This study analyses empirically what patent characteristics matter for collateralization. In accordance with the finance literature, loan collateral is determined by the liquidation value of the asset which in turn depends on the three factors "physical attributes of the asset", "number of alternative users" and "financial strength of alternative users". Hence, the study is focusing on patent characteristics influencing the three factors of the liquidation value. To control for firm effects of the patent pledging firms, a treatment group of pledged patents and a comparison group of unpledged patents have been matched based on firm characteristics of the patent owner. The subsequent empirical analysis revealed that patent characteristics related to the physical attributes of patents enhancing their redeployability matter for collateralization. Patent characteristics related to the market liquidity measuring the financial strength of alternative users, are insignificant. Furthermore, the study confirms the additional function of patents as source of finance by offering them for loan collateral. Especially small and young firms, scare of tangible assets pledge patents for receiving debt finance.

Markets increase social welfare by matching willing buyers and sellers. It is important to understand whether markets are fulfilling their societal purpose and are operating efficiently. The prevalence of spatial arbitrage in markets is an important indicator of market efficiency. The two essays in my dissertation study spatial arbitrage and the behaviors of arbitrageurs Electronic commerce can improve market efficiency by helping buyers and sellers find and transact with each other across geographic distance. In the first essay, we study the effect of two distinct forms of electronic commerce on market efficiency, which we measure via the prevalence of spatial arbitrage. Spatial arbitrage is a more precise measure than price dispersion, which is typically used, because it accounts for the transaction costs of trading across distance and for unobserved product heterogeneity. Studying two forms of electronic commerce allows us to examine how the theoretical mechanisms of expanded reach and transaction immediacy affect market efficiency. We find that electronic commerce reduces the number of arbitrage opportunities but improves arbitrageur’s ability to identify and exploit those that remain. Overall, our results provide a novel and nuanced understanding of how electronic commerce improves market efficiency. Studying arbitrageur strategies will help us understand how arbitrageur behaviors impact markets by increasing/reducing spatial arbitrage. In the second essay, we study specialization strategies of arbitrageurs. Arbitrageurs specialize on asset type and sourcing locations. We investigate the role of specialization and find that specialization affects both arbitrage profits and arbitrage intensity. Subsequently, we find that specialization strategies evolve over time and different groups of arbitrageurs adapt differently based on behavioral biases and environmental factors. Overall, our findings support the predictions of the adaptive markets hypothesis and help us understand antecedents such as capital, arbitrage intensity, etc. which affect the evolution of arbitrageur strategy.

Rainfed agriculture is inherently risky, with climate change expected to intensify its variability. In the West African Sahel, where agriculture is crucial not only for subsistence but for national and household incomes through cotton production, the need to safeguard farmers' livelihoods against risk is essential. Formal crop insurance providers in such contexts cannot easily rely on traditional models, where indemnifications are based on realized losses, and have instead proposed a stream of index-based insurance products which indemnify clients based on a predefined, and yet objective parameter (the index). One promising product for Burkinabe cotton farmers is, the Double-Trigger Index-Based Insurance (2TIC), whose two-tier triggering mechanism has the potential of reducing moral hazard and minimizing basis risk. This dissertation uses three essays to consider a farmer-centric approach to assessing the implications of this double trigger mechanism for index-based insurance. The first essay explores cotton farmers' judgments of fairness vis-à-vis the 2TIC indemnification system by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Logistic Regression Analyses, and examines if and how these judgments affect decisions to subscribe. The second essay assesses the impact of 2TIC on farmers' cotton-derived net income by employing Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM). The third essay compares the actuarially fair premium of the 2TIC with the commercial premium paid by cotton farmers, by using statistical approaches. The study provides important evidence-based insights into how 2TIC can be improved and promoted by incorporating farmers' needs and perspectives.

