@phdthesis{Stockinger2017,
  author    = {Stockinger, Bastian},
  title     = {Causes and effects of worker mobility between firms: empirical studies for Germany},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-153894},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {This dissertation investigates selected causes and effects of worker mobility between firms in three empirical studies for Germany. Chapter 2 investigates the productivity effects of worker inflows to manufacturing establishments, distinguishing inflows by their previous employers' wage level, as a proxy for productivity. The chapter is motivated by several empirical studies which find that worker inflows from more productive or higher-paying firms increase hiring firms' productivity. The analyses in chapter 2 are based on a unique linked employer-employee data set. The findings indicate that inflows from higher-paying establishments do not increase hiring establishments' productivity, but inflows from lower-paying establishments do. Further analyses suggest that this effect is due to a positive selectivity of such inflows from their sending establishments. These findings can be interpreted as evidence of a reallocation process by which the best employees of lower-paying establishments become hired by higher-paying establishments. This process reflects the assortative pattern of worker mobility in Germany documented by Card et al. (2013) for the past decades. The chapter thus contributes to the literature by linking establishment-level productivity analysis to the assortative pattern of inter-firm worker mobility, thereby providing a micro-foundation for the latter. Chapter 3 focuses on a positive selection of workers moving between firms from another, more specific perspective. The analysis focuses on the importance of regional labor market competition for establishments' apprentice training and poaching of apprenticeship completers. Previous studies have found that firms provide less training if they are located in regions with strong labor market competition. This finding is usually interpreted as evidence of a higher risk of poaching in these regions. Yet, there is no direct evidence that regional competition is positively correlated with poaching. Building on a recently established approach to ex-post identify poaching of apprenticeship completers, this chapter is the first to directly investigate the correlation between regional labor market competition and poaching. Using German administrative data, it is found that competition indeed increases training establishments' probability of becoming poaching victims. However, poaching victims do not change their apprenticeship training activity in reaction to poaching. Instead, the findings indicate that the lower training activity in competitive regions can be attributed to lower retention rates, as well as a less adverse selection and lower labor and hiring costs of apprenticeship completers hired from rivals. Chapter 4 investigates the effects of local broadband internet availability on establishment-level employment growth. The analysis uses data for Germany in the years 2005-2009, when broadband was introduced in rural regions of Western Germany and in large parts of Eastern Germany. Technical frictions in broadband rollout are exploited to obtain exogenous variation in local broadband availability. The results suggest that broadband expansion had a positive effect on employment growth in the Western German service sector and a negative effect in Western German manufacturing, suggesting that broadband expansion has accelerated the reallocation of workers from manufacturing to services. Furthermore, this pattern of results is driven by pronounced positive effects in knowledge- and computer-intensive industries, suggesting that it is the actual use of broadband in the production process that leads to complementary hiring, respectively a slowdown of employment growth, in the respective sectors. For Eastern Germany, no significant employment growth effects are found.},
  subject      = {Arbeitsmarkt},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Dietz2018,
  author    = {Dietz, Daniel},
  title     = {Essays on Human Resource Management in view of training, retention and compensation},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-161969},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {The analysis of how a general change, an economic shock and a modified institutional framework condition affect the HRM process, provide the motivation for the present dissertation. Thereby, the dissertation concentrates on certain areas of the HRM process, namely compensation, further training and retention, as well as changes and challenges that have been subject to a high degree of public interest in recent years. It consists of three essays, all self-contained and independently readable. The first essay investigates whether it is possible to keep employees in the establishment by offering further training measures. Therefore, this essay uses a comparison group approach and compares only training participants with those employees who had been selected by the employer to participate in training but had to cancel it for exogenous reasons. From a methodological point of view, by means of Fixed Effects and Diff GMM estimations, the essay