Universitätspublikationen
Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (13523)
- Part of Periodical (3472)
- Doctoral Thesis (3307)
- Contribution to a Periodical (2163)
- Book (2063)
- Working Paper (1886)
- Preprint (1572)
- Review (1063)
- Report (909)
- Conference Proceeding (693)
Language
- English (17105)
- German (13880)
- Portuguese (231)
- Spanish (123)
- Italian (66)
- French (64)
- Multiple languages (59)
- Turkish (12)
- Ukrainian (10)
- slo (7)
Keywords
- Deutschland (132)
- COVID-19 (95)
- inflammation (93)
- Financial Institutions (90)
- ECB (67)
- Capital Markets Union (65)
- SARS-CoV-2 (63)
- Financial Markets (61)
- Adorno (58)
- Banking Union (50)
Institute
- Medizin (6589)
- Präsidium (5087)
- Physik (3415)
- Wirtschaftswissenschaften (2286)
- Gesellschaftswissenschaften (2016)
- Biowissenschaften (1753)
- Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) (1581)
- Biochemie und Chemie (1397)
- Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe (SAFE) (1391)
- Informatik (1381)
Fiscal policies and household consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic: a review of early evidence
(2020)
We review early evidence on how household consumption behavior has evolved over the pandemic and how different groups of households have responded to fiscal stimulus programs. Due to the scarcity of evidence for Europe, our review focuses on evidence from the US. Notwithstanding the institutional and demographic differences, we highlight generalizable findings and challenges to the design of stimulus policies from the pandemic. In conclusion, we identify several open issues for dis cussion.
We study the effects of releases from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) within the context of fully specified models of the global oil market that explicitly allow for storage demand as well as unanticipated changes in the SPR. We show that historically SPR policy interventions, defined as sequences of exogenous SPR shocks during selected periods, have helped stabilize the price of oil. Their effect on the price of oil, however, has been modest. For example, the cumulative effect of the SPR releases after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was a reduction of $2/barrel in the real price of oil after 7 months. Whereas emergency drawdowns tend to lower the real price of oil, we find that exchanges tend to raise the real price of oil in the long run. We also provide a detailed analysis of the benefits of the 2018 White House proposal to sell off half of the SPR within the next decade. We show that the expected fiscal benefits of this plan are somewhat higher than the revenue of $16.6 billion dollars projected by the White House.
There has been much interest in the relationship between the price of crude oil, the value of the U.S. dollar, and the U.S. interest rate since the 1980s. For example, the sustained surge in the real price of oil in the 2000s is often attributed to the declining real value of the U.S. dollar as well as low U.S. real interest rates, along with a surge in global real economic activity. Quantifying these effects one at a time is difficult not only because of the close relationship between the interest rate and the exchange rate, but also because demand and supply shocks in the oil market in turn may affect the real value of the dollar and real interest rates. We propose a novel identification strategy for disentangling the causal effects of traditional oil demand and oil supply shocks from the effects of exogenous variation in the U.S. real interest rate and in the real value of the U.S. dollar. Our approach exploits a combination of sign and zero restrictions and narrative restrictions motivated by economic theory and extraneous evidence. We empirically evaluate popular views about the role of exogenous real exchange rate shocks in driving the real price of oil, and we examine the extent to which shocks in the global oil market drive the U.S real exchange rate and U.S. real interest rates. Our evidence for the first time provides direct empirical support for theoretical models of the link between these variables.
The conventional wisdom that inflation expectations respond to the level of the price of oil (or the price of gasoline) is based on testing the null hypothesis of a zero slope coefficient in a static single-equation regression model fit to aggregate data. Given that the regressor in this model is not stationary, the null distribution of the t-test statistic is nonstandard, invalidating the use of the normal approximation. Once the critical values are adjusted, these regressions provide no support for the conventional wisdom. Using a new structural vector regression model, however, we demonstrate that gasoline price shocks may indeed drive one-year household inflation expectations. The model shows that there have been several such episodes since 1990. In particular, the rise in household inflation expectations between 2009 and 2013 is almost entirely explained by a large increase in gasoline prices. However, on average, gasoline price shocks account for only 39% of the variation in household inflation expectations since 1981.
