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In several European countries, older unemployed people, after reaching a certain age, are entitled to unemployment benefit payments without having to seek new employment. The coexistence of this exemption clause and of reforms aimed at containing early retirement in the respective countries reflects a conflict of political aims – on the one hand, between an efficient labour-market policy at a time of high unemployment, and on the other hand, the goal of the comprehensive activation and labour-market integration of older workers as a response to demographic change. This paper deals with the reasons for the transfer of older long-term unemployed people on to ‘facilitated benefits’ for labour-market withdrawal in Germany. The empirical analysis shows that low or no propensity to work was rarely the motive for leaving the labour market; in particular, those anticipating a low retirement income actually wanted to be re-employed. The vast majority gave three reasons for the decision to retire: an inability to cope with requirements of available jobs; a lack of job opportunities; and an absence of proper support from the public employment agency. Thus the withdrawal of older long-term unemployed people into pre-retirement cannot be attributed to a utility-maximising decision in favour of leisure and against gainful employment, but is the primary result of the scarce re-employment prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A central prediction of a large class of theoretical models is that industry location is not uniquely determined by fundamentals. Despite the theoretical prominence of this idea, there is little systematic evidence in support of its empirical relevance. This paper exploits the division of Germany after World War II and the reunification of East and West Germany as an exogenous shock to industry location. Focusing on a particular economic activity, an air hub, we develop a body of evidence that the relocation of Germany's air hub from Berlin to Frankfurt in response to division is a shift between multiple steady states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the productivity development in the German public theater sector for the seasons 1991/1992 to 2005/2006. Using a stochastic distance frontier approach that allows decomposing total factor productivity change into different sources, we examine (a) whether Baumol's cost-disease hypothesis is valid in this sector and (b) if so, whether any negative influence of the cost-disease effect on productivity can be compensated by efficiency gains. The findings indicate an increase in real unit labor cost as a result of rising wage rates and thus do support the cost-disease hypothesis. Further, increasing returns to scale are observed for the majority of the theaters, implying that significant efficiency gains can be realized by the exploitation of scale economies. However, because of the increasing unit labor cost and an increasing scale inefficiency, we find an overall decrease in average productivity of about 8% within the sample period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 paper contributes to the discussion on the European current account imbalances by analysing the intra-European trends since 1990 based on the theory of optimum currency areas. The authors show that German unification was the origin of not only the 1992-93 EMS crisis but also rising intra-European current account imbalances since 1999 that led to the European debt crisis. They argue that a reduced German current account surplus is in the interest of German taxpayers to contain financial risk, but that it would also impose austerity on the rest of Europe unless money supply expands even further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Anxiety disorders are widespread in patients with chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This paper targets the cost-effectiveness analysis of a cognitive-behavioral group therapy (CBT) in comparison to a client-centered, supportive-experiential group therapy (SET) in arthritis patients with dysfunctional fear of progression. Methods From the societal perspective, direct costs were compared with the reduction of fear of progression over time. Means, their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), the incremental cost-effectiveness graphic and the acceptability curve were obtained using 1000 non-parametric bootstrap replications. Results A total of 174 RA patients were included in the economic evaluation. The estimated means (95% CI) of direct costs and reduction of fear of progression were, respectively, €7945.34 (5075.59; 11335.08) and 0.25 (−0.48; 0.99) for patients in the SET and 5619.25 € (3950.67; 7708.52) and 0.94 (0.29; 1.62) for patients in the CBT. As the majority of the cost-effect pairs after bootstrap analysis were located in the southeast quadrant of the cost-effectiveness plane, the CBT can be considered a dominant intervention. Conclusion The main result of our study is the higher cost-effectiveness of CBT in comparison to SET in RA patients with dysfunctional fear of progression. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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.)