also controls for time-variant and invariant unobserved heterogeneity as well as endogeneity of training participation. By simultaneously considering the components from the human capital theory as well as the monopsony theory, the essay shows that portability of general human capital contents and visibility of training, induced by training certificates, independently reduce the retention effect of training. The negative effect is much stronger if training is certified by external institutions and therefore credible. In addition, the effects of visibility and portability are distinct and thus also reduce the retention effect of training separately. However, the total effect of portable, visible and credible training on retention is still positive. Therefore, further training appears to be an effective measure to keep the qualified employees in the establishment. Second, the attention is on a short-term unpredictable economic shock: Essay 2 analyses whether and to what extent the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009 has had an impact on the individual training behaviour in establishments. From a theoretical point of view, the effects of the crisis on establishments' training activities are ambiguous. On the one hand, the reduced opportunity costs of training argue more in favour of an increase in further training. On the other hand, economic theory suggests decreasing training activities in the crisis because of reduced financial resources, uncertain future prospects, and, therefore, unclear returns on training. Using Difference-in-Differences analyses, this essay avoids endogeneity problems caused by unobservable third factors. The Great Recession in 2008 and 2009 can be seen as an exogenous and time-limited shock: this quasi-experimental setting helps to reveal the causal impact of the crisis on the training intensity and the number of training measures. Results indicate that there is a direct effect of the crisis on individual training activities in 2009 and 2010. This effect is stronger for unskilled employees than for employees with higher skill levels. Furthermore, the negative effect sets in with a time lag and lasts until the year 2010 (although there is already an economic upswing). Numerous analyses are used to check additional heterogeneities in training activities for other employee groups. Among others, particularly the area of executive compensation was affected by the economic crisis and the ensuing regulations in institutional framework conditions. The third essay of this dissertation deals with the question whether these changes had an impact on the compensation level and structure of executive board members. The focus is on the extent to which executive compensation is converging within and between different exchange segments in Germany. Based on a sample of CEOs and non-CEOs of German DAX and MDAX establishments, the evolution of executive compensation levels and structures (i.e., fractions of base pay, short- and long-term incentives) are examined during the period from 2006 until 2012. The results of descriptive as well as multivariate Fixed Effects analyses indicate isomorphism of both, pay levels and pay structures within (intra-segment-convergence) and between (inter-segment convergence) stock exchange segments especially for CEOs. However, for the other members of the management board (non-CEOs), there is only a convergence of the compensation structure within the segments. The results do not indicate either intra- or inter-segment convergence of salary levels. Altogether, the three essays of this dissertation provide a selection of the current changes and challenges that HRM has to deal with. From a methodological perspective, all three essays use different applied econometric estimation strategies. In order to eliminate estimation problems caused by time-invariant and variant unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity, Fixed Effects, Diff GMM as well as Difference-in-Differences approaches are applied. In addition, sample selection, research design as well as identification strategy attempts to avoid estimation bias. The first two essays are based on a linked-employer-employee panel data set and adopt a personnel economic perspective. The third essay uses establishment-level data and is based on institutional theory. The first essay was written in cooperation with Thomas Zwick and the third essay was written in cooperation with Nathalie Haidegger-Rieß and Robert Wagner.},
  subject      = {Human Resource Management <Humanverm{\"o}gen> <Personalentwicklung>},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Bergmann2019,
  author    = {Bergmann, Jonathan},
  title     = {Carry Trades - Eine empirische Analyse},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-17955},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-179553},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Die verfasste Arbeit besch{\"a}ftigt sich mit der Handelsstrategie Carry Trades. Grundlage dieser Strategie ist das Ausnutzen von Zinsunterschieden, welche zwischen zwei W{\"a}hrungsr{\"a}umen vorherrschen, und einer Wechselkursanpassung, die diese Unterschiede nicht komplett kompensiert. Investiert ein Anleger beispielsweise in eine ausl{\"a}ndische W{\"a}hrung mit h{\"o}herem Zinsniveau, so m{\"u}sste sich der Wechselkurs gem{\"a}ß der Zinsparit{\"a}tentheorie in der Folge so anpassen, dass der h{\"o}here Ertrag durch die Zinsen beim R{\"u}cktausch der W{\"a}hrung vollst{\"a}ndig egalisiert wird. Ziel dieser Arbeit war eine empirische Untersuchung f{\"u}r die W{\"a}hrungen der G10 auf w{\"o}chentlicher Handelsbasis sowie die Konstruktion und Ber{\"u}cksichtigung von ex ante Sharpe-Ratios als Handelsindikator.},
