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The article examines the attitudes of German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe toward the monetary policies of his times, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The author surveys in particular how Goethe's assessment of paper money changed over time, specifically against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and their economic and financial effects. In this context, he also discusses Goethe's understanding of the causes of inflation, his dissatisfaction with Austrian fiscal and monetary policies during this time, and Goethe's advocacy against the introduction of paper money in the Duchy of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach in Germany, where he served as privy councilor, following his reading of an essay on the subject by Swiss economist Jean-Charles-Léonard Simonde de Sismondi.

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In recent years, municipal economic activities have undergone considerable changes. Particularly due to market access liberalization in many fields, services of general economic interest are no longer part of the undisputed realm of official bodies. Dividing tasks between privately owned, profit-oriented enterprises and public authorities has become a fundamental issue of governance. Moreover, static and fixed notions of how to assign responsibilities in these sectors may be not sufficiently resilient to respond to dynamic effects such as the volatility of markets. The paper discusses the inherent difficulties by drawing on a controversy in Germany in the field of waste management. German waste management law has long departed from just curbing risks that typically result from unorganized waste disposal. Pursuant to the Waste Disposal and Recycling Management Act of 1996, German waste disposal policies follow two equally important objectives. First, legal provisions are designed to ensure orderly waste disposal by public authorities, in practice by municipalities and local communities. Alongside this classic end of waste management regulation, the Waste Disposal and Recycling Management Act establish a system that is meant to allow for and encourage waste recycling. Under the current regime, privately owned companies are entitled to handle waste materials that could be utilized for any substantial purpose other than just disposal. One of the dividing lines between those two areas is drawn by Sec. 13 of the Waste Disposal and Recycling Management Act. The provision stipulates that waste collected from private households has to be ceded to "public disposal bodies", e.g. to municipalities. However, this obligation ("Überlassungspflicht") does not apply to cases in which (1) household waste can be properly disposed of by commercial collection, and (2) „predominant public interests" do not require transferral to public disposal bodies (Sec. 13 subsec. 3 No 3 Waste Disposal and Recycling Management Act). Since the price for wood has been rising over the last decade, profit-oriented companies have found it economically attractive to collect waste paper even from households, thereby reducing the margins of municipal waste disposal entities. Jurisprudence on the interpretation of the semantically vague language of the act ("predominant public interests") varied heavily, until the German Federal Administrative Court recently ruled that it is the municipalities' near-exclusive responsibility to take care of household waste, including waste paper. Taking case law into account as well as the latest amendment of the European Waste Directive (2008/98/EC), the article addresses the implications of the controversy with respect to goods whose essential regulatory features depend on external factors such as unsteady markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent discussion about the revision of German merger control underlines the relevance of media economic questions. This discussion frequently neglects the particularities of media markets, for example the mutual interconnection of advertising and media markets, i.e. of "two-sided markets". In this paper the impact of "two-sided markets" on mergers is analyzed. The results indicate that an intensive analysis of each case because of the heterogeneity of each market and a stronger economization of merger control would be useful. The basis for an economization could be quantitative analyses that are conducted using existing market data. The print media market is an example of the peculiarities of "two-sided markets" at which network externalities lead to pricing behavior that deviates from that on normal markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thought Experiments of Economic Surplus: Science and Economy in Ernst Mach's Epistemology. Thought experiments are an important element in Ernst Mach's epistemology: They facilitate amplifying our knowledge by experimenting with thoughts; they thus exceed the empirical experience and suspend the quest for immediate utility. In an economical perspective, Mach suggested that thought experiments depended on the production of an economic surplus based on the division of labor relieving the struggle for survival of the individual. Thus, as frequently emphasized, in Mach's epistemology, not only the 'economy of thought' is an important feature; instead, also the socioeconomic conditions of science play a decisive role. The paper discusses the mental and social economic aspects of experimental thinking in Mach's epistemology and examines those within the contemporary evolutionary, physiological, and economic contexts., (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

