J. Bitzer and E. Goeren, "The Impact of Foreign Aid on Local Development: A Grid Cell Analysis" Journal of Development Studies.
doi: 10.1080/00220388.2024.2377294
@Article{,
author = {Bitzer, Juergen and Goeren, Erkan},
journal = {Journal of Development Studies},
title = {The Impact of Foreign Aid on Local Development: A Grid Cell Analysis},
year = {2024},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2024.2377294},
}
E. Goeren, "The Persistent Effects of Novelty-Seeking Traits on Comparative Economic Development" Journal of Development Economics, vol. 126.
doi: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.12.009
@Article{,
author = {Goeren, Erkan},
title = {The Persistent Effects of Novelty-Seeking Traits on Comparative Economic Development},
journal = {Journal of Development Economics},
year = {2017},
volume = {126},
pages = {112-126},
month = {05},
abstract = {The issue of novelty-seeking traits have been related to important economic attitudes such as risk-taking, entrepreneurial, and explorative behaviors that foster technological progress and, thus, economic development. However, numerous molecular genetic studies have shown that novelty-seeking bearing individuals are prone to certain psychological “disadvantages” such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), leading to occupational and educational difficulties in modern societies. Using a recent compilation of DRD4 exon III allele frequencies – a particular gene variant that population geneticists have found to be sometimes associated with the human phenotype of novelty-seeking behavior – this paper advances a new country-level measure on the prevalence of novelty-seeking traits for a large number of countries worldwide. The results suggest a stable non-monotonic inverted U-shaped relationship between the country-level DRD4 exon III allele frequency measure and economic development. This finding is suggestive of the potential “benefits” and “costs” of novelty-seeking traits for the aggregate economy.},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.12.009},
keywords = {Novelty-seeking behavior; Entrepreneurial traits; Economic development; Natural selection; Biogeography; DRD4},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.12.009},
}
E. Goeren, "The Biogeographic Origins of Novelty-Seeking Traits" Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 37.
@Article{,
author = {Goeren, Erkan},
title = {The Biogeographic Origins of Novelty-Seeking Traits},
journal = {Evolution and Human Behavior},
year = {2016},
volume = {37},
pages = {456-469},
abstract = {This paper empirically investigates the evolutionary drivers of between-population variation of the human DRD4 exon III locus, a particular gene associated with the human personality trait of novelty-seeking behavior. Providing a novel compilation of worldwide DRD4 exon III allele frequencies in a large sample of indigenous populations around the world, this study employs population-specific biogeographic indicators to test the hypothesis of natural selection acting on the set of DRD4 exon III allele variants. The estimates suggest that migratory distance from East Africa and various population-specific biogeographic indicators, such as latitude, land suitability for agriculture, pasture land, and terrain ruggedness, contributed significantly to overall between-population DRD4 exon III polymorphism.},
keywords = {DRD4, Novelty-seeking behavior, Entrepreneurial traits, Biogeography, Out of Africa, hypothesis, Gene-culture co-evolution, Natural selection},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.04.005},
}
J. Bitzer and E. Goeren, "Measuring Capital Services by Energy Use: An Empirical Comparative Study" Applied Economics, vol. 48, iss. 53.
doi: 10.1080/00036846.2016.1173178
@Article{,
author = {Bitzer, Juergen and Goeren, Erkan},
title = {Measuring Capital Services by Energy Use: An Empirical Comparative Study},
journal = {Applied Economics},
year = {2016},
volume = {48},
number = {53},
pages = {5152-5167},
month = {04},
abstract = {From an engineering perspective, the service that a capital good provides is energy conversion – that is, the physical ‘work’ done by a machine. A capital good’s service can thus be measured directly by the energy consumed in production. We show important empirical advantages of this approximation over traditional measures. The empirical application reveals that this approach avoids a number of conceptual problems of the latter. Furthermore, this measure captures the utilization of the capital stock more accurately as it is more sensitive to fluctuations in economic activity. With a growth accounting exercise, it is shown that the differences between the new and the traditional measures are important for empirical work. Using the new measure yields significantly different results. Especially in times of global recession it provides higher and more feasible total factor productivity growth rates.},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2016.1173178},
keywords = {Total factor productivity, capital service, utilization rate, energy consumption, growth accounting},
owner = {Catharina Schramm},
timestamp = {2016.11.02},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2016.1173178},
