Suchergebnisse

In making key decisions for the future phases of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), policy makers need to fully understand the competitiveness implications of these decisions on industrial sectors. In this paper, we conduct an empirical analysis of cost pass-through ability of producers of selected products within the sectors refineries, glass, chemicals and ceramics of the UK economy. Our results provide new insights into the debate on the ability of pass-through of costs generated by the EU ETS. They suggest that some of the sectors analysed have the ability to pass-through a portion of their carbon costs to the consumers: The UK sectors are not capable to completely pass-through their costs into output prices, with the exception of UK ceramic goods.

Die Dissertation analysiert das Verhältnis zwischen ökonomischem Erfolg, Umweltregulierung und Energiemarktentwicklungen. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass die ökonomischen Folgen der jüngsten Klimapolitik der Europäischen Union gering waren. Ihre Ausgestaltung wird in einen polit-ökonomischen Zusammenhang gestellt. Zudem zeigt die Dissertation die Rolle von Investitionen in umweltfreundliche Technologien und Produkte auf. Die Arbeit eröffnet zudem Einblicke in die ökonomischen Konsequenzen von Energiemarktentwicklungen. Sie enthält eine Analyse der Aktienmarkteffekte des Europäischen Emissionshandelssystems. Darin wird aufgezeigt, dass der Firmenwert europäischer Stromerzeuger vom Preis der Verschmutzungsrechte abhängig ist. Schließlich unterstreicht die Arbeit die ökonomische Relevanz der Energiemärkte. Der Ölmarkt wird als der aus Sicht der Finanzmärkte wichtigste Energiemarkt identifiziert. Weiterhin die belegt Arbeit die Relevanz von Ölpreisschocks für die Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland.

This paper constitutes a first analysis on stock returns and stock return volatility of energy corporations from the Eurozone. According to our results, the gas market does not play a role for the pricing of Eurozone energy stocks. However, changes in the Euro to U.S. Dollar exchange rate as well as developments at the money and especially at the oil market strongly affect returns of the energy stock portfolios analyzed. While oil price hikes negatively impact on stock returns of European utilities, they lead to an appreciation of oil and gas stocks. Most importantly, we show that oil market volatility negatively affects European oil and gas stocks. In contrast, energy stock volatility is not driven by volatility of the resource market, but only by its own dynamics.

This paper constitutes to our best knowledge the first econometric analysis on stock market effects of the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Our results suggest that EU Emission Allowance (EUA) price developments matter to the stock performance of electricity firms: EUA price changes and stock returns of the most important European electricity corporations are shown to be positively related. This effect does not work asymmetrically, so that stock markets do not seem to react differently to EUA appreciations in comparison to depreciations. The carbon market effect is shown to be both time- and countryspecific: It is particularly strong for the period of EUA market shock in early 2006, and differs with respect to the countries where the electricity corporations analysed are headquartered. Stock market reactions to EUA volatility could not be shown.

Die Dissertation analysiert das Verhältnis zwischen ökonomischem Erfolg, Umweltregulierung und Energiemarktentwicklungen. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass die ökonomischen Folgen der jüngsten Klimapolitik der Europäischen Union gering waren. Ihre Ausgestaltung wird in einen polit-ökonomischen Zusammenhang gestellt. Zudem zeigt die Dissertation die Rolle von Investitionen in umweltfreundliche Technologien und Produkte auf. Die Arbeit eröffnet zudem Einblicke in die ökonomischen Konsequenzen von Energiemarktentwicklungen. Sie enthält eine Analyse der Aktienmarkteffekte des Europäischen Emissionshandelssystems. Darin wird aufgezeigt, dass der Firmenwert europäischer Stromerzeuger vom Preis der Verschmutzungsrechte abhängig ist. Schließlich unterstreicht die Arbeit die ökonomische Relevanz der Energiemärkte. Der Ölmarkt wird als der aus Sicht der Finanzmärkte wichtigste Energiemarkt identifiziert. Weiterhin die belegt Arbeit die Relevanz von Ölpreisschocks für die Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland.

