The aim of this article is to analyse the energy intensity in EU-28 member states for the period 1990–2012, establish its determinants, and estimate the size and statistical significance of the effect of each determinant on energy intensity. In order to achieve this, a panel data approach was designed for EU-28 member states. The biggest impact on energy intensity was estimated for the price of electricity, indicating that the level and structure of this determinant should be considered and used as a valuable energy policy tool for improving energy efficiency. This policy conclusion is also supported by the fact that Denmark, Germany and Italy have the highest share of energy taxes in the structure of the final electricity price, and at the same time the lowest energy intensity.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1783438
We examine the responsiveness of corporate investments to changes in corporate income taxation during the financial crisis. When investigating tax effects in financially constrained firms, the model of investment demand needs to be extended to include an additional channel through which taxes could affect investments. The tax effects were modeled through two transmission channels, the traditional user cost of capital channel and the cash flow channel, which is crucial for financially constrained firms. The empirical results show that corporate investments in financially constrained firms do not respond to changes in corporate income taxation through the user cost of capital channel, but there is strong evidence of the effect that materializes through the cash flow channel.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1766542
This paper explores the idea that firms learn from trade by introducing either new products or processes influenced by their trade links with foreign markets. By exploring microdata for Spain, including data on innovation and trade, we find a robust relationship between imports, exports and innovation. The results suggest that firms learn primarily from import links, which enable them to innovate and to ‘dress up’ for starting to export. This sequencing between trade and innovation, however, is shown to be more pronounced for small firms only and technologically advanced firms.
COBISS.SI-ID: 22381542
Foreign acquisitions are an increasingly important mode of FDI in the new EU member states (NMS). Using firm‐level data and a common estimation framework for seven NMS, we study pre‐ and post‐acquisition performance of acquired firms. This paper, to the best of our knowledge, represents the first comprehensive study of the pre‐ and post‐acquisition performance of foreign‐acquired firms in NMS. Distinguishing between the impact of target selection and post‐acquisition improvements on performance, we find that, on average, foreign investors are targeting ‘lemons’ with growth potential rather than ‘picking cherries’. Regardless of targeting ‘cherries’ or ‘lemons’, performance of acquired firms improved after the acquisition, whereby the boost in productivity is not achieved by reducing employment but mostly by increased efficiency in the use of production factors especially labour.
COBISS.SI-ID: 512378236
We propose an extension of the Olley and Pakes (1996) productivity decomposition that accounts for the contributions of surviving, entering, and exiting firms to aggregate productivity changes. We argue that the other decompositions that break down aggregate productivity changes into similar components introduce some biases in the measurement of the contributions of entry and exit. We apply our proposed decomposition to Slovenian manufacturing data and contrast our results with those of other decompositions. We find that, over a five-year period, the measurement bias associated with entry and exit is substantial, accounting for up to 10 percentage points of aggregate productivity growth.
COBISS.SI-ID: 22559718