}
E. Goeren, "How Ethnic Diversity Affects Economic Growth" World Development, vol. 59.
@Article{,
author = {Goeren, Erkan},
title = {How Ethnic Diversity Affects Economic Growth},
journal = {World Development},
year = {2014},
volume = {59},
pages = {275-297},
month = {07},
abstract = {This paper investigates the empirical relationship between ethnic diversity, polarization, and economic growth. Ethnicity is assumed to affect economic growth through a number of possible transmission channels that are generally included in cross-country growth regressions. This paper provides an extensive empirical analysis shedding light on the various sources through which ethnic diversity and polarization affects economic growth indirectly. It advances and empirically establishes the hypothesis that ethnic diversity has a strong direct negative impact on economic growth, whereas ethnic polarization has non-negligible indirect economic effects through the specified channel variables.},
keywords = {ethnic diversity, ethnic polarization, transmission channels, economic growth},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.01.012},
}
E. Goeren, "Consequences of Linguistic Distance for Economic Growth" Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, vol. 80, iss. 3.
doi: 10.1111/obes.12205
@Article{,
author = {Goeren, Erkan},
title = {Consequences of Linguistic Distance for Economic Growth},
journal = {Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics},
year = {2018},
volume = {80},
number = {3},
pages = {625-658},
month = {06},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12205},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12205},
}
E. Goeren and S. M. S. Krammer, "Wired In: Genetic Traits and Entrepreneurship Around the World" Technological Forecasting & Social Change, vol. 168, iss. 120788.
doi: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120788
@Article{,
author = {Goeren, Erkan and Krammer, Sorin M. S.},
journal = {Technological Forecasting & Social Change},
title = {Wired In: Genetic Traits and Entrepreneurship Around the World},
year = {2021},
number = {120788},
volume = {168},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120788},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040162521002201?via=ihub},
}
J. Bitzer, E. Gören, and Kruse-Becher Sanne, "Absorption of foreign knowledge: the impact of immigrants on firm productivity" Industrial and Corporate Change, vol. 30, iss. 3.
doi: doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtaa047
@Article{,
author = {{Bitzer, J{\"u}rgen and G{\"o}ren, Erkan and Kruse-Becher, Sanne},
},
journal = {Industrial and Corporate Change},
title = {Absorption of foreign knowledge: the impact of immigrants on firm productivity},
year = {2021},
number = {3},
pages = {706--739},
volume = {30},
doi = {doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtaa047},
url = {https://academic.oup.com/icc/article/30/3/706/6053707},
}
P. Biermann, J. Bitzer, and E. Goeren, "The Relationship Between Age and Subjective Well-Being: Estimating Within and Between Effects Simultaneously" The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, vol. 21.
doi: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2021.100366
@Article{,
author = {Biermann, Philipp and Bitzer, Juergen and Goeren, Erkan},
journal = {The Journal of the Economics of Ageing},
title = {The Relationship Between Age and Subjective Well-Being: Estimating Within and Between Effects Simultaneously},
year = {2022},
volume = {21},
abstract = {In this paper, we employ a correlated random effects econometric framework to simultaneously estimate the within and between effects of age on subjective well-being based on longitudinal survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). The proposed approach helps to explain differing findings on the relationship between age and subjective well-being reported in a series of studies based on cross-sectional and/or longitudinal panel data. We find empirical support for a wave-like pattern of subjective well-being over the life course. In contrast to the existing literature, our results point to significantly different life cycle patterns for the within- and between-person results. While the between-person results show robust turning points of age around the mid-40s and 90s, the within-person findings indicate that subjective well-being is rather stable between age 16 and 23 and then approaches a local maximum at age 75. We show that the type of variation employed in the empirical analysis (e.g., cross-sectional vs. longitudinal panel) of the age-well-being association has a non-negligible impact on the obtained results and the inferences drawn. Moreover, we do not find support of a U-shape association between subjective well-being and age. This finding holds even if we restrict the sample to those survey respondents aged 18–65 years, indicating that the age-well-being relationship is more complex than a U-shape would predict. A series of additional robustness tests corroborate our main findings.},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeoa.2021.100366},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212828X21000591?via=ihub},
}
E. Goeren, "Genetic, cultural, and historical determinants of knowledge creation" Macroeconomic Dynamics, vol. 26, iss. 7.