Beginning with the current global and European imbalances and crises and consideration of the German reaction to them, the paper explores the political economy origins of the conservative German policy stance. It emerges that an export-oriented economy was a deliberate decision of the German elite after World War II and that the external constraint may be regarded as appropriately designed for internal discipline and efficiency in a self-reinforcing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we empirically derive the welfare function that guarantees that the current German tax and transfer system for single women is optimal. In particular, we compare the welfare function conditional on the presence and age of children and assess how recent reforms of in-kind childcare transfers affect the welfare function. Our analysis is based on a discrete model of optimal taxation. We apply this framework using microsimulation and microeconometric techniques. In general, we find that marginal welfare weights are relatively high for non-working single women. Further, we show that the reform of in-kind childcare transfers is only optimal if society increases the marginal welfare weights for the working single women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For much of the past two decades since unification, the literature on the German economy has largely focused on the erosion of the German model of organized capitalism and emphasized institutional decline and the corresponding rise of neoliberalism. The first part of the article analyzes the strains unification placed on German economic performance that caused many observers to call for modification of the model in a more neo-liberal direction. The second part takes a different focus and lays out the main rationale of the paper. It inquires why such a coordinated market economy was created in the first place and whether a renewed form of it might still be useful for Germany, the European Union, and other developed democracies in the early twenty-first century. The third section articulates the origins of the institutional and ideational components of these coordinated market economy models, during both the Bismarckian and Social Market Economy periods. The final portion inquires whether the failure of the contemporary liberal market economy approach in the wake of the worldwide financial crisis and severe recession represents a possible opening for the creation of a third coordinated market economy not only for Germany but for a redesigned European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper analyses the cost structure of pharmacovigilance in investigator-initiated clinical trials. A total of 24 cost estimates, which were provided by five different German Coordinating Centers for Clinical Trials, were included in the study. The highest costs were caused by the processes of Safety Management. At least 30% of the total pharmacovigilance costs were connected with the planning phase and 70% were connected with the implementation phase of a clinical trial. The analysis shows the importance of aspects of costing and funding at an early stage in the planning process. [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.)

This paper studies the redistributive effects of government partisanship on economic sectors in a parliamentary democracy. Based on a rational partisan perspective and policy-induced campaign contribution models, we expect that once in office, ideologically different parties deliver favorable policies to different industries in order to enrich their electoral and sector-specific supporters. Using daily stock market data, we empirically evaluate whether and how the mean and the volatility of returns to four important economic sectors covaried with the electoral prospects of a right-/left-leaning coalition in Germany from 1991 to 2005. This sheds light on the magnitude of sector-specific redistribution to be expected from ideologically different governments holding office. The results show that the mean and the volatility of defense and pharmaceutical sector returns increase if a right-leaning government is becoming more likely to win the upcoming election. In contrast, an increase in the probability of a left-leaning government triggers higher returns to the alternative energy sector and increases the volatility of consumer sector returns. Thus, our estimates partly support the idea that parties redistribute across sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge 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 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]

This paper aims to quantify the welfare effects of progressive pension arrangements in Germany. Starting from a purely contribution-related benefit system, we introduce basic allowances for contributions and a flat benefit fraction. Since our overlapping-generations model takes into account variable labor supply, borrowing constraints as well as stochastic income risk, we can compare the labor supply, the liquidity and the insurance effects of the policy reform. Our simulations indicate that it would be optimal to introduce a flat benefit share of 50 percent and a basic allowance that amounts to 30 percent of average income. Such a reform would yield an aggregate efficiency gain of 3.3 percent of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The persistence of economic and geopolitical conflicts beyond the 1990s has revived interest in explanations that analyse international conflicts in relation to capitalism. In this debate, many contributors have accepted one or another version of a strong globalisation theory, which reflects the hopes for an age of peace and prosperity as a largely co-operative process. This paper attempts to question this thesis by introducing an almost forgotten debate: the German world-market debate of the 1970s. This approach attempted