In the wake of the global pandemic known as COVID-19, retirees, along with those hoping to retire someday, have been shocked into a new awareness of the need for better risk management tools to handle longevity and aging. This paper offers an assessment of the status quo prior to the spread of the coronavirus, evaluates how retirement systems are faring in the wake of the shock. Next we examine insurance and financial market products that may render retirement systems more resilient for the world’s aging population. Finally, potential roles for policymakers are evaluated.
Mehr Nachhaltigkeit im deutschen Leitindex DAX - Reformvorschläge im Lichte des Wirecard-Skandals
(2020)
Im Rahmen der Aufarbeitung des Wirecard-Skandals wird ebenfalls eine Änderung der Kriterien zur Aufnahme in den deutschen Leitindex DAX diskutiert. Die bislang von der Deutschen Börse vorgelegten Vorschläge zur Reformierung des DAX gehen in die richtige Richtung, sind aber nicht weitreichend genug. Es bedarf eines deutlichen Zeichens, dass sich künftig nur solche Unternehmen für den DAX qualifizieren können, die ein zumindest befriedigendes Maß an Nachhaltigkeit gemessen durch einen ESG (Environment, Social, Governance)-Risk-Score in ihrer Geschäftstätigkeit erreichen. Eine Simulation verdeutlicht, dass nach ESG-Kriterien seit langem kritisch betrachtete Unternehmen dem DAX nicht mehr angehören würden. Dies würde klare Anreize bei den Unternehmen setzen, Nachhaltigkeitsaspekte stärker als bisher in ihrer Strategie zu berücksichtigen. Letztlich kann eine Neugestaltung wichtiger Aktienindizes einen Beitrag dazu leisten, dass mehr Kapital in nachhaltig wirtschaftende Unternehmen und Sektoren fließt.
OTC discount
(2020)
We document a sizable OTC discount in the interdealer market for German sovereign bonds where exchange and over-the-counter trading coexist: the vastmajority of OTC prices are favorable with respect to exchange quotes. This is a challenge for theories of OTC markets centered around search frictions but consistent with models of hybrid markets based on information frictions. We show empiricallythat proxies for both frictions determine variation in the discount, which is largely passed on to customers. Dealers trade on the exchange for immediacy and via brokers for opacity and anonymity, highlighting the complementary roles played by the di↵erent protocols.
We relate time-varying aggregate ambiguity (V-VSTOXX) to individual investor trading. We use the trading records of more than 100,000 individual investors from a large German online brokerage from March 2010 to December 2015. We find that an increase in ambiguity is associated with increased investor activity. It also leads to a reduction in risk-taking which does not reverse over the following days. When ambiguity is high, the effect of sentiment looms larger. Survey evidence reveals that ambiguity averse investors are more prone to ambiguity shocks. Our results are robust to alternative survey-, newspaper- or market-based ambiguity measures.
Supranational rules, national discretion: increasing versus inflating regulatory bank capital?
(2020)
We study how higher capital requirements introduced at the supranational level affect the regulatory capital of banks across countries. Using the 2011 EBA capital exercise as a quasi-natural experiment, we find that treated banks exploit discretion in the calculation of regulatory capital to inflate their capital ratios without a commensurate increase in their book equity and without a reduction in bank risk. Regulatory capital inflation is more pronounced in countries where credit supply is expected to tighten, suggesting that national authorities forbear their domestic banks to meet supranational requirements, with a focus on short-term economic considerations.
The small photoreceptor Photoactive Yellow Protein (PYP) enters a reversible photocycle after excitation with blue light. The intermediate states are formed on timescales ranging from femtoseconds to seconds including chromophore isomerization and protonation as well as large structural rearrangements. To obtain local dynamic information the vibrational label thiocyanate (SCN) can be inserted site-specifically at any desired position in the protein by cysteine mutation and cyanylation. The label's CN stretch vibration is highly sensitive to polarity, hydrogen bonding interactions and electric fields and is spectrally well separated from the overlapping protein absorptions. During the course of this thesis it was impressively demonstrated that the successful incorporation of the SCN label at selected positions in PYP provides a powerful tool to study structure changes and dynamics during the photocycle and enhance the local information that are obtained by infrared (IR) spectroscopic methods. Hence the SCN-labeled protein mutants were studied under equilibrium (steady-state) and non-equilibrium conditions.