doi: 10.1017/S1365100521000092
@Article{,
author = {Goeren, Erkan},
journal = {Macroeconomic Dynamics},
title = {Genetic, cultural, and historical determinants of knowledge creation},
year = {2022},
number = {7},
pages = {1833--1890},
volume = {26},
abstract = {Knowledge creation has been a pivotal ingredient of endogenous growth theory to understand differences in standards of living across countries. Yet, the identification of key drivers explaining cross-country differences in knowledge creation still remains a topic of central interest in this research field. In this paper, I provide a framework to hypothesize and empirically test the persistent effects of novelty-seeking traits on cross-country differences in scientific knowledge creation. The results suggest a positive and statistically significant relationship between both outcomes that is consistent with the hypothesis that the prevalence of novelty-seeking traits in society facilitates scientific knowledge creation through beneficial human behaviors related to risk-taking and explorative behavior. The empirical findings remain qualitatively unaffected when controlling for additional historical, biogeographical, and socioeconomic factors that appear as additional important determinants in the creation of scientific knowledge in society.},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1017/S1365100521000092},
url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/macroeconomic-dynamics/article/genetic-cultural-and-historical-determinants-of-knowledge-creation/B15D0C0F573415B2D2D7F839785D90E6},
}
B. C. Dannemann and E. Goeren, "The impact of ADHD genetic risk on educational achievement: a comparative cross-national study" Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 75, iss. 1.
doi: 10.1093/oep/gpac019
@Article{,
author = {Dannemann, Bernhard C and Goeren, Erkan},
journal = {Oxford Economic Papers},
title = {The impact of ADHD genetic risk on educational achievement: a comparative cross-national study},
year = {2023},
number = {1},
pages = {1--34},
volume = {75},
abstract = {Human capital accumulation is a key driver of economic development across countries. Although previous studies have shown that country-specific circumstances (e.g., cultural, health-related, and educational factors) are strongly related with the accumulation of human capital in society, few studies have explored the importance of innate ability factors in general and ADHD-related behavioral symptoms in particular for cognitive skill outcomes. This paper hypothesizes and empirically establishes the educational burden of the ADHD-related behavioral symptoms on aggregate cognitive achievement outcomes. We use a novel compilation of the 2- and 7-repeat allele variants of the human DRD4 exon III gene that candidate gene association studies have identified as an important biomarker in the etiology of childhood ADHD. We find that our indicator for the prevalence of ADHD genetic risk in society has a negative and statistically significant impact on educational achievement. Additional sensitivity tests and estimation methods further corroborate our main hypothesis.},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpac019},
url = {https://academic.oup.com/oep/article/75/1/1/6574403},
}
E. Goeren and A. Winkler, "Statistical Capacity Matters: The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trade on Development Reflected by Nighttime Light Intensity" Journal of African Economies, vol. 32, iss. 4.
doi: 10.1093/jae/ejac020
@Article{,
author = {Goeren, Erkan and Winkler, Adalbert},
journal = {Journal of African Economies},
title = {Statistical Capacity Matters: The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trade on Development Reflected by Nighttime Light Intensity},
year = {2023},
number = {4},
pages = {383--414},
volume = {32},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejac020},
}
J. Bitzer, E. Goeren, and H. Welsch, "How the wellbeing function varies with age: the importance of income, health and social relations over the lifecycle" Economica, vol. 91, iss. 363.
doi: 10.1111/ecca.12528
@Article{Bitzer2024,
author = {Bitzer, Juergen and Goeren, Erkan and Welsch, Heinz},
journal = {Economica},
title = {How the wellbeing function varies with age: the importance of income, health and social relations over the lifecycle},
year = {2024},
month = jul, number = {363},
pages = {809-836},
volume = {91},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12528},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecca.12528},
}
A. O. Asare, B. C. Dannemann, and E. Goeren, "Locust Infestations and Individual School Dropout: Evidence from Africa" , Working Papers V-440-23, 2023.