As an important fuel, hard coal shaped industrialisation. Due to its specific materiality, coal established different options for intertwining industry and resource. This paper concentrates on the one hand on the specific properties of coal and, on the other, on the economic and technological operations with coal. Using the example of the different material properties of coal from the coal districts of Inde and Wurm, these interrelations are examined and illustrate how a space of resource extraction could be arranged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The First World War was not only a military conflict but also an economic war. In all belligerent countries, labour and resources were shifted from civil production to military production. Factory workers, miners and farmers produced a steady flow of supplies for the frontlines. Financial mobilization provided the money for arms, ammunition, and other supplies. In contemporary understanding 'financial mobilization' comprised all fiscal and monetary instruments that were necessary to finance the war. The aim of this paper is to discuss the interaction between the government and the central bank in Germany in financing the First World War. Aspects include the pre-war plans for financial mobilization, the fiscal and monetary policies of the war years and their inflationary consequences, the financing of foreign trade and financial demobilization during the transition from war to peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Zeitschrift für Politik is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The volume of short-term liquidity credit (“Kassenkredit”) of the German municipalities has increased rapidly in the last two decades. This development suggests that this debt instrument has been diverted from its original purpose, namely as an instrument of bridging short-run liquidity shortfalls. In this paper we analyze the reasons for this development – from a legal and institutional perspective on the one hand, and from an economic perspective on the other hand. One key result of the analysis is that this development is partly due to the lacking intervention of municipal supervision institutions from the Länder (German Federal States). Obviously, the Länder tolerate the abuse of the Kassenkredit in order to avoid more open types of debt. In addition, we investigate how the introduction of the doubly-entry bookkeeping in the municipalities affects the (improper) use of short-term liquidity credits. Finally, we point to the potential of the municipal Kassenkredit as a loophole in the new German constitutional debt brake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift fur Wirtschaftspolitik is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyses the publication activities of German and Austrian research Institutes in the time period 1989–2000. We find that publication activities in these institutes have increased over time, but that only 49 (of 518) articles were published in “Top 30” Journals. There are also two distinct groups of institutes concerning publication activities. Furthermore, findings indicate that Austrian institutes contributed substantially to publications and show high productivity, but they could not keep up with the increase in the last years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper exact criteria are defined in order to identify a “fair” remuneration of the labour power. Due to this principle a point of reference is provided which makes it possible to refer to a “just” level of wages. Thus we are entitled to judge the factual pay as “too high” or “too low”. Finally an assessment of empirical evidence concerning the factor shares in Germany is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the main results of a survey, which we conducted in May 2000 among German-speaking economists about their views on economics publications. Our results indicate that the world market for economics publications is not fully integrated across countries, but it appears to be at least partially segmented. Economics journals published in German-speaking countries appear to be relatively important for the work of German-speaking economists even though other journals have a better reputation among them. And although internationally reputed journals enjoy the highest reputation among German-speaking economists, domestic economic journals enjoy a higher reputation than would be justified according to international citation-based rankings. Especially older German-speaking economists tend to attach relatively high importance and reputation to domestic journals, while younger economists tend to favour international journals that focus on certain subfields of economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attacks the widespread view that the latest (corporate) income tax reform in Germany was urgently needed to reduce the tax burden on the German economy. In the run-up to this tax reform, the public debate focused on nominal income tax rates and hence neglected the determination of the tax base. Empirical results on effective tax burdens in OECD countries show that a reform of German (corporate) capital taxation cannot be justified on the grounds of the tax burden. The international comparison of effective average tax rates shows that the corporate tax burden in Germany steadily declined from 1980 and was in 1996 lower than in most other industrialised countries. However, we argue that not only the actual tax burden but also the complexity of a tax system determines its international competitiveness. A German tax reform was – and still is – necessary due to the lasting complexity of the tax system and the relatively high tax burden on labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article on the German economist and sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) continues our pathographic and psychohistoric studies on the interrelations between his life, his illness, and his work on "Protestantic Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism". In a former paper (Frommer u. Frommer, 1993) we focussed on Weber's definition of modern society as an "iron cage" determined by Western rationalism. His theory, which shows that this cultural background demands a great amount of role conformity from the individual, converges with current psychopathological approaches on the personality of depressed patients. In the second article we report on results of our research on further personal documents, and some medical certificates by Weber's physicians. These documents demonstrate the diagnosis of a severe depression in a narcisstic and hypernomic personality.

