Research seminar winter 23/24

Research

The Department of Econonomics of the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS) invites researchers to present and discuss their latest research in economics and management.

Our research seminar is Tuesdays from 17:00–18:30. On-site talks take place in room HS 212 ( CHU1OG2.286). Online talks take place on Zoom. If you want to attend the seminar, please contact Lisa Windsteiger.

24.10.2023 (on-site)	Title: Has Globalization Changed the International Transmission of U.S. Monetary Policy? Speaker: Maximilian Böck (Bocconi University) Abstract: We estimate a time-varying parameter vector autoregression to examine the evolution of in- ternational spillovers of U.S. monetary policy in light of increasing globalization in real and financial markets. We find that the actions taken by the Federal Reserve play a growing role in shaping global economic activity. The adverse international effects of a U.S. tightening have more than tripled over the past three decades, peaking during the Great Recession. Based on a cross-country analysis and counterfactual simulations, we argue that such amplification can primarily be attributed to the surge in trade integration, while the role of rising financial integration in explaining the time-variation is limited.
14.11.2023 (on-site)	Title: Algorithmic Cooperation ( PDF) Speaker: Bernhard Kasberger (University of Konstanz) Abstract: Algorithms play an increasingly important role in economic situations. Often these situations are strategic, where the artificial intelligence may or may not be cooperative. We study the determinants and forms of algorithmic cooperation in the infinitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma. We run a sequence of computational experiments, accompanied by additional repeated prisoner’s dilemma games played by humans in the lab. We find that the same factors that increase human cooperation largely also determine the cooperation rates of algorithms. However, algorithms tend to play different strategies than humans. Algorithms cooperate less than humans when cooperation is very risky or not incentive compatible.
28.11.2023 (on-site)	Title: Bypassing Sanctions: Hide ‘N Seek in Tax Havens? Speaker: Dominika Langenmayr (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) Abstract: Are sanctions bypassed by hiding money in offshore? Using bilateral data on bank deposits, we compare how offshore deposits from sanctioned versus non-sanctioned countries develop after the US and EU impose financial sanctions. Major financial sanctions reduce offshore deposits, in line with actors from sanctioned countries repatriating their money during crises. In contrast, sanctions against individuals increase offshore deposits, as (potential) targets attempt to hide their funds. We additionally analyze an example of such individual sanctions, imposed against Russia in 2014, using a synthetic control approach. Offshore deposits originating from Russia increase substantially.
5.12.2023 online	Title: Time Varying IV-SVARs and the Effects of Monetary Policy on Financial Variables Speaker: Massimiliano Marcellino (Bocconi University) Join the seminar ONLINE, 5:00 to 6:30 pm, on Zoom via this LINK Abstract: This paper studies estimation and inference of impulse response functions in time- varying structural VARs identified with external instruments. Building on kernel estimators which allow for non-parametric time-variation, we derive the asymptotic distributions of the relevant quantities. Our estimators are simple, computationally trivial and allow potentially weak instruments. Simulations suggest satisfactory empirical coverage even in relatively small samples, as long as the underlying parameter instabilities are sufficiently smooth. We illustrate the methods by studying the effects of monetary policy on financial variables in the United Kingdom. We find evidence that monetary policy has become more effective at influencing stock market prices, corporate financing conditions and medium term inflation expectations. In particular, responses to anticipated monetary policy and policies that affect long-term rates have been subject to strong time-variation.
12.12.2023 (on-site)	Title: Attitudes towards private and public debt – does language matter? Speaker: Andreas Peichl (LMU Munich and ifo Institute) Abstract: Previous literature has studied the effect of language on economic behavior. A key challenge for identifying the causal effect of language is that unobservable factors may mask the effect of language on individual decision making. We aim to understand whether language can causally affect people’s attitudes towards private and public debt. To do so, we provide different sets of empirical results: First, descriptive evidence along the German/French language border running through Switzerland, second, causal evidence from an online survey experiment in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, as well as in three English-speaking countries (Australia, UK, US). The experimental component of our research design consists of the randomisation of wording in our outcome questions about private and public debt. Exploiting the fact that the commonly used word for “debt” also means “guilt” in German, Dutch and Swedish, we analyze how respondents’ attitudes towards private and public debt are affected if those negatively connotated words are substituted with neutral ones. Our results confirm our main hypothesis that the use of neutral words triggers higher approval for private and public debt than the negatively connotated ones in German speaking countries while we do not find such effects in the three English-speaking countries. Finally, we provide evidence that language is strategically used in the political arena using natural language processing and machine learning techniques on parliamentary speeches in the German Bundestag.
9.1.2024 (on-site)	Title: Openness as an Organizing Principle: Between Inclusionary and Exclusionary Practices Speaker: Leonhard Dobusch (University of Innsbruck) Abstract: ‘Openness’ is increasingly propagated as an organizing principle, across more and more organizational domains – from open innovation and open data to open strategy and open science -, promising both gains in both efficiency and inclusivity. Revisiting practices of openness from a constitutive rather than a programmatic perspective, highlights the fact that those practices exhibit both inclusive and exclusive effects, questioning the straight-forward diversity promise of openness. Specifically, we can distinguish between (1) imported, (2) created, and (3) path-dependent diversity deficits in organizational contexts explicitly labelled as “open”. While some form of exclusion is unavoidable, a more constitutive understanding of openness as an organizing principle points to the inherently normative aspects of any form of open organizing.
16.1.2024 (on-site)	Title: Family policies and gender inequalities in the labor market: A tale of two countries Speaker: Josef Zweimüller (Universität Zürich) Abstract: We compare the impact of family policies on child penalties in Austria and Switzerland, two countries that have adopted very different family policies. Despite huge differences generosity, we find that the direct impact of family policies on child penalities is limited in both countries. The case of Switzerland provides an interesting laboratory to explore the potential role of gender norms. Using voting results from national gender-related referenda (women’s suffrage, introduction of maternity/paternity leave policies), we shed new light on the interrelation between gender norms, family policies and gender inequalities on the labor market.

Previous research seminars: Summer 2023, Winter 2022, Summer 2022, Winter 2021