to show how the general laws of motion of capitalism prevail under changing conditions. Furthermore it pointed to the existence of many states, which again and again reproduces the reality of multipolar competitive capitalism, albeit in changing forms. In the following we outline the central – sometimes diverging – insights, before subjecting them to a critical appraisal and identifying a number of points where the theses could be developed further. Taking up the threads of that debate without repeating its weaknesses could prove productive for today's discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which factors caused the growing international competitiveness of German mechanical engineering industry in the pre-World War I period? In this paper, we want to address this question and elucidate whether or not the international market success of machine builders in the German Empire was determined by technological creativity and the availability of a comparatively cheap labour force. Based on an unbalanced panel, we therefore investigate the influence of demand, labour costs and technological creativity on export performance of 32 different machinery types. We find robust evidence that the development of export–import ratios in mechanical engineering was positively influenced by the growth of patent stocks that represent the new knowledge being available for German machine builders. In addition, we present some evidence for the assumption that the growing international competitiveness of German mechanical engineering was also caused by decreasing relative unit labour cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental studies of expectation formation of subjects are predominantly limited to the prediction of one single time series despite the practical relevance of expectations in situations with multiple sources of information. In this paper, we report on an experiment in which subjects are given time series (indicators) as additional information for the judgemental forecast of a stationary time series. The quality and the number of these indicators are varied in three versions of a forecasting experiment. We explore the effects on forecasting accuracy and we test the average forecasts of the subjects for consistency with the rational expectations hypothesis. A simple heuristic is presented that explains the average forecasting behavior better than the rational expectations if indicators are presented to the subjects. It is demonstrated by a simulation study that this result is representative for the considered stationary stochastic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 studies the politico-economic reasons for the refusal of a proposed compulsory flood insurance scheme in Germany. It provides the rationale for such a scheme and outlines the basic features of a market-orientated design. The main reasons for the political rejection of this proposal were the misperceived costs of a state guarantee, legal objections against a compulsory insurance, distributional conflicts between the federal government and the German states on the implied administrative costs and the well known charity hazard of ad hoc disaster relief. The focus on pure market solutions proved to be an ineffective strategy for policy advice in this field. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two phenomena make the distinction between services and manufacturing obsolete: the tertiarization of manufacturing and the introduction of information technologies in service industries. Competitiveness of manufacturing firms increasingly depends on the quality of service inputs and on packages of goods and services. Information and communication technologies introduce ‘industrial’ processes of production in service industries. Hence, it does not make sense any more to use categories such as ‘services’ or ‘manufacturing’. Instead, it would be more meaningful to group economic activities according to input configurations. This paper will discuss these issues in the context of the supposed German ‘service gap’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German educational spending per student has dramatically declined since the early 1970s. In this paper, we develop a theory of fiscal opportunism and argue that state governments exploit higher educational policies as an instrument of active labour market policy. By 'opening' universities to the masses and the extensive propagation of broader university enrolment during times of economic distress, state governments have an instrument at their disposal for lowering unemployment without generating negative budgetary implications. Thereby, the government pockets voter support not only by diminishing unemployment, but also by providing public goods particularly to the socially disadvantaged. At the same time, the state government risks a deterioration of educational quality owing to decreasing educational spending per student. We test our theoretical claims for the German states in a period ranging from 1975 to 2000 by means of panel fixed-effects models. The empirical results robustly support the hypothesis that rising unemployment ratios lead to increased university enrolment, but also significantly reduce the spending per student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on studies of return predictability of stock indexes of blue-chip firms and high-technology firms in Germany, France and the UK during the second half of the 1990s. Return predictability was measured in terms of first-order autocorrelation coefficients, and evidence was found for the return predictability of stock indexes of high-technology firms, but not for the return predictability of stock indexes of blue-chip firms. These findings suggest that a candidate for explaining the economic sources of the return predictability of these stock indexes of high-technology firms is transaction costs in