Abstracts WS 2019/20
22.01.2020
Prof. Dr. Josef Zelger
Die „Identität“ einer Region.
Wie 25 Gemeinden in einer Tourismusregion über
die Zukunft nachdenken.
Es wird gezeigt, wie „regionale Identität“ verstanden werde kann und wie durch die softwareunterstützte Textanalyse mit GABEK® die regionale Identität des Zillertales erforscht wurde.
Die „Identität“ einer Bevölkerungsgruppe ist nicht direkt beobachtbar. Sie kann aber indirekt erschlossen werden aus Erzählungen, auffallend verwendeten Begriffen, feststehenden Überzeugungen, Bewertungssystemen und Handlungsdispositionen, die in Gesprächen häufig zum Ausdruck kommen.
Im Vortrag werden die einzelnen Auswertungsschritte des Verfahrens GABEK® erklärt. Es wird gezeigt, wie Befragungsergebnisse vernetzt werden, wie Meinungslandkarten zur Entwicklung eines Leitbildes verwendet werden, wie die Relevanz von Zielen und Maßnahmen bestimmt wird und wie diese zur Umsetzung von Ergebnissen genutzt werden.
Im Zillertal wurde der GABEK-Projektbericht von Martina Keiler in ein Theaterstück transformiert, das 19mal aufgeführt werden musste, mit jeweils 300 Zuschauern. Dies führte zu einer breitgestreuten Reflexion und zu neuen Zukunftsvorstellungen über das Zillertal.
Literatur:
Eine kurze Idee über GABEK siehe im 2-Minuten-Video unter www.GABEK.com/clip
Zelger, J.: Erforschung und Entwicklung von Communities. Handbuch zur qualitativen Textanalyse und Wissensorganisation mit GABEK®, Springer (2020)
30.10.2019
Prof. Dr. Haiyun Zhang
China’s Financial Market Development
China’s market-oriented reform that started 40 years ago catapulted its economy up the world ranking chart, from behind the Netherlands in 1979 to the world’s number two last year. China’s GDP was less than 7% of the US GDP in 1979 and was almost 70% of the US GDP last year. Underlying this spectacular growth in heft is the profound transformation in how China operates internally and how it interacts with the outside world. The same can be said of China’s financial sector, which has been growing faster than its overall economy not only in size but also in complexity. This seminar offers an interactive discussion to explore big picture trends such as the paradigm shift in China’s banking model and the functioning and regulation of China’s financial markets, as well as specific topics such as product innovations in the securitization and derivatives markets.
06.11.2019
Dr. Michael Römer
Mit Netzwerken durch den Postdoc.
In diesem Vortrag gebe ich einen Überblick die Rollen von Netzwerken
in meiner Postdoc-Phase. Dabei werden zum einen die Kernideen der
Netzwerke, die wir in unserer Forschung verwenden, skizziert. Zum
anderen wird die Relevanz von (mathematischen und wissenschaftlichen)
Netzwerken für die wesentlichen Schritte meiner Postdoc-Zeit
beleuchtet: Zwei Siege bei wissenschaftlichen Wettbewerben,
drittmittelfinanzierte Forschungsaufenthalte in Frankreich und Kanada
und schließlich die erfolgreiche Einwerbung einer
Nachwuchsgruppe für fünf Jahre an der Universität Bielefeld,
deren Leitung ich im Dezember antreten werde.
Als besonderen Anreiz zur Teilnahme am Forschungskolloqium lade ich im
Anschluss an den Vortrag zu einem kleinen Get-Together mit
Kaltgetränken ein.
13.11.2019
Dr. Matias Ossandon Busch
Income inequality and capital reallocation in the presence of financial frictions.
Does income inequality affect banks' credit-risk reallocation when facing financial distress?
Using novel branch-level data on Colombian banks I find that facing a large liquidity shock, exposed banks shift more credit towards low-risk borrowers in municipalities with higher income inequality. For identification I compare branches' reaction to a foreign funding shock within banks and across regions by simultaneously absorbing local demand. Collateral frictions play a key role: while the overall effect is stronger in regions with higher collateral constraints, credit backed by better collateral remains consistently shielded. Regional-level estimates suggest that this `inequality risk-taking channel' can account for a significant share of consumption growth in crisis periods.
20.11.2019
Dr. Matias Ossandon Busch:
Financial instruments for climate change
adaptation: From theory to implementation.
The agricultural sector is of central importance for the transition economies of Central Asia as well as for Russia. At the same time, the entire region is severely affected by climate change, especially in the most important agricultural regions, with serious consequences for the security of agricultural yields, incomes and food availability. Financial instruments increase the agricultural sector's resilience to climate variability and thus contribute to the sustainable development of the agricultural sector. However, the choice and implementation of financial instruments is an issue that has not yet been sufficiently addressed by research, especially in less developed transition countries. This presentation provides insights into the demand for financial instruments in transition countries and focuses on the discussion of challenges and opportunities for the practical implementation of credit and insurance programs. I would like to mention that in my research work I cooperate closely with German and Central Asian insurance companies and authorities. The ultimate goal of the research is to develop a marketable insurance product for farmers in emerging markets.
