Macroeconomic Consequences of Ageing and Directed Technological Change. BertelsmannStiftung Studies

Macroeconomic Consequences of Ageing and Directed Technological Change Demographic projections foresee a pronounced population ageing process in the coming decades. The associated changes in quantity and quality of labour will have an impact on the long-term economic outlook. This study discusses economic implications of current demographic projections for a set of large industrialized economies, which include the largest member states of the EU, the USA and Japan, as well as Austria as an example of a small open economy. The focus of the study is the interplay between demographic and technological trends. The study extends the methodology of the European Commission’s Ageing Report by considering the effects of size and composition of the working-age population on the productivity growth and productivity effect of the ICT-intensity as a measure of directed technological change

Venture capital in bank - and market - based economies

The determinants of venture capital investment have attracted a significant amount of attention from both academics and policymakers. We use a version of the Keuschnigg-Nielsen model for venture-capital-financed projects to condition our analysis on a reasonable set of exogenous variables but we focus on one determinant : financial market structure. The type of financial market structure (bank -or market-based) contributes substantially to explaining differences among countries with respect to the extent of venture capital investments in the initial business stages. We will use the cross country and time series variation from a panel of 19 industrial countries to support the hypothesis that venture capital thrives within market-based financial systems and is confined to an ancillary role in bank-based systems.Venture capital, financial market structure, local stock markets, panel data.

Classification of graph C*-algebras with no more than four primitive ideals

We describe the status quo of the classification problem of graph C*-algebras with four primitive ideals or less

Export Credit Guarantees and Export Performance: Evidence from Austrian Firm-level Data

This paper provides an economic assessment of export credit guarantee commitments by the Austrian export credit agency, using firm-level data on a cross-section of 178 Austrian exporting firms for the year 2008. In a first step, we estimate the relative importance of various determinants of export guarantee usage. Results suggest that the most crucial determinants are: firm size, whether or not the firm is part of a multinational enterprise, exposure to revenue risk, and R&D intensity. In a second step, we investigate the effects of export guarantees on export performance. Identification is achieved by using as instruments the exogenous determinants of export guarantee usage identified in the first step. We find that there are economically and statistically significant effects of export credit guarantee usage on firm-specific export performance ranging from some 80 to 100 percent compared with the control group of non-users

The hepta-β-glucoside elicitor-binding proteins from legumes represent a putative receptor family

The ability of legumes to recognize and respond to β-glucan elicitors by synthesizing phytoalexins is consistent with the existence of a membrane-bound β-glucan-binding site. Related proteins of approximately 75 kDa and the corresponding mRNAs were detected in various species of legumes which respond to beta-glucans. The cDNAs for the beta-glucan-binding proteins of bean and soybean were cloned. The deduced 75-kDa proteins are predominantly hydrophilic and constitute a unique class of glucan-binding proteins with no currently recognizable functional domains. Heterologous expression of the soybean beta-glucan-binding protein in tomato cells resulted in the generation of a high-affinity binding site for the elicitor-active hepta-β-glucoside conjugate (K-d = 4.5 nM). Ligand competition experiments with the recombinant binding sites demonstrated similar ligand specificities when compared with soybean. In both soybean and transgenic tomato, membrane-bound, active forms of the glucan-binding proteins coexist with immunologically detectable, soluble but inactive forms of the proteins. Reconstitution of a soluble protein fraction into lipid vesicles regained beta-glucoside-binding activity but with lower affinity (K-d = 130 nM). We conclude that the beta-glucan elicitor receptors of legumes are composed of the 75 kDa glucan-binding proteins as the critical components for ligand-recognition, and of an as yet unknown membrane anchor constituting the plasma membrane-associated receptor complex

