Themenplattform "Wettbewerbsfähigkeit"

The Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) and the Competence Center "Research Focus International Economics" cordially invite you to the next FIW Workshop on "Gravity at Sixty". Keynote Lectures by James Anderson and Arnau Costinot.

Die 14. FIW-Forschungskonferenz findet von 24. bis 25. Februar 2022 an der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien statt. Der Höhepunkt des Programms wird in der Keynote von Natalie Chen (University of Warwick) und der daran anschließenden Podiumsdiskussion "Implications of Global Value Chain Disruptions for European Import- and Consumer-Prices" mit Vertreterinnen und Vertretern österreichischer Unternehmen und Verantwortungsträgerinnen bzw. -trägern der österreichischen Wirtschaftspolitik bestehen. Dieser Programmpunkt ist am 24. Februar 2022 von 17 bis 19 Uhr vorgesehen. Das Hauptziel dieser Konferenz ist es, Ökonominnen und Ökonomen eine Plattform zu bieten, um aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse im Feld "International Economics" zu präsentieren und sowohl mit Nachwuchsforscherinnen und Nachwuchsforschern als auch erfahrenen Seniorforscherinnen und Seniorforschern zu diskutieren. Papers von Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden, jungen Fakultätsmitgliedern und jungen Forscherinnen und Forschern in ähnlichen Positionen sind besonders willkommen, da sich das FIW zum Ziel setzt, junge Ökonominnen und Ökonomen zu unterstützen und zu fördern.

FIW Trade Talks is a series of events organised by the Research Centre International Economics (FIW). International economic researchers or high-level policy makers are interviewed on current topics in international economics and economic policy.

Research question(s): Economic complexity is typically approximated using an economy's gross export structure. Considering increasingly integrated global value chains, can economic complexity based on value-added exports better explain economic growth? Do value-added export specialisations convey a different picture of economic development from a network perspective than gross export specialisations? • Approach (empirical or theoretical models, simulation, etc.): Using value-added exports and applying non-linear iterative algorithms, I introduce a novel empirical approach to the topic of economic complexity. Moreover, in analogy to the Product Space, which uses gross exports and maps products to each other based on required capabilities, value-added exports enable a complementary visualisation of economic development and structural cross-country differences we refer to as Industry Space. • Data (if empirical, what data is used; level of aggregation; most important variables): The latest release of the World Input-Output Database is used, which covers 43 countries and 56 industries each for 2000 to 2014. • Main result(s): This approach leads to substantially different complexity rankings compared to established metrics using gross exports and the explanatory power of GDP per capita growth is considerably higher. Our study on the Industry Space emphasises the need for value-added exports in analysing economic development by providing evidence that using gross exports significantly changes the similarities between industries.

The European electricity directives mainly focusing on Unbundling are the most important tools of electricity market regulation. Therefore, the core of these directives aiming to facilitate the market entry in the stage of generation by splitting up vertically integrated firms into independent parts is an application of the Unbundling approach. Using a dataset containing firm-level data on firms operating in 12 European countries from 2005 to 2014, this study provides an econometric analysis to understand the effects of the implementation of the third directive (2009/72/EG) on the productivity of electricity generators. The overall results show that the effect depends on the regulatory closeness of the regimes before and after the implementation. In particular, moving from Legal Unbundling to Ownership Unbundling is associated with significant increases in productivity and competition.

Das Kompetenzzentrum "Forschungsschwerpunkt Internationale Wirtschaft" (FIW) veranstaltet am 5. und 6. Dezember 2019 die 12. FIW-Forschungskonferenz "International Economics". Das Hauptziel dieser Konferenz ist es, Ökonomen und Ökonominnen eine Plattform zu bieten, um aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse im Feld "International Economics" zu präsentieren und sowohl mit Nachwuchsforschern und Nachwuchsforscherinnen als auch erfahrenen Seniorforschern und Seniorforscherinnen zu diskutieren. Papiere von Doktoranden, jungen Fakultätsmitgliedern und jungen Forschern und Forscherinnen in ähnlichen Positionen sind besonders willkommen, da sich das FIW zum Ziel setzt, junge Ökonomen und Ökonominnen zu unterstützen und zu fördern. Ebenso dienen die Forschungskonferenzen des FIW als Diskussionsplattform zwischen Forschung und Politik, um gemeinsam empirische Erkenntnisse für die praktische wirtschaftspolitische Entscheidungsfindung fruchtbar zu machen. – Einreichungsfrist: 10.10.2019

Following successful previous ENEF meetings organised in Sheffield, Rotterdam, Nice–Sophia Antipolis, Cambridge, Paris, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Bologna, Madrid, Manchester, Toulouse, Turin, Pisa and Brighton, the 16th ENEF meeting was held in Vienna at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO). The theme of the 2019 meeting reflected core themes of ENEF and the long-standing tradition of research on competitiveness, industrial dynamics and international trade at WIFO. The interplay between new digital technologies and value chains shapes much of the observed globalisation of production structures. Recently, the emergence of new players (especially China) and new technologies (robotisation and digitalisation) have raised questions about the implications of technological change. These concern firm strategies, employment, productivity, market concentration, and industrial dynamics in general. A wide variety of approaches and concepts are necessary to understand the complex relationship between industrial dynamics and the strategies of firms embedded in value chains. These may include the role of trade, industry characteristics, firm capabilities, institutional frameworks and policy interventions.