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"This paper investigates the influence of politically determined wage rates on migration between Germany's new and old states. Apart from their direct influence on expected income and hence on migration, nominal wages affect migration indirectly by the unemployment they generate. Under reasonable assumptions the relation between nominal wages and migration is negative. The long-run influence of wages on capital accumulation and hence employment opportunities emphasizes that wage policy can be used either to control the long-run population stock or to stop migration immediately. That latter requires instantaneous wage-rate adjustments and initial wage-rate undershooting." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

The paper describes the performance of continuing education programmes of the Medical Advisory Services in Germany and explains the methodical background. Elements of conceptional structure comprise basic and advanced seminars, professional und special training courses. Realizations of this training concept are described with special regard to demand, utilisation and acceptance with prospects of future.

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Background: Patient data management systems (PDMS) enable digital documentation on intensive care units (ICU). A commercial PDMS was implemented in a 25-bed ICU replacing paper-based patient charting. The ICU electronic patient record is completely managed inside the PDMS. It compiles data from vital signs monitors, ventilators and further medical devices and facilitates some drug dose and fluid balance calculations as well as data reuse for administrative purposes. Ventilation time and patient severity scoring as well as coding of diagnoses and procedures is supported. Billing data transferred via interface to the central billing system of the hospital. Such benefits should show in measurable parameters, such as documented ventilator time, number of coded diagnoses and procedures and others. These parameters influence reimbursement in the German DRG system. Therefore, measurable changes in cost and reimbursement data of the ICU were expected.Material and Methods: A retrospective analysis of documentation quality parameters, cost data and mortality rate of a 25-bed surgical ICU within a German university hospital 3 years before (2004-2006) and 5 years after (2007-2011) PDMS implementation. Selected parameters were documented electronically, consistently and reproducibly for the complete time span of 8 years including those years where no electronic patient recording was available. The following parameters were included: number of cleared DRG, cleared ventilator time, case mix (CM), case mix index (CMI), length of stay, number of coded diagnoses and procedures, detailed overview of a specific procedure code based on daily Apache II and TISS Core 10 scores, mortality, total ICU costs and revenues and partial profits for specific ICU procedures, such as renal replacement therapy and blood products.Results: Systematic shifts were detected over the study period, such as increasing case numbers and decreasing length of stay as well as annual fluctuations in severity of disease seen in the CM and CMI. After PDMS introduction, the total number of coded diagnoses increased but the proportion of DRG relevant diagnoses dropped significantly. The number of procedures increased (not significantly) and the number of procedures per case did not rise significantly. The procedure 8-980 showed a significant increase after PDMS introduction whereas the DRG-relevant proportion of those procedures dropped insignificantly. The number of ventilator-associated DRG cases as well as the total ventilator time increased but not significantly. Costs and revenues increased slightly but profit varied considerably from year to year in the 5 years after system implementation. A small increase was observed per case, per nursing day and per case mix point. Additional revenues for specific ICU procedures increased in the years before and dropped after PDMS implementation. There was an insignificant increase in ICU mortality rate from 7.4 % in the year 2006 (before) to 8.5 % in 2007 (after PDMS implementation). In the following years mortality dropped below the base level.Conclusion: The implementation of the PDMS showed only small effects on documentation of reimbursement-relevant parameters which were too small to set off against the total investment. The method itself, a long-term follow-up of different parameters proved successful and can be adapted by other organizations. The quality of results depends on the availability of long-term parameters in good quality. No significant influence of PDMS on mortality was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the congress „The Marketization of Society: Economizing the Non-Economic," held June 1-2, 2012 at the Universität Bremen, Germany. Various papers are discussed including „Understanding the „Economization" of Social Formations" by Bob Jessop, „Marketization: Theoretical Reflections Building on the Perspectives of Polanyi and Habermas" by Alexander Ebner, and „The Economy, the Market and Exchange: Notes on Non-Identities" by Andreas Langenohl.

