The OMDS/VGSE Vienna Joint Economics seminar is held weekly on Thursdays during the term.
VJE-Seminars scheduled in November:
- Speaker: Tomohiro Hirano (Royal Holloway, University of London)
- Title: Credit, Land Speculation, and Low-Interest-Rate Policy
- Time: Thursday, Nov. 27, 1:15 – 2:45 pm
- Location: Lecture Hall 9 (1-floor), OMP-1
- Abstract: This paper analyses the impact of credit expansions arising from increases in collateral values or lower interest rate policies on long-term productivity and economic growth. We show that credit expansions associated with relaxation of real estate financing (capital investment financing) will be productivity-and growth-retarding (enhancing). Without financial regulation, expansionary monetary policy may so encourage land speculation using leverage that productive capital investment is decreased, leading to low interest rates and slow economic growth, while generating temporary asset booms. Its welfare impact differs markedly depending on the generation that experienced the asset price boom and the subsequent generations with low growth.
- Speaker: Ralf Martin (CEPR)
- Title: Innovation in Green Technologies: An opportunity for business in low and medium income countries?
- Time: Thursday, Nov. 6, 1:15 – 2:45 pm
- Location: Lecture Hall 9 (1-floor), OMP-1
- Abstract: Emerging market economies are claiming a rising share of trade in products associated with the new technologies that help reduce pollution, limit greenhouse gas emissions, and help mitigate the impact of extreme weather. Indeed, technological advances and falling costs in areas such as renewable energy, are helping developing economies close in on high-income countries’ dominance of the sector, new research from IFC shows. To continue to capitalize on opportunities in this area, low- and middle-income countries will need the help of sound policy making and increased investment in research, presenting a key opportunity to international investors.
- Speaker: Andrea Weber (CEU)
- Title: What are the Returns to Migration? Evidence from Linked Austrian – German Register Data (with David Card, Wolfgang Dauth, Wolfgang Frimmel, Julia Schmieder, Andrea Weber, Rudolf Winter-Ebmer)
- Time: Thursday, Nov. 13, 1:15 – 2:45 pm
- Location: Lecture Hall 9 (1-floor), OMP-1
- Abstract: Free mobility of labor within the European Union increases labor market opportunities for workers. What is the value of increasing workers’ outside options? We exploit novel linked administrative registers from Germany and Austria which allow us to follow individual careers across the border. We use former coworkers of migrants to estimate counterfactual outcomes. Our results show that migrants experience idiosyncratic negative shocks prior to migration. But they move to higher earnings trajectories after migration. Compared to coworkers migrants from Austria to Germany persistently earnings rise persistently by about 15%. We find similar patterns, but smaller earnings gains from migration within Austria.
- Speaker: Nicolas Schutz (University of Mannheim)
- Title: Oligopoly, Complementarities, and Transformed Potentials (joint with Volker Nocke)
- Time: Thursday, Nov. 20, 1:15 – 2:45 pm
- Location: Lecture Hall 9 (1-floor), OMP-1
- Abstract: We adopt a potential games approach to study multiproduct-firm pricing games. We introduce the new concept of transformed potential and characterize the classes of demand systems that give rise to pricing games admitting such a potential. The resulting demand systems may contain nests (of closer substitutes) or baskets (of products that are purchased jointly), or combinations thereof. These demand systems allow for flexible substitution patterns, and can feature product complementarities arising from joint purchases and substitution away from the outside option. Combining the potential games approach with a competition-in-utility approach, we derive powerful results on existence of pure-strategy Nash equilibria.