Measuring complementarity in financial systems

URL des Documents de travail : http://centredeconomiesorbonne.univ-paris1.fr/bandeau-haut/documents-de-travail/ ED-EPSDocuments de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 2012.39 - ISSN : 1955-611XThe distinction between bank and market based economies has a long tradition in applied macroeconomics. The two types differ not only in the level of financial activity channeled through the stock market and private banking, but also in their institutional frameworks. We challenge this traditional distinction between the two types of financial architecture. We develop an index that accounts for complementarity between financial markets and banking systems that has been hypothesized by Sylla (1998) and Song and Thakor (2010). The theoretical foundation of our empirical approach is the general equilibrium framework by Freixas and Rochet (1997). We validate the proposed index and the underlying theory of complementary using a random coefficient and a Generalized estimating equations (GEE).Il existe une longue tradition en macroéconomie appliquée sur la distinction entre les économies basées sur les banques et celles sur les marchés. Ces deux types d'économies ne diffèrent pas seulement sur leur niveau d'activité sur le marché financier et les banques mais aussi avec leurs différences institutionnelles. Nous remettons en question cette distinction entre les deux types d'architecture financière. Pour cela, nous utilisons un index qui prend en compte la complémentarité entre les marchés et les banques (hypothèse de Sylla et de Song (1998) et Thakor (2010)). Le modèle théorique de notre approche empirique est l'équilibre général de Freixas et Rochas (1997). Nous validons l'index proposé et la théorie sous jacente en utilisant les modèles économétriques appelés "random coefficient" et "Generalized estimating equations (GEE)"

Venture capital in bank - and market - based economies

URL des Documents de travail : http://centredeconomiesorbonne.univ-paris1.fr/bandeau-haut/documents-de-travail/Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 2011.25 - ISSN : 1955-611XThe determinants of venture capital investment have attracted a significant amount of attention from both academics and policymakers. We use a version of the Keuschnigg-Nielsen model for venture-capital-financed projects to condition our analysis on a reasonable set of exogenous variables but we focus on one determinant : financial market structure. The type of financial market structure (bank -or market-based) contributes substantially to explaining differences among countries with respect to the extent of venture capital investments in the initial business stages. We will use the cross country and time series variation from a panel of 19 industrial countries to support the hypothesis that venture capital thrives within market-based financial systems and is confined to an ancillary role in bank-based systems.Les déterminants du capital risque attirent l'attention des politiques comme des scientifiques. Nous utilisons un modèle de Keuschnigg et Nielsen pour guider le choix de nos variables exogènes même si nous concentrons notre analyse sur un seul déterminant : la structure financière. Le type de structure financière (basée sur les banques ou sur les marchés) contribue de manière substantielle à expliquer les différences selon les pays des premières phases d'investissement en capital risque. Nous utilisons un échantillon de 19 pays pour appuyer l'hypothèse que le capital risque prospère dans les économies basées sur les marchés alors qu'il est confiné dans un rôle secondaire dans les économies basées sur les banques

Employment and Growth in an Aging Society. A Simulation Study for Austria

In this study we use a long run macroeconomic model for Austria to simulate the effects of aging on employment, output growth, and the solvency of the social security system. By disaggregating the population into six age cohorts and modelling sex specific participation rates for each cohort, we are able to account for the future demographic trends. Apart from a baseline scenario, we perform three alternative simulations that highlight the effects of aging from different perspectives. These include (1) purely demographic developments, (2) increasing labour market imperfections, and (3) higher economic growth due to a productivity shock.Economic growth, Aging, Austria

Tropical geometries and dynamics of biochemical networks. Application to hybrid cell cycle models

We use the Litvinov-Maslov correspondence principle to reduce and hybridize networks of biochemical reactions. We apply this method to a cell cycle oscillator model. The reduced and hybridized model can be used as a hybrid model for the cell cycle. We also propose a practical recipe for detecting quasi-equilibrium QE reactions and quasi-steady state QSS species in biochemical models with rational rate functions and use this recipe for model reduction. Interestingly, the QE/QSS invariant manifold of the smooth model and the reduced dynamics along this manifold can be put into correspondence to the tropical variety of the hybridization and to sliding modes along this variety, respectivelyComment: conference SASB 2011, to be published in Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Scienc