Examination of the SCN absorption by FTIR spectroscopy showed the influence of various local environments on the label for different locations in the dark state. The response of the label under illumination with blue light reveals information about structural changes in the signaling state. Additional information for both states were obtained by the vibrational lifetime of the CN vibration measured via ultrafast IR-pump-IR-probe experiments. This observable is particularly sensitive for solvent exposure of the label. Time-resolved IR spectroscopy proved to be an excellent method to follow the protein dynamics throughout most part of the photocycle on a hundreds of femtoseconds to milliseconds timescale. By close inspection of protein and chromophore dynamics in wildtype-PYP over nine decades in time, new insights into the changes leading to the proposed photocycle intermediates were obtained. The investigation of the SCN label allowed to follow the different transient structure changes with high local resolution. Depending on its position within the protein the response of the label provided additional information on the photocycle transitions.
The insights that are obtained by the different observables in the steady-state and by the reaction of the SCN label to formation of the different intermediate states during the photocycle contribute to an improved understanding of local, light-induced structure changes in the photoreceptor PYP. This comprehensive study demonstrated the potential provided by the application of SCN as IR label for investigation of protein dynamics.
In solid tumors, tumor‐associated macrophages (TAMs) commonly accumulate within hypoxic areas. Adaptations to such environments evoke transcriptional changes by the hypoxia‐inducible factors (HIFs). While HIF‐1α is ubiquitously expressed, HIF‐2α appears tissue‐specific with consequences of HIF‐2α expression in TAMs only being poorly characterized. An E0771 allograft breast tumor model revealed faster tumor growth in myeloid HIF‐2α knockout (HIF‐2αLysM−/−) compared with wildtype (wt) mice. In an RNA‐sequencing approach of FACS sorted wt and HIF‐2α LysM−/− TAMs, serine protease inhibitor, Kunitz type‐1 ( Spint1) emerged as a promising candidate for HIF‐2α‐dependent regulation. We validated reduced Spint1 messenger RNA expression and concomitant Spint1 protein secretion under hypoxia in HIF‐2α‐deficient bone marrow–derived macrophages (BMDMs) compared with wt BMDMs. In line with the physiological function of Spint1 as an inhibitor of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) activation, supernatants of hypoxic HIF‐2α knockout BMDMs, not containing Spint1, were able to release proliferative properties of inactive pro‐HGF on breast tumor cells. In contrast, hypoxic wt BMDM supernatants containing abundant Spint1 amounts failed to do so. We propose that Spint1 contributes to the tumor‐suppressive function of HIF‐2α in TAMs in breast tumor development.
Background: Patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) are at high risk for malnutrition because of tumour localisation and therapy. Prophylactic percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube placement is common practice to prevent malnutrition.
Objective: To investigate the benefits of prophylactic PEG tube placement for HNC patients in terms of the influence on patients’ nutritional status, utilisation rate, complications and to identify the predictors of PEG tube utilisation.
Methods: All consecutive HNC patients who underwent prophylactic PEG tube insertion between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2012 prior to therapy were enrolled. The PEG tube utilisation rate, complications, the patients’ nutritional status and tumour therapy were evaluated with the help of electronic patient charts and telephone interviews.
Results: A total of 181 patients (48 female, median 67.5 years) were included. The PEG utilisation rate in the entire cohort was 91.7%. One hundred and forty‐nine patients (82.3%) used the PEG tube for total enteral nutrition, 17 patients (9.4%) for supplemental nutrition and 15 patients (8.3%) made no use of the PEG tube. Peristomal wound infections were the most common complications (40.3%) in this study. A high Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS) score prior to tube insertion was found to be independently associated with PEG utilisation. No significant weight changes were observed across the three patient subgroups.
Conclusions: The overall PEG tube utilisation rate was high in this study. However, given the high rate of infections, diligent patient selection is crucial in order to determine which patients benefit most from prophylactic PEG tube insertion.
Aim: Our aim was to analyse the diagnostic workup of hospitalised infants with symptoms of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections.