This literature review analyses the impacts of the EU ETS on competitiveness focussing on existing simulation studies. We have identified the choice of the reference scenario as the most critical issue for an appropriate analysis of the relevant literature. We find, however, that effects of the scheme on competitiveness are modest, even given the business as usual case that does not take the legally binding framework of the Kyoto Protocol into account. Furthermore, the impacts of the EU ETS are smaller than the impacts of alternative Kyoto-based regulation scenarios. Compared to these other regulation methods ETSs can have positive competitiveness effects. However, the EU ETS is not designed to boost Europe's economy. Its prime purpose and justification is to ensure that Europe's CO2 emissions are brought down and Kyoto targets are reached at minimal costs. To our opinion, it is therefore important that the system as well as modifications to it do not undermine the environmental goals associated with this policy instrument.

This paper analyzes the effect of environmental regulation on stock returns (as a measure of economic performance) for German energy corporations. By using event study methodology, we consider the last minute victory of the acting government in the 2002 German federal elections to the Lower House of Parliament (Bundestag). The government coalition consisted of Social Democrats and the Green party and was generally associated with a paradigm shift in environmental and particularly energy policy towards the promotion of renewable energies and a phasing out of nuclear energy. In contrast, the opposing Christian Democrats and Liberal party signaled different priorities in line with traditional energy policy. Compared with other environmental event studies, we include insights from modern empirical finance and therefore also apply the Fama-French three-factor model to estimate the abnormal daily and monthly stock returns. The main estimation results of the empirical analysis imply (1) no evidence of a general negative impact of the 2002 Bundestag elections on stock returns for traditional utilities and (2) a positive albeit transitory short-run effect for the entire group of renewable energy corporations. We conclude that the 2002 Bundestag elections and therefore stringent environmental regulation had at least no general negative effect on the economic performance of energy corporations. One reason for this could be that the compliance costs of the government's environmentally oriented energy policy were lower for traditional utilities than expected.

In diesem Beitrag wird auf der Basis von Paneldaten für die westdeutschen Bundesländer untersucht, ob und in welchem Maße der demographische Wandel sowie die unterschiedlichen politischen Parteienkonstellationen die Hochschulausgaben auf Länderebene beeinflussen. Wir finden empirische Evidenz für die Hypothese, dass die Hochschulausgaben negativ von der Bevölkerungsalterung abhängen, allerdings hängt dieses Ergebnis von der Spezifikation der Demographie-Variablen ab. In einer Spezifikation finden wir eine statistisch signifikante Elastizität der Hochschulausgaben bezüglich der Bevölkerungsalterung von größer als ?1. Die geschätzten Effekte unterschiedlicher parteipolitische Konstellationen auf die Hochschulausgaben sind robust bezüglich alternativer Schätzverfahren sowie Spezifikationen der Demographie-Variablen. Allerdings entsprechen diese nicht der klassischen Partisanentheorie, nach der Parteien des linken Spektrums zu höheren Staatsausgaben neigen. Nach unseren Schätzergebnissen sind Regierungszeiten mit bürgerlichen Konstellationen sowie der Großen Koalition auf Länderebene mit höheren Hochschulausgaben verbunden als jene von SPDAlleinregierungen. Hauptgrund hierfür dürfte eine Klientelpolitik der Parteien sein, wenn man unterstellt, dass etwa bürgerliche Parteien ihre Wählerschaft vornehmlich aus den Schichten rekrutieren, die tendenziell hohe Hochschulausgaben unterstützen.

We analyze potential effects of demographic change and political constellations on higher education spending. In our panel analysis of west German states (Laender) for the period 1985 to 2002 we find empirical evidence for the hypothesis of a negative relationship between demographic aging and spending on public higher education. In contrast to the hypothesis of the classical partisan theory that implies higher public expenditures under leftist parties, we find that governments under conservative parties or a coalition between social democrats and conservatives spend more on public higher education than governments run by the social-democratic party alone.