  subject      = {Devisenspekulation},
  language  = {de}
}
@book{KiesewetterGromMenzeletal.2016,
  author    = {Kiesewetter, Dirk and Grom, Michael and Menzel, Moritz and Tschinkl, Dominik},
  title     = {Optimierungsm{\"o}glichkeiten bei den bestehenden steuer- und sozialversicherungsrechtlichen F{\"o}rderregelungen der betrieblichen Altersversorgung},
  publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press},
  address   = {W{\"u}rzburg},
  isbn      = {978-3-95826-030-6 (print)},
  doi       = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-031-3},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-128597},
  publisher      = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press},
  pages     = {300},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Germany's old-age retirement system is based on three pillars: the statutory pension scheme, company pension schemes (CPS), and private retirement funds. The current government's coalition agreement expressly foresees a strengthening of CPS since its popularity has heavily stagnated in recent years. The intention is to optimize the fiscal and social insurance-related framework for CPS in an attempt to encourage its wider use. The present expert opinion is a contribution towards this effort. There is considerable potential for this especially among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and earners of low and very low incomes, since these groups are disproportionately under-represented when it comes to CPS takeup. In light of this, this opinion gives priority to these target groups. The study is structured as follows. First, a comprehensive literature review is provided and guided interviews with experts performed in order to identify obstacles to the continued spread of CPS among the target groups under review. Then, interviews are held with employers in the SME category as well as earners of low and very low incomes in order to verify the obstacles identified during the first step and consider any additional insights. On this basis, the authors consider which reforms may prove effective in addressing the identified obstacles. Here, as instructed, any potential reforms should endeavor not to create a financial burden on Germany's tax and social insurance authorities. We then subject these reform ideas to an empirical review that involves interviews with SME tax advisers and again with earners of low and very low incomes. Having analyzed these interviews and discussing additional practical considerations, we explicitly recommend the implementation of selected reforms. In doing so, the authors propose the following two concrete recommendations. Recommendation 1 suggests introducing a mandatory employer contribution on top of deferred compensation that corresponds to the amount of social insurance contributions that are saved as a result, of which employees would be the obvious beneficiaries. This would result in an increase in employers' financial burden compared to the status quo. To compensate, a "CPS deduction" would be introduced as a tax incentive for small enter-prises that decide to introduce a CPS for their employees. This deduction would function similarly to the investment deduction option afforded under Section 7g of the German Income Tax Act, resulting in a positive liquidity and tax deferment effect for small enterprises. Recommendation 2 aims at incentivizing employees to participate in a CPS. Two alternatives are offered. Either Germany's existing Riester subsidy system could be better integrated into CPS schemes by eliminating the duplication of contributions that exists under the status quo. Alternatively, a "CPS subsidy" could be introduced. This would involve granting a statutory subsidy to employers that contribute a certain minimum amount to the CPS on behalf of their employees. As a consequence, employees would be able to participate in a CPS without having to make a contribution of their own, which would have the desired effect especially for earners of low and very low incomes. In connection with Recommendation 2, the authors mention two additional aspects that ought to be implemented for the benefit of employees. One, a restriction should be placed on the extent to which CPS payments are set off against basic social security payments. Two, the acquisition costs of insurance-based CPS solutions should be spread across the entire term of the agreement, meaning that no commission fees can be retained that relate to contributions that haven't yet been made. Finally, the authors recommend two measures that serve to flexibilize and simplify the legal framework surrounding CPS: an increase in the tax- and social insurance contribution-exempt total outlay in the presence of insurance-based external funding and, related to this, a switch from an annualized to a lifetime- or length-of-service-based approach.},
  subject      = {Betriebliche Altersversorgung},
  language  = {de}
}