Methods: This retrospective study was carried out at the University Hospital Frankfurt, Germany, from 2008 to 2017 on infants aged 4 weeks to 12 months presenting with neurological symptoms consistent with congenital CMV infections.
Results: We studied 117 infants, and workup data for CMV infections were available for 84%. Of these, 54% were immunoglobulin G‐ and immunoglobulin M‐seronegative for CMV or immunoglobulin G‐seropositive with no viral shedding. Congenital CMV infection was excluded in these cases. In 16%, the CMV workup was incomplete, precluding a definitive diagnosis. Dried blood spots (DBS) were requested from 30%. CMV polymerase chain reaction was negative in 19 of these 29 infants, and CMV deoxyribonucleic acid detection confirmed congenital CMV infections in six patients. DBS had been destroyed in line with German law in four cases. Congenital CMV infections were diagnosed (5%) or excluded (62%) in 67% of patients and unanswered in the remaining 33%.
Conclusion: Diagnoses of congenital CMV infections were widely considered and found in 5%. CMV was not stringently investigated in all patients or remained elusive due to German law on destroying DBS.
Aims: Heart failure (HF) leads to repeat hospitalisations and reduces the duration and quality of life. Pulmonary artery pressure (PAP)‐guided HF management using the CardioMEMS™ HF system was shown to be safe and reduce HF hospitalisation (HFH) rates in New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III patients. However, these findings have not been replicated in health systems outside the United States. Therefore, the CardioMEMS European Monitoring Study for Heart Failure (MEMS‐HF) evaluated the safety, feasibility, and performance of this device in Germany, The Netherlands, and Ireland.
Methods and results: A total of 234 NYHA class III patients (68 ± 11 years, 22% female, ≥1 HFH in the preceding year) from 31 centres were implanted with a CardioMEMS sensor and underwent PAP‐guided HF management. One‐year rates of freedom from device‐ or system‐related complications and from sensor failure (co‐primary outcomes) were 98.3% [95% confidence interval (CI) 95.8–100.0] and 99.6% (95% CI 97.6–100.0), respectively. Survival rate was 86.2%. For the 12 months post‐ vs. pre‐implant, HFHs decreased by 62% (0.60 vs. 1.55 events/patient‐year; hazard ratio 0.38, 95% CI 0.31–0.48; P < 0.0001). After 12 months, mean PAP decreased by 5.1 ± 7.4 mmHg, Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) overall/clinical summary scores increased from 47.0 ± 24.0/51.2 ± 24.8 to 60.5 ± 24.3/62.4 ± 24.1 (P < 0.0001), and the 9‐item Patient Health Questionnaire sum score improved from 8.7 ± 5.9 to 6.3 ± 5.1 (P < 0.0001).
Conclusion: Haemodynamic‐guided HF management proved feasible and safe in the health systems of Germany, The Netherlands, and Ireland. Physician‐directed treatment modifications based on remotely obtained PAP values were associated with fewer HFH, sustainable PAP decreases, marked KCCQ improvements, and remission of depressive symptoms.
Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of peri‐implantitis (PI) and peri‐implant mucositis (PM) in a long‐term follow‐up with comparison among different PI and PM definitions, and to report on the incidence of PI.
Materials and Methods: In a retrospective clinical study five different PI and PM definitions were applied onto a population with 274 implants 17 to 23 years postimplant placement. Recommendations by the Eighth European Workshop on Periodontology (EWOP) were used as base reference. Clinical and radiological measurements were considered. Risk factors were evaluated in a regression analysis.
Results: After an average observation period of 18.9 years, 40.1% of the implants were diagnosed with PM and 15.0% with PI (Eighth EWOP). PI incidence reached 7.9% on implant level and 13.2% on patient level. Implants diagnosed with PI and progressive bone loss displayed exceptionally vertical bone defect configuration (BDC). Diabetes mellitus, smoking, regular maintenance, or a former periodontal infection did not show significant influence on the prevalence of peri‐implant diseases. Patients with bruxism displayed significantly less PM and PI.
Conclusions: Vertical BDC seems to correspond with active PI, wherefore we estimate such a defining factor of importance. Diagnosis of PM and evaluation of probing pocket depths might be only of descriptive interest as they could lead to false‐positive results.