Estimation of labour supply functions using panel data: a survey

This survey aims at providing the reader with a thread through the literature on the topic of panel econometrics of labour supply, reporting also on the evaluation of the data used in these studies, and summarizing their substantive results. It documents the present trend away from models that take advantage of panel data almost exclusively in order to control for unobserved heterogeneity, towards fully dynamic models where wages become endogenous and consequently the concept of wage elasticity loses much of its appeal. --

STRUCTURING PRODUCT-MARKETS: AN APPROACH BASED ON CUSTOMER VALUE

We offer an efficiency-based approach to derive market partitions and respective benchmarks using Data Envelopment Analysis. Product efficiency is measured as an output to input value from the customer’s perspective. Products offering a maximum customer value relative to alternatives represent benchmarks for different sub-markets. The framework is applied to data on compact cars. relevant product segments.Customer Value, Product-Market Structuring, Market Partitioning, Data Envelopment Analysis, Product Efficiency, Frontier Functions

Let's go West!: Do East Germans commute for wages, jobs or skills?

Using data from the longitudinal Labor Market Monitor for the New German States we provide a portrait of East-West commuters in the first year after unification and evaluate various hypotheses to explain the phenomenon. Commuters may be driven by the search for higher wages in the west or by unemployment in the east. Comparing commuters and other job starters in the east with respect to their previous labor force status we find the unemployed and those fearing job loss in the future to be less likely to hold jobs in the west. While many commuters realize significant wage gains some do not. We examine whether these commuters are likely to be acquiring additional human capital through employer provided training. While the incidence and duration of training is high among commuters, wage gains for those without training are lower. This leaves the wage differential hypothesis as the most likely explanation for the commuting phenomenon. --

Analyzing Product Efficiency – A Customer-Oriented Approach

The purpose of this study is to provide a broader, economic perspective on customer value management. By developing an efficiency-based concept of customer value we aim at contributing to the presently underrepresented research field of marketing economics. The customer value concept is utilized to assess product performance and eventually to determine the competitive market structure and the product-market boundaries. Our analytical approach to product-market structuring based on customer value is developed within a microeconomic framework. We measure customer value as the product efficiency viewed from the customer’s perspective, i.e., as a ratio of outputs (e.g., resale value, reliability, safety, comfort) that customers obtain from a product relative to inputs (price, running costs) that customers have to deliver in exchange. The efficiency value derived can be understood as the return on the customer’s investment. Products offering a maximum customer value relative to all other alternatives in the market are characterized as efficient. Different efficient products may create value in different ways using different strategies (output-input- combinations). Each efficient product can be viewed as a benchmark for a distinct sub-market. Jointly, these products form the efficient frontier, which serves as a reference function for the inefficient products. Thus, we define customer value of alternative products as a relative concept. Market partitioning is achieved endogenously by clustering products in one segment that are benchmarked by the same efficient peer(s). This ensures that only products with a similar output-input structure are partitioned into the same sub-market. As a result, a sub-market consists of highly substitutable products. In addition, value-creating strategies (i.e., indications of how to vary inputs and outputs) to improve product performance in order to offer maximum customer value are provided. The impact of each performance parameter on customer value is determined, identifying the value drivers among them. This methodological framework is applied to data of the 1996 German Automobile Club (ADAC) survey.Customer Value, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Efficiency Analysis, Market Partitioning, Product-Market Structuring

Transit Costs and Cost Efficiency: Bootstrapping Nonparametric Frontiers.

This paper explores a selection of recently proposed bootstrapping techniques to estimate non-parametric convex (DEA) cost frontiers and efficiency scores for transit firms. Using a sample of Norwegian bus operators, the key results can be summarised as follows: (i) the bias implied by uncorrected cost efficiency measures is numerically important (close to 25%), (ii) the bootstrapped-based test rejects the constant returns to scale hypothesis (iii) explaining patterns of efficiency scores using a two-stage bootstrapping approach detects only one significant covariate, in contrast to earlier results highlighting, e.g., the positive impact of high-powered contract types. Finally, comparing the average inefficiency obtained for the Norwegian data set with an analogous estimate for a smaller French sample illustrates how the estimated differences in average efficiency almost disappear once sample size differences are accounted for.