The theory of participation in insurance and credit markets is discussed first as a basis for empirical analysis. Based on ongoing studies, the presentation will provide empirical evidence on insurance demand in Russia and Uzbekistan as well as on the uptake and rationing of credit demand in Kyrgyzstan. In particular, the role of experimental games in unveiling farmers’ perceptions and decision-making on the adoption of financial instruments under uncertainty will be discussed. On the practical side, the presentation illustrates opportunities and challenges for the implementation (piloting) of scientifically sound and market-ready risk management instruments, as the demand for scientific transfer-oriented studies has increased in recent years.
Empirical findings from econometric analysis show that agricultural demand for insurance is very sensitive to the price of the product. Experimental games show deeper insights into the decision-making of farmers under uncertainty, especially in connection with the purchase of index insurance. The particular advantage of experimental games is seen in possibility of observing decision making under different climatic and economic conditions. Changes in preference and confidence in gaining experience with new products could also be investigated. Scientific findings from my research help to make better use of new technologies in agriculture. The preliminary overall results of the ongoing studies and piloting activities indicate that financial instruments should be offered as a package and not in isolation.
27.11.2019
Prof. Dr. Philipp Schreck:
Altruistic cooperation and self-Governance. An
experimantal study on social dilemmas with
negative externalities.
Companies regularly engage in collective action initiatives to further the social good, or to reduce detrimental effects of their market activities. For example, technology companies have offered their support for more regulation to avoid the abuse of facial recognition. Similarly, companies of the textiles or the toys industries have supported multi-stakeholder initiatives with the aim of securing certain social and environmental standards in the supply chain. Some of these initiatives display two interesting characteristics. First, they are designed to further the social good, but not necessarily the private profits of the participants. Second, competition prevents that they be established by only one or few market participant alone; that is, they require collective action. To reflect these two characteristic features, we call such initiatives altruistic self-governance.
This paper reports the results of a series of experiments we designed to investigate whether market participants are willing and able to engage in altruistic self-governance. We designed a social dilemma game in which two decision-makers can cooperate in the interest of an affected but inactive third party. More specifically, we analyze three kinds of behavior: Altruistic cooperation; peer-to-peer punishment of non-cooperative behavior; and the willingness to form a self-governing sanctioning institution. We find that the majority of participants is altruistic in that they would like to sacrifice some private income for the sake of a third party. However, they fail to cooperate when competition is induced (social dilemma). The possibility to punish others for non-cooperation increases cooperation. If given the opportunity to choose, however, only about a third of all groups choose the sanctioning institution.
04.12.2019
Matias Cabello:
A Black Legend? Early Modern Science, Religious Shocks, and Long-Term Growth.
The paper shows that the Counter-Reformation of the 16th and 17th century is associated with a large and persistent decline of scientists per capita. Catholic and Protestant regions and cities shared comparable densities of researchers between 1400 and about 1550. However, between 1550 and 1700 Catholic regions and cities experienced a strong decline of scientists per capita relative to their Protestant counterparts. This gap emerges across countries, across German-speaking cities, and across French-speaking cities. In France, structural changes in the time series coincide with the level of tolerance with respect to Protestants, while in Iberia and their European domains, structural changes coincide with degrees of Counter-Reformist activity. The decline of scientists per capita was particularly large in Iberia, which fell from the top to the bottom of the distribution by 1700. From then until 1820, Catholic regions experienced a rapid scientific catch-up relative to Protestant Europe, eventually closing the gap in some parts of the continent. Yet, overall, the gap has endured until our days and cannot be explained by other plausible factors such as literacy or income. Using the Counter-Reformation as an instrument for current researcher densities and controlling for plausible confounding factors, the implied elasticity of income with respect to scientists is about 0.3. The same result emerges from using other large and enduring historical shocks to science, such as the Enlightenment, the Ottoman occupation, or the ancient spread of Greek philosophy.
29.01.2020
Prof. Dr. Patrick Velte:
Carbon performance and disclosure: Governance-related determinants and their firms´ financial consequences.
The purpose of this paper is to convey a thorough understanding of the governance-related determinants and financial consequences of carbon performance and disclosure. Its motivation lies in the increasing global political, social, academic as well as practical importance of managing and reporting on carbon-related issues. Methodologically, we employ a systematic literature review. Therefore, we identify 73 quantitative peer-reviewed empirical studies in this field and categorize them according to a legitimacy-theory-based framework. Our four main contributions provide new insights in this emerging research field and provide guidance for the development of new research models: First, we help future researchers to structure this emerging field of research with respect to the interactions of the phenomenon itself (carbon performance vs. disclosure), its determinants (country- and firm-related governance), and financial consequences (value relevance, information asymmetry, financial performance and cost of capital). Second, we provide a comprehensive overview of variables and proxies used in the studies and indicate their main statistical effects, which facilitates building novel models. There are indications that 1) board composition positively influences both carbon performance and disclosure, 2) carbon performance and carbon disclosure are positively connected, 3) carbon disclosure reduces information asymmetry and 4) carbon performance increases financial performance. Third, we develop a research agenda with concise suggestions for future studies. Fourth, we argue why the under-theorization of concepts makes studies hard to compare up to date, nevertheless, it offers a vibrant field for extensive future research.