@TechReport{V-440-23,
author = {Asare, Abigail O and Dannemann, Bernhard C and Goeren, Erkan},
title = {Locust Infestations and Individual School Dropout: Evidence from Africa},
year = {2023},
month = feb, number = {V-440-23},
type = {Working Papers},
abstract = {This paper examines the effect of desert locust infestations on school enrollment of children and young adults between 3 and 24 years of age. We combine individual and household survey data from the 2005-2019 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program with data on the spatial distribution of locust events in Africa. We show that months of exposure to locust infestations have a negative and statistically significant impact on individual schooling status. We find that individuals from farming households are affected more negatively by locust infestations than individuals from non-farming households. We also find that individuals from poorer farming households have a higher school dropout rate than individuals from wealthier farming households, highlighting the role of negative income shocks as a possible transmission mechanism for the effects of desert locust events. Our results also show that the estimated effect is amplified by the household’s head educational status. A series of additional robustness tests further corroborate our main findings. We provide a quantitative assessment of the impact of a permanent 1.5 C rise in global temperature on the frequency of locust events and possible implications for schooling outcomes over time. The results show that a 1.5 C rise in temperature will decrease accumulated years of schooling by about 1.2 years over a period of 10 years.},
keywords = {Desert Locust; Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program; School Enrollment;Income Shocks; Current Schooling; Farmers; Africa},
school = {University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics},
url = {http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-440-23.pdf},
}
P. Biermann, J. Bitzer, and E. Goeren, "The Relationship between Age and Subjective Well-Being: Estimating Within and Between Effects Simultaneously" University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-421-19.pdf, Working Papers V-421-19, 2019.
@TechReport{V-421-19,
author = {Biermann, Philipp and Bitzer, Juergen and Goeren, Erkan},
title = {The Relationship between Age and Subjective Well-Being: Estimating Within and Between Effects Simultaneously},
institution = {University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics},
year = {2019},
type = {Working Papers},
number = {V-421-19},
address = {http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-421-19.pdf},
month = mar, abstract = {Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we used a correlated random effects econometric framework to simultaneously estimate the within and between effects of age on subjective well-being. The proposed approach overcomes the ambiguity in the relationship between age and subjective well-being reported in a series of studies based on cross-sectional and/or longitudinal panel data. Our results suggest that a cubic-type functional relationship between well-being and age fits the data best, leading to highly significant coefficient estimates associated with the age variables, and consistent within and between effects of age on subjective well-being. A linear or quadratic functional relationship between well-being and age is not empirically supported, as the between and within estimates of age on well-being differ significantly from each other. The main findings are robust to the inclusion of a broad range of individual-level sociological, demographic, and economic controls, and to the inclusion of various interviewer controls such as survey experience, survey type, and interviewer fixed effects.},
keywords = {Subjective Well-Being, Life Cycle Happiness, Cohort Effects, Mundlak Approach, Correlated Random Effects, Fixed Effects, Between- and Within-Person Effects},
url = {http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-421-19.pdf},
}
B. C. Dannemann and E. Gören, "The Educational Burden of ADHD: Evidence From Student Achievement Test Scores" University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-408-18.pdf, Working Papers , 2018.
@TechReport{V-408-18,
author = {Dannemann, Bernhard C and Gören, Erkan},
institution = {University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics},
title = {The Educational Burden of ADHD: Evidence From Student Achievement Test Scores},
year = {2018},
address = {http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-408-18.pdf},
type = {Working Papers},
abstract = {This paper hypothesizes and empirically establishes the educational burden of the ADHD-related behavioral symptoms inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity on aggregate cognitive achievement outcomes. We use a novel compilation of the 2- and 7-repeat allele variants of the human DRD4 exon III gene that candidate gene association studies have identified as an important biomarker in the etiology of childhood ADHD. The main results show a negative and statistically significant association between aggregate international student achievement test scores and the DRD4 exon III 2- and 7-repeat allele frequency measure in a cross-section of 81 countries. This finding is robust to the inclusion of additional country-specific historical, cultural, socioeconomic, biogeographic, health-related, educational, genetic, and diversity factors. Additional estimates suggest the predictive power of the country-level DRD4 exon III 2- and 7-repeat allele frequency measure on cross-country differences of estimated ADHD prevalence rates, confirming the reliability of the proposed biomarker for the measurement of ADHD-related behavioral symptoms in the general population.},
keywords = {Human Capital, Cognitive Ability, Cognitive Skills, International Student Achievement Tests, Education Production Function, ADHD, DRD4 Exon III, Genetic Diversity},
url = {https://www.uni-oldenburg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/wire/fachgebiete/vwl/V-408-18.pdf},
}
J. Bitzer and E. Goeren, "Foreign Aid and Subnational Development: A Grid Cell Analysis" University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-407-18.pdf, Working Papers , 2018.