This literature review analyses the impacts of the EU ETS on competitiveness focussing on existing simulation studies. We have identified the choice of the reference scenario as the most critical issue for an appropriate analysis of the relevant literature. We find, however, that effects of the scheme on competitiveness are modest, even given the business as usual case that does not take the legally binding framework of the Kyoto Protocol into account. Furthermore, the impacts of the EU ETS are smaller than the impacts of alternative Kyoto-based regulation scenarios. Compared to these other regulation methods ETSs can have positive competitiveness effects. However, the EU ETS is not designed to boost Europe?s economy. Its prime purpose and justification is to ensure that Europe?s CO2 emissions are brought down and Kyoto targets are reached at minimal costs. To our opinion, it is therefore important that the system as well as modifications to it do not undermine the environmental goals associated with this policy instrument.

In diesem Beitrag wird auf der Basis von Paneldaten für die westdeutschen Bundesländer untersucht, ob und in welchem Maße der demographische Wandel sowie die unterschiedlichen politischen Parteienkonstellationen die Hochschulausgaben auf Länderebene beeinflussen. Wir finden empirische Evidenz für die Hypothese, dass die Hochschulausgaben negativ von der Bevölkerungsalterung abhängen, allerdings hängt dieses Ergebnis von der Spezifikation der Demographie-Variablen ab. In einer Spezifikation finden wir eine statistisch signifikante Elastizität der Hochschulausgaben bezüglich der Bevölkerungsalterung von größer als ?1. Die geschätzten Effekte unterschiedlicher parteipolitischer Konstellationen auf die Hochschulausgaben sind robust bezüglich alternativer Schätzverfahren sowie Spezifikationen der Demographie-Variablen. Allerdings entsprechen diese nicht der klassischen Partisanentheorie, nach der Parteien des linken Spektrums zu höheren Staatsausgaben neigen. Nach unseren Schätzergebnissen sind Regierungszeiten mit bürgerlichen Konstellationen sowie der Großen Koalition auf Länderebene mit höheren Hochschulausgaben verbunden als jene von SPDAlleinregierungen. Hauptgrund hierfür könnte eine Klientelpolitik der Parteien sein, wenn man unterstellt, dass etwa bürgerliche Parteien ihre Wählerschaft vornehmlich aus den Schichten rekrutieren, die tendenziell hohe Hochschulausgaben unterstützen.

This paper analyzes the effect of environmental regulation on stock returns (as a measure of economic performance) for German energy corporations. By using event study methodology, we consider the last minute victory of the acting government in the 2002 German federal elections to the Lower House of Parliament (Bundestag). The government coalition consisted of Social Democrats and the Green party and was generally associated with a paradigm shift in environmental and particularly energy policy towards the promotion of renewable energies and a phasing out of nuclear energy. In contrast, the opposing Christian Democrats and Liberal party signaled different priorities in line with traditional energy policy. Compared with other environmental event studies, we include insights from modern empirical finance and therefore also apply the Fama-French three-factor model to estimate the abnormal daily and monthly stock returns. The main estimation results of the empirical analysis imply (1) no evidence of a general negative impact of the 2002 Bundestag elections on stock returns for traditional utilities and (2) a positive albeit transitory short-run effect for the entire group of renewable energy corporations. We conclude that the 2002 Bundestag elections and therefore stringent environmental regulation had at least no general negative effect on the economic performance of energy corporations. One reason for this could be that the compliance costs of the government?s environmentally oriented energy policy were lower for traditional utilities than expected.

This paper presents a political-economy analysis of allowance allocation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). A common-agency model suggests that a politicalsupport maximizing government considers the preferences of sectoral interest groups besides public interest when allocating emissions permits. In the stylized model, industries represented by more powerful lobby groups face a lower regulatory burden, which for sufficiently high lobbying power leads to an inefficient emissions regulation. An empirical analysis of the first trading phase of the EU ETS corroborates our theoretical prediction for a cross-section of German firms, but also shows that the political-economy determinants of permit allocation depend on firm characteristics. We find that large carbon emitters that were heavily exposed to emissions regulation and simultaneously represented by powerful interest groups received higher levels of emissions allowances. In contrast, industrial lobbying power stand-alone or threats of potential worker layoffs did not exert a significant influence on the EU ETS allocation process.