Publications

The KCG has various series of publications to provide research findings and policy implications to different interested groups, e.g., students, academics, policy makers and the public.

Africa’s Female Entrepreneurs – Underfunded or Underperforming?

23rd May 2023
KCG Secretary
Authors: Charles Ackah, Holger Görg, Aoife Hanley and Cecília Hornok (Small Business Economics, 2024, 62:1051–1074)

We explore the export performance of Africa’s underperforming female entrepreneurs, using the Ghanaian ISSER-IGC panel, a comprehensive dataset of manufacturing firms for 2011–2015. Uniquely, the data provides information about the severity of key business constraints, across both male and female entrepreneurs[...]

State Aid can Produce Unintended Losers

23rd February 2023
KCG Secretary
Publications
Publications
Earlier this month, the European Commission proposed to transform the State Aid Temporary Crisis Framework to facilitate the green transition in Europe. One main policy focus of the proposed Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework is to relax the strict state aid rules in the EU, in order to facilitate “the roll-out of renewable energies and to support the decarbonisation of the industry”[...]

Who wins and who loses from state subsidies?

6th September 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Jun Du, Sourafel Girma, Holger Görg, Ignat Stepanok (Canadian Journal of Economics, 2023, 56(3): 1007-1031)

China is perceived to rely on subsidizing firms in targeted industries to improve their performance and stay competitive. We implement an approach that allows for the joint estimation of direct and indirect effects of subsidies on subsidized and non-subsidized firms. We find that firms that receive subsidies experience a boost for productivity[...]

Multinational enterprises and the welfare state

6th September 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Nigel Driffield, Holger Görg, Yama Temouric and Xiaocan Yuan (Transnational Corporations, 2022, 29(2): 1–24 )

This paper presents an empirical analysis on the extent to which a country’s welfare spending influences foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions, particularly as they relate to relocations. We argue, and subsequently empirically test, that higher welfare spending by governments attracts foreign investment[...]

Where has the rum gone? The Impact of Maritime Piracy on Trade and Transport

8th March 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Alexander Sandkamp, Vincent Stamer, Shuyao Yang (Review of World Economics, 2022, 158: 751–778)

Despite a general agreement that piracy poses a significant threat to maritime shipping, empirical evidence regarding its economic consequences remains scarce. This paper combines firm-level Chinese customs data and ship position data with information on pirate attacks to investigate how exporting firms and cargo ships respond to maritime piracy.

Economic and Environmental Benefits from International Co-ordination on Carbon Pricing: A Review of Economic Modelling Studies

8th March 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Sneha Thube, Sonja Peterson, Daniel Nachtigall, Jane Ellis (Environmental Research Letters, 2012, 16(11): 113002)

This paper reviews quantitative estimates of the economic and environmental benefits from different forms of international co-ordination on carbon pricing based on economic modelling studies. Forms of international co-ordination include: harmonising carbon prices (e.g. through linking carbon markets), extending the coverage of pricing schemes, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, developing international sectoral agreements, and establishing co-ordination mechanisms to mitigate carbon leakage[...]

Integrating Carbon Dioxide Removal into European Emissions Trading

8th March 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Wilfried Rickels, Alexander Proelß, Oliver Geden, Julian Burhenne, Mathias Fridahl (Frontiers in Climate, 2021, 3: 690023)

In one of the central scenarios for meeting an European Union-wide net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target by 2050, the emissions cap in the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) becomes net negative. Despite this ambition, no mechanism allows for the inclusion of CO2 removal credits (CRCs) in the EU ETS to date[...]

Implications of Temperature Overshoot Dynamics for Climate and Carbon Dioxide Removal Policies in the DICE Model

8th March 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Wilfried Rickels, Jörg Schwinger (Environmental Research Letters, 2021, 16(10): 104042)

Assessing climate policies that involve temporary overshoot of temperature targets requires an accurate representation of carbon cycle and climate dynamics. Here, we compare temperature overshoot climate policies obtained with the dynamic integrated climate–economy (DICE) integrated assessment model using two different climate-carbon cycle sub-models: first, the original DICE implementation, and second an implementation of the finite amplitude impulse response (FaIR) simple climate model[...]

The Backfire Effect of Sustainable Social Cues. New Evidence on Social Moral Licensing

8th March 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: WassiliLasarov, RobertMai, StefanHoffmann (Ecological Economics, 2022, 195 : 107376)

To encourage individuals to consume sustainably, managers and policymakers often highlight positive examples that others have set regarding sustainable consumer behavior (e.g., donations to a good cause). This study shows that under certain circumstances, this strategy provokes a paradoxical effect such that consumers deliberately deviate from these positive examples[...]

Vanishing Boycott Impetus: Why and How Consumer Participation in a Boycott Decreases Over Time

8th March 2022
KCG Secretary
Authors: Wassili Lasarov, Stefan Hoffmann, Ulrich Orth (Journal of Business Ethics, forthcoming)

Media reports that a company behaves in a socially nonresponsible manner frequently result in consumer participation in a boycott. As time goes by, however, the number of consumers participating in the boycott starts dwindling. Yet, little is known on why individual participation in a boycott declines and what type of consumer is more likely to stop boycotting earlier rather than later. Integrating research on drivers of individual boycott participation with multi-stage models and the hot/cool cognition system, suggests a “heat-up” phase in which boycott participation is fueled by expressive drivers, and a “cool-down” phase in which instrumental drivers become more influential[...]