the form of the costs of gathering and processing information in new technological fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the determinants of German exports to the euro area, which is the biggest market for German products. Three conditional error-correction models based on regionally disaggregated data are developed. One specification includes EMU industrial production and a real external value based on consumer prices, the other two use different EMU investment aggregates, the corresponding real external values and a proxy for European market integration to explain exports. The models perform equally well in a number of diagnostic tests. For short-term forecasts, however, the model using industrial production seems to be the best, since it outperforms the other models in terms of one-step ahead out-of-sample forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In pursuing an historical and comparative approach, the article aims at exploring the relation between local government and ‘local community’. For comparative purposes, the paper draws primarily on the UK/England, Germany and Sweden as pertinent examples. The explicitly historical approach of the article promises to recognise (and perhaps even rediscover) the distinct and, at the same time, symbiotic and dialectic development and relation which have existed between local government and local community throughout their evolution—from the ‘founding period’ of modern local government during the 19th century, through its development under the (centralised) welfare state in the (mid) 20th century, to the present-day. The historically educated perception should be helpful to identify and assess the dynamics and perspective of the recent ‘rise’ of the local (political, social and economic) community and its impact on redefining and recalibrating the relation and balance between local government and what, in the current social science debate, is called ‘governance’—with the ‘re-emerging’ local community and its manifold political, social and economic actors becoming part-and-parcel of the expanding and multiplying networks of (non-public) actors that are captured under the term and concept ‘governance’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of F.B.W. Hermann's Staatswirthschaftliche Untersuchungen and of major German, Austrian and Swedish contributions to public economics, two specific claims with regard to the Germanic influence in the development of public expenditure theory are put forward in this paper. It is contended that the German achievements concerning the conceptual clarification of public goods are: (i) important as conceptual ingredients of the modern ‘micro-based’ theory of the public sector: (ii) less closely linked to some historical and intellectual German Sonderweg (culminating in historism, a collectivistic view of social entities and a mystical glorification of the State) than is often suggested. It is argued that these achievements rather were to a large extent inspired by the more cosmopolitan tendencies in German thought. An important influence is Kantian liberalism. Kant construed a kind of foundational interdependence between the public and the private sector. This prepares the ground for a framework of complementary institutions instead of explaining public institutions in terms of a market failure-perspective based on non-excludability: the view developed in German Idealism gives non-rivalry the pivotal role: the explanation of public institutions systematically hinges upon the existence of goods, the benefits of which are necessarily universal and hence are necessarily made available in a non-rival mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that migration studies are too parochial, focusing exclusively on ostensible immigration and incorporation policies and failing to take into account the ‘structuring’ effects of the overall institutional framework. The need for more comparative and more economically-oriented research is presented through a reflection upon the recent Dutch debate on the causes of the lagging performance of Turks in the Netherlands compared to those in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the German cinema market using time series data covering the period 1950–2002. Applying estimation techniques such as OLS, 2SLS and SUR, we identify interrelations between the number of seats, the average real prices and the demand for movies per capita. Furthermore, we test for the long-run relationship between demand, prices and real income and estimate the elasticity of demand with respect to these variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to counter the view that Marshall was an opponent of the historical school. This false account has survived and prospered because it has fitted into more general conceptions of intellectual history, held by both orthodox and heterodox economists. Design/methodology/approach - Marshall's affinity with the historical school is established by examining his writings and his relationship with historical school sympathisers in the UK. Findings - It is established that Marshall regarded his work as building on historical school insights, and he repeatedly referred positively to the ideas of the German historical school. It is argued in this paper that Marshall's opposition to the historical school was confined to its anti-theoretical wing, principally Cunningham. In other important respects Marshall's position was compatible with German and British historicism. Originality/value - In preceding literature, Marshall's affinities with the historical school have been denied, unacknowledged, or unexplored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kronthaler F. (2005) Economic capability of East German regions: results of a cluster analysis, Regional Studies 39 , 739–750. This paper analyses the economic capability of East German regions