheet information linked to detailed trade data from Hungary between 1995-2003. We find that importing is strongly positively correlated with markup measures both across and within firms. We argue that this correlation can reflect three channels: self-selection, higher physical productivity resulting from access to a larger variety of inputs, and quality upgrading based on high-quality imported intermediate inputs[…]