@TechReport{V-407-18,
author = {Bitzer, Juergen and Goeren, Erkan},
title = {Foreign Aid and Subnational Development: A Grid Cell Analysis},
institution = {University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics},
year = {2018},
type = {Working Papers},
address = {http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-407-18.pdf},
month = {03},
abstract = {We examine the impact of geo-referenced World Bank development programs on subnational development using equally sized grid cells with a spatial resolution of 0.5 decimal degrees latitude x longitude as the unit of investigation. The proposed grid cell approach solves a number of endogeneity problems discussed in the aid effectiveness literature that make it diffcult to identify the true effect of foreign aid on development outcomes due to the presence of unobserved heterogeneity, lack of key country-level controls, aggregation bias, simultaneity and/or the presence of reverse causality in the association between foreign aid and economic growth, measurement errors, and endogenous sample selection bias. The estimates reveal that World Bank foreign aid projects contribute signifcantly to grid cell economic activity measured by night-time lights growth. This finding is robust to the presence of unobserved country-year and grid-cell-specific unobserved heterogeneity, and to the inclusion of a full set of grid-cell-specifc socioeconomic, demographic, con ict-related, biogeographic, and climatic controls. Additional sensitivity tests confirm the robustness of the main findings to various econometric estimators, alternative model specifications, and different spatial aggregation levels.},
keywords = {Aid Effectiveness, Geo-Referenced Aid Projects, Economic Development, Economic Growth, Grid-Cell Analysis, GIS Data, Satellite Night-Time Light Data},
url = {https://www.uni-oldenburg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/wire/fachgebiete/vwl/V-407-18.pdf},
}
J. Bitzer, E. Goeren, and S. Kruse-Becher, "Absorption of Foreign Knowledge: Firms' Benefits of Employing Immigrants" University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/Absorption_of_Foreign_Knowledge.pdf, Working Paper , 2017.
@TechReport{test,
author = {Bitzer, Juergen and Goeren, Erkan and Kruse-Becher, Sanne},
title = {Absorption of Foreign Knowledge: Firms' Benefits of Employing Immigrants},
institution = {University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics},
year = {2017},
type = {Working Paper},
address = {http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/Absorption_of_Foreign_Knowledge.pdf},
abstract = {This paper uses Danish matched employer-employee data from manufacturing firms covering the period 2000 to 2011 to examine the impact of foreign knowledge possessed by the firms' immigrant workers on firm-level total factor productivity (TFP). We construct various measures of firm-specific foreign R&D knowledge variables that link firms' immigrant workers to their corresponding country of origin R&D knowledge stocks. The empirical results suggest that firms employing immigrant workers from technologically advanced countries benefit from higher firm-level TFP. This result is in accordance with the notion that immigrant workers facilitate firms' absorptive capacity through increased awareness of international R&D knowledge stocks. Additional results reveal that the estimated impact on firm-level TFP is larger for firms employing immigrant workers with the highest educational status and immigrant workers performing high-skilled occupational tasks.},
keywords = {R&D Knowledge Spillovers, Absorptive Capacity, Firm-Level Analysis, Foreign Experts, Immigrant Workers},
url = {http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/Absorption_of_Foreign_Knowledge.pdf},
}
E. Goeren, "The Role of Novelty-Seeking Traits in Contemporary Knowledge Creation" University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-402-17.pdf, Working Papers , 2017.
@TechReport{V-402-17,
author = {Goeren, Erkan},
title = {The Role of Novelty-Seeking Traits in Contemporary Knowledge Creation},
institution = {University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics},
year = {2017},
type = {Working Papers},
address = {http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-402-17.pdf},
month = {09},
abstract = {This paper hypothesizes and empirically establishes the persistent effects of novelty-seeking traits on crosscountry differences in scientifc knowledge creation. I use data on the prevalence of specifc allele variants of the human DRD4 exon III gene, which population geneticists have linked to the human phenotype of novelty-seeking behavior to examine its relationship to scientifc knowledge creation in society. The results suggest a positive and statistically signifcant linear relationship between both outcomes that is consistent with the hypothesis that the prevalence of novelty-seeking traits in society facilitates scientifc knowledge creation through benefcial human behaviors related to risk-taking and explorative behavior. The empirical fndings remain qualitatively unaffected when controlling for additional historical, biogeographical, and socioeconomic factors that appear as additional important determinants in the creation of scientifc knowledge in society.},
keywords = {DRD4 Exon III, Novelty-Seeking Traits, Entrepreneurial Activity, Knowledge Creation, Technological Progress, Economic Development, Natural Selection, Genetic Diversity},
url = {https://www.uni-oldenburg.de/fileadmin/user_upload/wire/fachgebiete/vwl/V-402-17.pdf},
}