Copyright of Swiss Journal of Sociology / Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Kriminologisches Journal is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Schmollers Jahrbuch is the property of Duncker & Humblot GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Datenspeicher „Gesellschaftliches Arbeitsvermögen“ (Data Fund of Societal Work Power, DS GAV) of the GDR administration is a unique database from the 1980's that comprises a variety of entries on the socio-demographic and socio-economic traits, the qualification, and the employment of more than 7 million former inhabitants of the GDR. The DS GAV was built up and maintained in order to establish a more efficient human resource management in the centralized state economy of the GDR i.e., to guarantee controlled allocation of manpower and fluctuation of personnel between sectors and enterprises, but the potential of the project was most likely never used in a sufficient way. 15 years after the collapse of state socialism in East Germany, the DS GAV serves as a source for quantitative historical social research towards a sociology of GDR society. A research project on GDR elites and processes of societal differentiation which is part of the Sonderforschungsbereich 580 (Collaborative Research Center), Jena, Germany, uses the DS GAV among other databases from GDR times. The paper discusses historical background, data handling, exploration and first sociological analyses based on the DS GAV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The following article studies Martin Luther's contribution to modern economic thought as well as – by the same token – the monetary origins of the German Reformation. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Luther made a valuable contribution to economic theory, particularly with regard to the monetary situation of his age, mainly silver scarcity and related problems. Luther and other theologians and pamphleteers during the early Reformation never ceased to stress the problems that related to the scarcity of silver and the practice of hoarding of money – a concern found in older discourses as well as later economic theory of the modern age, up to twentieth-century ‘Keynesian' economics. The first section discusses those cornerstones of Luther's biography that are relevant in the present context (I.). The second section briefly discusses how modern economics has evolved into a very peculiar science and how Luther may be placed within it, if one shifts the focus from a somewhat skewed genealogy of modern theory (which has had little place for economic thinkers prior to Adam Smith) to a view that acknowledges that the formation of the modern or ‘mainstream' – neoclassical economics – was due to a very peculiar change in epistemology. This change only occurred long after 1800, but had precursors that date back as far as Luther and the medieval Scholastic theologians (II.). This section is followed by a discussion of Luther's basic „economics“ (III.), after which two particular components of Luther's economic „theory“ will be studied in the light of new research: the focus on greed (avaritia) as the desire not to give away, compared to a more traditional interpretation of this deadly sin as chrematistics (i. e. the desire to have more than one's due or fair share) (IV.).These findings will then be applied to a very peculiar element of Luther's theology: the indulgence critique that stood at the heart of his Reformation in 1517 (V.). In this way it will be shown that Martin Luther's Reformation had monetary origins, and that by his new interpretation of scripture, from which some essentially economic stances were derived, Luther also made a valuable contribution to modern economics (VI.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sozialer Fortschritt is the property of Duncker & Humblot GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article criticizes the book "Die versunkenen Schätze der 'Bom Jesus'," written by Dieter Noli and Wolfgang Knabe about the 2008 archaeological excavation of the wreck of the Portuguese trade ship Bom Jesus off the coast of Namibia. The author discusses the portrayals of 16th-century international trade in the book, offers additional information and corrections pertaining to the trade relations between Portugal, Germany, and India in that time, and examines the economic history of the international trade in spices and precious metals.

The author presents his views on the purpose of sociology in society as a whole. Exploring the interrelatedness of sociology with political science, public opinion, and economics, the author examines the varying popularity and impact of sociology publications on German society. Further comments are made concerning the reputation of sociology as a so-called soft science, the impact of the global financial crisis beginning in 2008 on sociology, and key historical developments in sociology.

The article explores the extent to which German entrepreneurship is opposed to an all-inclusive coverage of the unemployed, the reasons given for this opposition, and the impact on the job market. Claims of the contrary based on the book “Varieties of Capitalism,” are analyzed as well as general employer attitudes. Other aspects are discussed, including political economy, unemployment support, and employer interests. A list of relevant literature and sources, is included.

The article analyzes the law on executive directors' compensation in Germany. It provides an overview of the law, introduces economic theories concerning shareholder and agent relationships, and discusses the justification of the regulations, using D & O Insurance as an example. Economic consequences on the level of compensation are also addressed.

