KCG Policy Paper No. 8: China’s Economic Transformation and Poverty Reduction over the Years: An Overview

14th February 2022
KCG Secretary
Policy Papers
Policy Papers
Authors: Maria Ana Lugo, Martin Raiser, Ruslan Yemtsov

The present document examines the role of social and economic transformation in the process of poverty reduction in China. China’s economic growth and poverty reduction over the past 40 years are historically unprecedented both in speed and scale. Between 1978 and 2018 China’s economy grew at an annual rate of 9.5 percent, twice as fast as the other developing regions of the World[...]

Kiel Institute Research Seminar by Finn Ole Semrau on Firms’ Global Value Chain Positioning and Clean Production

17th January 2022
KCG Secretary
News
News
How to improve sustainability in global value chains (GVCs) is a key question that has been intensively addressed not only in coordinated multinational efforts like G20 but also by national policy engagement like Germany’s Supply Chain Law. Many firms and actors have been involved in GVCs to produce goods and services for the world demand. They have been responsible for specific tasks along the GVCs. Due to firms’ different GVC positions, they may be confronted with challenges to different extents while being required to improve, for example, their environmental performance to help achieve higher environmental sustainability in GVCs[...]

Görg Gave an Interview on the Impact of China’s 20-year WTO Membership and on China-Germany Economic Relations

13th January 2022
KCG Secretary
Public Contributions
Public Contributions
In late 2021, China celebrated the 20th anniversary of its WTO membership. On December 11, 2001 China became the 143rd member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) after a long-lasting negotiation process and large-scale economic reforms to fulfil the accession requirements. Through China’s WTO accession, it became – formally and institutionally – an important part of the multilateral trading system[...]

FGI 2021 on Global Production Networks for Sustainability on Dec. 6, 2021: Open for Registration

30th November 2021
KCG Secretary
News
News
The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly impacted global production networks. It has brought to the forefront a sense of urgency for governments and internationally operating enterprises to re-evaluate their approaches towards ensuring resilience and sustainability in their supply chains. At the same time it offers a unique opportunity to re-think established approaches, to embrace sustainability as a core value creator, and to link long-term recovery strategies to the guiding principles and objectives of the UN Agenda 2030[...]

China’s Investments in Germany and the Role of COVID-19 Pandemic

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Authors: Xinming Xia, Wan-Hsin Liu (Intereconomics, 2021, 56(2): 113–119)

This paper analyses how China’s investments in Germany have developed over time and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in this regard, based on four different datasets, including our own survey in mid-2020. Our analysis shows that Germany is currently one of the most attractive investment destinations for Chinese investors.

The trade effects of antidumping duties: Evidence from the 2004 EU enlargement

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Author: Alexander Sandkamp (Journal of International Economics, 2020, Vol. 123, Article: 103307)

This paper exploits the 2004 EU enlargement as a natural experiment to estimate the effects of antidumping (AD) duties on import prices and quantities. The automatic extension of EU AD policy to new member states following their accession is exogenous to new members' trade shocks. Using this source of variation, the paper shows that, on average, AD duties raise producer prices of targeted exporters[...]

The Social Cost of Contacts: Theory and Evidence for the first wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Authors: Martin F. Quaas, Jasper N. Meya, Hanna Schenk, Björn Bos, Moritz A. Drupp, Till Requate (PLoS ONE, 2021, 16(3): e0248288)

Building on the epidemiological SIR model, we present an economic model with heterogeneous individuals deriving utility from social contacts creating infection risks. Focusing on social distancing of individuals susceptible to an infection we theoretically characterize the gap between private and social cost of contacts[...]

Short-windedness Would Weaken Effective Climate Policy

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Authors: Wilfried Rickels, Sonja Peterson (Environmental and Resource Economics, 2020, 76: 447–517)

Committing to rigid shutdown measures to contain the spreading of the corona virus has been undertaken on the tacit assumption that these measures will be temporary and can be loosened when the COVID-19 infection rates decrease and discontinued altogether once vaccines are available. Mitigating climate change and achieving ambitious temperature targets as set out in the Paris Agreement require a long-term structural change taking us away from our current carbon-intensive economy to a zero-carbon and then net-negative carbon economy[...]

(Mis)conceptions about Modelling Negative Emission Technologies

19th November 2021
KCG Secretary
Authors: Wilfried Rickels, Christine Merk, Fabian Reith, David P. Keller, Andreas Oschlies (Environmental Research Letters, 2019, 14(10), Article: 104004)

Intentionally removing carbon from the atmosphere with negative emission technologies (NETs) will be important to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century and to limit global warming to 2 °C or even 1.5 °C (IPCC 2018). Model scenarios that consider NETs as part of mitigation pathways are still largely restricted to afforestation and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), while the '[f]easibility and sustainability of [NETs] use could be enhanced by a portfolio of options deployed at substantial, but lesser scales, rather than a single option at very large scale' (IPCC 2018, p 19)[...]