The employment effects of disability benefit reassessment

15th June 2026
KCG Secretary
Authors: Anikó Bíró, Cecília Hornok, Judit Krekó, Dániel Prinz, Ágota Scharle (Journal of Public Economics 2026, 259: 105652)

We study the consequences of a large-scale reassessment of the health and working capacity of disability insurance beneficiaries in Hungary. Leveraging birthday and health cutoffs in the reassessment, we estimate employment responses to the threat of disability benefit loss and the actual termination or reduction of benefits[...]

KCG Research: Disability Benefit Reassessments can Reduce Employment before Benefits are Cut

15th June 2026
KCG Secretary
Public Contributions
Public Contributions
A new study with contributions from Dr. Cecília Hornok (KCG External Researcher & ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies) that examines how large-scale disability insurance reassessments affect employment and earnings is recently published in the Journal of Public Economics. The paper by Cecília Hornok and her co-authors, Anikó Bíró (ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies), Judit Krekó (ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies & Budapest Institute for Policy Analysis), Dániel Prinz (World Bank), and Ágota Scharle (Budapest Institute for Policy Analysis) provides new evidence that such reforms influence labor supply not only through actual benefit loss, but also through the threat of reassessment itself[...]

KCG Working Paper No. 36: Use of Advanced Technologies and Extensive Margins of Exports in Manufacturing Firms from 27 EU Countries in 2025

6th January 2026
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Author: Joachim Wagner

The use of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, or smart devices will go hand in hand with higher productivity, higher product quality, and lower trade costs. Therefore, it can be expected to be positively related to export activities. This paper uses firm level data for manufacturing enterprises from the 27 member countries of the European Union collected in 2025 to shed further light on this issue by investigating the link between the use of advanced technologies and extensive margins of exports[...]

Aoife Hanley Moderated Africa’s Fintech Panel at the Kiel-CEPR African Conference

12th December 2025
KCG Secretary
Public Contributions
Public Contributions
International African experts, policymakers, business professionals and representatives of NGOs came together at the second KIEL-CEPR African Economic Development Conference (AEDC) “Understanding the Shifting Landscape of African Economic Development” held on November 13 and 14, 2025 in Berlin. During the conference, participants discussed a wide range of topics related to African economic development, including education, state capacity, aid, finance, natural resources and climate, among others[...]

Podcast interview with Görg on U.S.-China Deal on Rare Earths

17th September 2025
KCG Secretary
Public Contributions
Public Contributions
In June this year, high-ranking representatives from the United States and China met in London for the second time amid escalating trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The talks resulted in a reaffirmation of the Geneva agreement reached in May, including a substantial 90-day suspension of punitive tariffs. China agreed to resume shipments of critical raw materials and to grant temporary export licenses to U.S. firms. In response, the U.S. side signaled a conditional willingness to ease restrictions on technology exports[...]

Special economic zone dynamics and firm performance: Evidence from an emerging economy

17th September 2025
KCG Secretary
Authors: Charles Godfred Ackah, Robert Darko Osei, Baah Aye Kusi (Management and Decision Economics 2025, 45(6): 3834–3851)

The empirical literature on Special economic zones (SEZs) has shown that SEZs have become critical policy tools for advancing economic and firm performance, especially in developing economies where financial capital, human capital, technology and technical know-how to drive these performances are in limited supply. While the importance and effects of SEZs cannot be overemphasised and are well documented, particularly in Asia, SEZs' operationalisation, structure and policy practice appear to vary, especially in Ghana and hence a need to examine SEZ effects on firm performance in Ghana.