compared with West German regions. Based on new growth theory and new economic geography, and using relevant empirical literature, regions are clustered according to a set of growth factors. The clustering results find little evidence that the economic capability of East German regions is already comparable with West German regions. Economic disadvantages are particularly rooted in lower technical progress, a lack of entrepreneurship, lower business and industrial concentration, and a loss of human capital. However, there are a few East German regions with a high economic capability, but even those suffer from economic disadvantages such as lower technical progress, lower industrial activity and a poorer regional accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In comparative political economy it has become commonplace to distinguish between two types of corporate governance systems. In shareholder systems, influence over company management is concentrated with institutional investors holding small percentages of companies' shares. In stakeholder systems, influence is shared between large shareholders, employees, the community and suppliers and customers. This paper contributes to the literature addressing recent changes in the German variant of the stake-holder system by proposing a few new concepts. On the level of institutions, it is argued that the stakeholder system is not being replaced by a shareholder system in Germany. Rather, an augmented stakeholder system is emerging through the inclusion of institutional investors in the old stakeholder coalition of interests. On the level of practice, it is argued that negotiated shareholder value is being adopted in Germany. This German variant of shareholder value is distinct from Anglo-American practice because major changes implementing shareholder value must be negotiated within the augmented stakeholder coalition. As a result, performance incentives for employees tend to be less strong than is the case in the USA and UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses economic, political and national institutional explanations for continued resistance to the multidivisional form in France, Germany and the United Kingdom during the 1980s and 1990s. It finds that the economics of different diversification strategies play a significant but changing role in the structural choices of large corporations. The political interests of personal, banking and government owners are exercised variably. There remain strong national influences on structural choices, with resistance to the multidivisional form particularly pronounced in Germany. Overall, our results call for an increased contextual sensitivity in management research while acknowledging the possibility of convergent processes in business organization, represented here by the slow progress of the multidivisional firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many regions have experienced long-run economic fluctuations generated by the life cycles of their dominant industrial clusters. During the downswings in the 1970s and 1980s, proactive structural policies were typically launched in German regions to combat job losses in their core clusters and to create new jobs in new industries. With respect to the German State of Bremen, this paper provides empirical evidence of: (1) a long-run regional downswing; (2) the potential job effects of proactive regional industrial policy programmes in terms of increasing regional employment, by safeguarding jobs in the regional core industries and creating new jobs in new growth industries; and (3) a time pattern in the job effects, which are related to the different generations of programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Copyright of Kyklos is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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.)

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 discusses the past and future economic situation of Berlin in the German city system. Comparing the shares of employment in various service sectors of total employment in Germany from 1939 to 1997 shows the significant changes in the role as a metropolis. Berlin has lost its dominant position as a consequence of isolation from international development for 40 years. Despite successful expansion and restructuring processes in superregionally oriented services, Berlin is still behind the West German economic centers. Futureoriented perspectives for Berlin cannot be found in a regaining of lost functions, but in developing new fields of international service functions. Berlin's potential therefore is its cultural diversity as a context for productive innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economists began to conceptualize average total cost functions during the early decades of the twentieth century. But a century before, a German music publishing firm calculated and used in its internal decision making output-dependent average cost estimates for two methods of printing sheet music. Plainly, the printing processes entailed fixed setup costs and then the variable costs associated with labor, paper, ink, wiping cloths and spoilage. The first known volume-dependent average cost function mentioned in the formal literature of economics was by another railroad engineer. In the important theoretical developments emerging toward the end of the 19th century, marginal cost functions continued to be emphasized, and average, costs neglected, by neo-classicists. The concept of volume-dependent average costs began to enter the mainstream of economic theory only as the twentieth century dawned; it was fully integrated three decades later. The received economic literature traces the first real-world application of the concept to the 1880s. His example from the field of music publishing turns the practical application clock back by eight decades.