In der Dissertation werden die Effekte von Offshoring auf dem Arbeitsmarkt eines Hochlohnlandes untersucht. Sie beinhaltet 3 voneinander unabhängige Studien am Beispiel Deutschland. Im 1. Kapitel werden die Lohneffekte von Offshoring untersucht. Dabei wird Arbeit nach der Komplexität seines Aufgabenspektrums unterschieden und Offshoring je nach Lohnniveau des Ziellandes eingeteilt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Offshoring nach Westeuropa zu relativen Lohngewinnen für weniger komplexe Jobs in Deutschland führt, während der Lohn komplexer Jobs negativ beeinflusst wird. Offshoring nach Osteuropa hat entgegengesetzte Lohneffekte. Zudem zeichnet sich ab, dass Offshoring nach Westeuropa mit einer arbeits- und nach Osteuropa mit einer kapitalintensiveren Produktion einhergeht. Das 2. Kapitel untersucht ausländischen Direktinvestitionen (FDI) deutscher multinationale Unternehmen (MNE) in Tschechien. Es wird analysiert wie sich die Beschäftigung verändert, wenn MNE Zugang zu “Niedriglohnarbeit” erhalten. Bei Verwendung des Coarsened Exact Matching und eines Event-Study-Ansatzes ergibt sich, dass das inländische Beschäftigungswachstum von MNE im Vergleich zu nicht-MNE abnimmt. Das betrifft im verarbeitenden Gewerbe vor allem Beschäftigte mit niedrigem oder mittlerem Bildungsabschluss und im Dienstleistungssektor Beschäftigte mit mittlerem oder hohem Bildungsniveau. Das 3. Kapitel basiert auf dem gleichen Daten, um die Auswirkungen von FDI auf die Nachfrage von bestimmten Tätigkeiten zu schätzen. Eine neue Methode schätzt Propensity Scores für FDI-Entscheidungen mithilfe von Lasso-Logit-Regressionen. Dabei wird gezeigt, dass Unternehmen mit viel juristischen oder organisatorischen Aufgaben eher zu FDI neigen. Nach einem Matching-Verfahren, werden in einem Diff-in-Diff-Ansatz die heimischen Nachfrageverschiebungen bestimmter Aufgaben untersucht, nachdem FDI getätigt wurde. MNE erhöhen typische Aktivitäten eines Unternehmenssitz, wie managen, analysieren oder verhandeln. Im verarbeitenden Gewerbe reduzieren sie zudem typische Aufgaben der Produktion wie das Überwachen von Maschinen, Herstellen oder Messen. Im Servicesektor werden hingegen typische Servicetätigkeiten reduziert, wie das Beraten/Informieren, Reparieren sowie medizinische Tätigkeiten. / This dissertation comprises 3 chapters that each contain an independent study on the labor market effects of offshoring from a high-wage source country, namely Germany. Chapter 1 includes an estimation of the onshore wage effects of offshoring to either low-wage Eastern Europe or high-wage Western Europe. Using a Mincer-type wage equation, the study shows that offshoring has substantially different wage effects with respect to the destination region of the offshoring activity and with respect to the complexity of task profiles of the affected jobs. While offshoring to the West puts pressure on the wages of complex jobs and increases the wages of simple jobs, offshoring to the East entails the opposite effect. Chapter 2 explores the onshore employment effects of German firms that conduct foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Czech Republic, a country with substantially lower average wages. Applying coarsened exact matching and an event-study design, the results exhibit that the onshore employment growth of multinational enterprises (MNEs) decreases relative to that of non-MNEs and that the worst affected are those with low or medium educational attainment in the manufacturing sector and with medium or high educational attainment in the service sector. The study in Chapter 3 uses the same dataset and adds detailed task information to the workers' occupations (such as managing, producing, or legal tasks). It is therefore able to provide insights into the changed task demand of German MNEs after their FDI in the Czech Republic. Methodologically, an enhanced matching procedure exploits lasso logit regressions to estimate the firms' propensity of FDI. It thereby shows that high task intensities of managing, administration, and labor legislation play a major role in firms engaging in international expansions in the near future. After matching, a difference-in-differences approach reveals the onshore demand changes of specific tasks after the FDI. Relative to non-MNEs, MNEs increase their intensities of typical headquarter activities such as managing, analyzing, and negotiating. In manufacturing MNEs, the estimates further reveal a reduction in typical production tasks such as monitoring, producing, and measuring, while service MNEs reduce typical service tasks such as informing, medical tasks, and repairing.