1. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-31 // 1996

    Nonparametric Bounds on Employment and Income Effects of Continuous Vocational Training in East Germany

    This paper explores the potential of an approach suggested by Manski of obtaining nonparametric bounds for treatment effects in evaluation studies without knowledge of the participation process. The practicai…

  2. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-30 // 1996

    Poland on the Dole. Unemployment Benefits, Training and Long-Term Unemployment during Transition

    We analyse the duration of unemployment spells in Poland using data from the Polish Labour Force Survey of August 1994. The effects on the duration of unemployment of important socio-economic and demographic…

  3. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-29 // 1996

    Retail Distribution Channel Barriers to International Trade

    With the referral of the Kodak - Fuji market access dispute to the World Trade Organization, the role of retail distribution channel control by incumbent firms as a barrier to imports has drawn much interest.…

  4. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-26 // 1996

    International Competition Policy and Economic Development

    During the past half century many nations have adopted policies whose function is to discourage cartels and other restrictive practices. Industrialized nations led the movement toward pro-competition policies,…

  5. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-25 // 1996

    Delta-Neutral Volatility Trading with Intra-Day Prices: An Application to Options on the DAX

    This paper evaluates the profitability of applying four different volatility forecastingmodels to the trading of straddles on the German stock market index DAX. Special carehas been taken to use simultaneous…

  6. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-24 // 1996

    Competition Policy Convergence: Where Next?

    As the 20th Century dawned, there were radical divergences in the policies individual nations pursued toward restraints of competition by cartels and monopolies. Since World War II there has been considerable…

  7. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-22 // 1996

    Environmental Policy Instruments and Their Effects on Innovation

    The influence of environmental policy on innovative behaviour of companies has so far recieved little attention in scientific discourse. Based on recent literature, the paper analyses the impact of requirements,…

  8. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-21 // 1996

    Steuer-Klientel-Effekte: Realität oder Illusion ?

    In this article we examine how model selection in neural networks can be guided by statistical procedures such as hypotheses tests,information criteria and cross validation. The application of these methods in…

  9. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-20 // 1996

    Option Pricing Using EGARCH Models

    Various empirical studies have shown that the time-varying volatility of asset returns can be described by GARCH (generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity) models. The corresponding GARCH option…

  10. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-19 // 1996

    Patents and R&D. An Econometric Investigation Using Applications for German, Europeans and US Patents by German Companies

    Based on the data of the first wave of the Mannheim Innovation panel,this paper explores the link between R&D expenditures and patents. Ourdata allow a detailed analysis of the firm size distribution of R&Dand…