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This article analyses the role of the extensive vis-a-vis the intensive margin of labour adjustment in Germany and in the United States. The contribution is twofold. First, we provide an update of older US studies and confirm the view that the extensive margin (i.e. the adjustment in the number of workers) explains the largest part in the overall variability in aggregate hours. Second, although the German labour market structure is very different from its US counterpart, the quantitative importance of the extensive margin is of similar magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article extends Ball and Mankiw (2002) and applies the Hodrick-Prescott filter (1997) to estimate the time-varying NAIRU for Germany. The slope estimate of the Phillips curve is insignificant when the widely used lagged inflation rate πt-1 is selected as a proxy for the expected inflation rate. The average inflation rate in past 4 years is a better proxy for the expected inflation rate. Estimated NAIRUs with λ = 1000 show a steady rising trend. The estimated NAIRU of 9.84% with λ = 1000 in 2005 is slightly higher than the actual unemployment rate of 9.70% in 2005, suggesting that monetary easing or large deficit spending may cause the inflation rate to accelerate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, exits from the Catholic and Protestant churches have fluctuated considerably over the last 60 years. Much of the observable variation in these exits can be explained by exogenous shocks such as unpopular encyclicals by the Pope, German reunification, sexual abuse cases and financial scandals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]