Analyzing Product Efficiency : A Customer-Oriented Approach

The purpose of this study is to provide a broader, economic perspective on customer value management. By developing an efficiency-based concept of customer value we aim at contributing to the presently underrepresented research field of marketing economics. The customer value concept is utilized to assess product performance and eventually to determine the competitive market structure and the product-market boundaries. Our analytical approach to product-market structuring based on customer value is developed within a microeconomic framework. We measure customer value as the product efficiency viewed from the customer’s perspective, i.e., as a ratio of outputs (e.g., resale value, reliability, safety, comfort) that customers obtain from a product relative to inputs (price, running costs) that customers have to deliver in exchange. The efficiency value derived can be understood as the return on the customer’s investment. Products offering a maximum customer value relative to all other alternatives in the market are characterized as efficient. Different efficient products may create value in different ways using different strategies (output-input-combinations). Each efficient product can be viewed as a benchmark for a distinct sub-market. Jointly, these products form the efficient frontier, which serves as a reference function for the inefficient products. Thus, we define customer value of alternative products as a relative concept. Market partitioning is achieved endogenously by clustering products in one segment that are benchmarked by the same efficient peer(s). This ensures that only products with a similar output-input structure are partitioned into the same sub-market. As a result, a sub-market consists of highly substitutable products. In addition, value-creating strategies (i.e., indications of how to vary inputs and outputs) to improve product performance in order to offer maximum customer value are provided

Produkt-Controlling : eine Untersuchung mit Hilfe der Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

Die Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) ist ein nicht-parametrisches Analyseverfahren mit vielfältigen Anwendungsmöglichkeiten. Es wurde bisher v.a. für die Effizienzbewertung von Vertriebs- und anderen Organisationsstrukturen sowie bei vergleichenden Produktivitätsanalysen öffentlicher und anderer non-profit Einrichtungen angewendet. Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt das Potential der Analysetechnik für die Marketingforschung anhand eines aus dem PKW-Markt stammenden Anwendungsbeispiels im Bereich des Produkt-Controlling. Die DEA ermöglicht eine integrierte Betrachtung von Benchmarking, Positionierung und Marktabgrenzung. Ein strategischer Positionierungsbedarf für ein bestimmtes Produkt ergibt sich dabei aus der Differenz zwischen der Ist-Position des Produktes und der Soll-Position, gegeben durch den Produkt-Benchmark. Die Produkt-Benchmarks werden nach Teilmärkten, deren Abgrenzung endogen erfolgt, differenziert ermittelt

Work and welfare of single mothers in Germany

Cet article s’intéresse au rôle des facteurs économiques dans la détermination de l’offre de travail et de la dépendance vis à vis des prestations sociales des mères iisolées en Allemagne. Il décrit en détail le système des transferts sociaux et met en évidence le fait que cette population est confrontée à une contrainte bugétaire non convexe qui s’accompagne d’une importante trappe à la pauvreté. Pour prendre ceci en compte, la décision d’offre de travail est modélisée comme le choix entre participation et non-participation puis entre temps plein et temps partiel. En utilisant des données tirées du Panel Socio-économique Allemand et des informations aux niveaux micro et macro-économique. Les résultats sont ensuite utilisés pour la simulation de réformes du système de transferts qui font actuellement l’objet de débats.This paper investigates the role of economic factors in the determination of labour supply and welfare dependenceof lone mothers in Germany. It describes the tax-benefit system where many lone mothers face a non –convex budget set, and a poverty trap. Accounting for this, we model the labour supply decision as a choice between participation and non-participation and of a part-time versus full-time participation. Using data of the German Socio-economic panel and aggregate information derived from the Microcensus, we estimate probit models combining micro and macro information. The results are used to siluate some reforms of the tax-benefit-system currently under discussion