KCG Researchers Joined the HSU-IfW-Workshop in Development and Environmental Economics

KCG PhD researchers Finn Ole Semrau and Frauke Steglich participated in the first joint workshop in Development and Environmental Economics co-organized by the Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg (HSU) and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). The HSU-IfW-Workshop took place on November 22-23, 2018 at HSU in Hamburg, Germany. It aimed at bringing together researchers from both institutions to discuss research in economics in general and in development and environmental economics in particular. This should help researchers to explore avenues for cooperation.

Several papers, in which KCG researchers are involved, were presented at the workshop. Finn Ole Semrau presented his ongoing work “Does Trade Increase Carbon Dioxide Efficiency in Developing Countries? Evidence from Indian Firm-level Analysis”. Thereby, he analyses whether firms embedded in global value chains produce in a more environmental efficient way compared to firms just serving Indian markets. To do so, he analyses a firm-level dataset for the Indian manufacturing base and exploits detailed information about firm’s energy use. In addition to existing papers, the research aims also to account for the importance of demand for environmental friendly production from abroad.

Dr. Julian Donaubauer (HSU) presented the paper “FDI and Institutional Development in Sub-Saharan Africa – An Empirical Analysis at the Local Level”, in cooperation with Peter Kannen (HSU), Dr. Adnan Seric (KCG External Research Fellow and United Nations Industrial Development Organization), and Frauke Steglich. Using geo-referenced firm and household survey data this project analyzes whether the presence of foreign investors is associated with changes in local institutional quality (proxied by individuals’ corruption experience) around foreign-owned production facilities in Sub-Saharan African countries. Applying an estimation strategy that uses spatial and temporal variation in the data, they find that the presence of foreign firms increases bribery among people living nearby.

Last but not least, Betül Simsek (Hamburg University) presented a paper on “How Relative Donation Sizes Impact Migration Flows”, which is joint work with Dr. Léa Marchal (KCG and IfW) and Prof. Dr. Claire Naiditch (University of Lille).

All participants played an active role either as presenters or discussants at the workshop, which fostered intensive discussions and exchange of ideas.