The article discusses the concept of social capital and its genesis and effects. The article analyzes components of both structural and cultural nature, and investigates social capital in Germany. Findings show that aside from personal factors, cultural, economic, and social aspects are to be considered. Further the impact of such aspects on the economy and overall quality of life are examined.

This article reviews the discretionary fiscal policy in Germany during the economic crisis of 2008/2009. After discussing the arguments for and against a fiscal stabilization program, I discuss several features a reasonable program should have. Applying those criteria to the German fiscal package, I find that while it satisfies most of them, it has two major flaws. First, the fiscal stimulus is likely to come too late, and second, the political marketing of the policy was disastrous. As a consequence the policy is likely to stabilize the economy in the second half of 2009 and in 2010, but did little to soften the initial blow of the recession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this article we examine whether or not the small size (in terms of population) of some German Laender (states) is harmful. The economic theory of federalism forms the ground on which we present empirical evidence, focusing on our own results for the German Laender. We find evidence that political decisions on federal level instead of Laender level cause preference costs, and so do decisions in big or merged Laender. On the other hand, economies of scale as an assumed advantage of big jurisdictions obviously do not influence the economic outcome very much. We do not find indications for strategic behaviour due to external effects either. Nonetheless, if external effects are regarded as a problem concerning "Stadtstaaten", they should rather be internalised by horizontal negotiations than by other instruments such as vertical payments or mergers between Laender. Hence, mergers of Laender do not seem to be a necessary precondition for decentralisation, which in turn is advisable as our results show. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the impact of EU structural policy on the economic development of German regions between 1995 and 2004. In this period East-German regions have converged, while regional disparities have been increasing in West-Germany. In addition East-German have caught up with poor western regions. However the overall gap between rich and poor has risen. Economic theory describes a trade-off between regional convergence and aggregate growth. Our empirical findings support this hypothesis. It is shown that the EU's regional transfers speed up convergence, but have a negative impact on long-run aggregate growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a panel of west German states ( ) for the period 1985 to 2002 we analyse potential effects of demographic change and political constellations on higher education spending, as suggested by recent literature on the political economy of the determination of public expenditures. We find empirical evidence for the hypothesis of a negative relationship between demographic aging and higher spending on public education. In contrast to the hypothesis of the classical partisan theory that implies higher public expenditures under leftist parties, we find that governments under conservative parties or a coalition between social democrats and conservatives spend more on public higher education than governments run by the social-democratic party alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Berliner Journal für Soziologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Economics and historical analysis have much to learn from each other, a fact more and more neglected in research and theory building, and especially in university instruction in German-speaking countries. The lecture tries to illustrate this by demonstrating that certain economic relationships like Gresham's law asserting that bad money drives out good with fixed exchange rates have been valid at least since Aristophanes. Similarly, it is also shown that the substitution of bad by good money(Thiers’ law) and that similar magnitudes of overshooting of exchange rates, given flexible rates, during high inflation, have been present for at least four centuries. These results refute the hypothesis asserted by some well-known historians that there can be no economic laws valid in different and distant periods of history. And second, the evidence proves the usefulness of putting the hypotheses of economics to the test of history. For instance the observation that the maximal overshooting of flexible currencies showing moderate inflations has been about 30% since the seventeenth century casts doubt on modern theories asserting that such deviations are a consequence of the huge increase of capital movements in recent decades. Moreover, many open questions in economics can only be answered by looking at events which occurred in earlier historical periods. One such question is at which rates of inflation Thiers's law begins to operate, since it obviously does not work at moderate rates of inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In knowledge-based economies the effective use of new knowledge is the most important determinant of economic growth, and the capacity to generate and diffuse innovation forms the basis of comparative advantages. Transaction costs are the main reason why new knowledge takes so much time to spread around. Since clusters attract new ideas more easily, transaction costs may also cause regional divergence. European diffusion policies should therefore aim to minimize transaction costs for exchanging knowledge. It is proposed that this could be done by supporting extra-legal contractual relations guaranteed by third parties and by building up a rating system for trustworthiness of transaction partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Berliner Journal für Soziologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)