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]

INTRODUCTION The availability of lower-cost cigarettes in neighboring countries provides price-sensitive smokers with incentives to purchase cheaper out-of-country cigarettes. This study estimates the prevalence of and factors associated with cross-border purchasing of cheaper cigarettes among smokers from Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Spain. The prevalence of cross-border purchasing was estimated by residential location, defined as living in regions bordering a lower-price country (where prices were at least €1/pack lower), regions bordering a similar- or higher-price country, and internal non-border regions. METHODS Data were from a survey of nationally representative samples of adult smokers (n=6011) from Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Spain. The primary outcome was purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in the previous six months. Residential location was defined using The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS2 in Germany and NUTS3 in the other countries). Multivariable logistic regression tested differences in purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes by country and residential location. RESULTS Residential location was associated with purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in Germany and Poland (p<0.05): 31% of German and 11% of Polish smokers living in regions bordering lower-price countries reported purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in the previous six months. Smokers living in regions bordering lower-price countries had 4.21 times greater odds of purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes compared to smokers living in non-border regions. CONCLUSIONS Overall, only a minority of smokers in the six countries purchased cheaper cigarettes outside their country. However, smokers living in regions bordering countries where cigarettes were at least €1/pack lower than their home country had significantly higher odds of purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes. This effect was especially prominent among German smokers. Tax harmonization policies designed to minimize crossborder price differentials can eliminate lower-priced alternatives for price-sensitive smokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the book "Private Action and the Public Good," edited by Walter W. Powell and Elizabeth S. Clemens. The book describes twenty papers which contribute to an understanding of the nonprofit mission and its performance. These papers discuss the contested nature of the public good; the public good as a social and cultural project; the meaning of altruism; the religious ethic and the spirit of nonprofit entrepreneurship; institutional form and organizational behavior; external influences and the comparative performance of public, for-profit, and private nonprofit organizations; the quality of day care for children in Canada, by auspice; parental perceptions about the quality of day care centers in comparison with actual differentials in the industry by organizational form; nonprofit in the political economy; government nonprofit collaboration in Germany and the U.S.; nonprofit organizations and the welfare state in France.

The article evaluates the journal "Economics," which reports results of German research studies in the field of economics, published biannually by the Institute for Scientific Cooperation.

Given the scarcity of resources, an economic approach is necessary in order to determine an optimal strategy of adaptation to climate change. In this paper we develop an economic framework for the study of adaptation which allows distinguishing between decentralized adaptation by private agents, on the one hand, and centralized adaptation measures by the government, on the other hand. The paper is in two parts: in the first we present the neoclassical view of adaptation policy, which is based on the paradigm of market failure. In the second part we deal with challenges and complements of the neoclassical view arising from the introduction of equity principles, security of supply concerns, and a polycentric approach to the provision of public goods. The analysis is illustrated with examples of adaptation measures in Germany. [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.

Presents information on the use of the mean-variance (MV) portfolio model to test the quarterly wealth of the German private sector. Examination of the MV model; What empirical work on financial markets has established; Factors contributing to the consistently poor performance of the MV model; How the system of asset demand equations is derived; Findings of the test.

This paper discusses the extent to which the so-called German Keynesians, in particular Lautenbach, Neisser and Röpke, can be credited with anticipating the key theoretical elements of the Keynesian revolution. After justifying the choice of these three economists as representatives of German Keynesianism the theoretical foundations of expansionist programmes, in particular the distinction between primary and secondary depression are examined. A list of crucial elements of Keynes's General Theory is then established, which is used in the main section for testing the claim of anticipations. The conclusion is that the policy prescriptions were based on different foundations so that with regard to theory such a claim is not warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JENSEN-BUTLER C. and MADSEN B. (1999) An eclectic methodology for assessment of the regional economic effects of the Femern belt link between Scandinavia and Germany, Reg. Studies 33, 751–768. The paper describes a theoretically eclectic methodology developed for assessment of the regional economic effects of the proposed fixed link between Denmark and Germany, across the Femern Belt. The methodology is compared with alternative modelling frameworks. Estimates of the regional economic effects of this fixed link are presented, including evaluation of the synergy effects of this link seen in relation to two other fixed links in the Western Baltic. The short and medium term regional economic effects of this infrastructure investment appear to be limited and perhaps greater in regions somewhat more distant from the link. JENSEN-BUTLER C. et MADSEN B. (1999) Une méthodologie éclectique pour évaluer les retombées économiques régionales du Chenal de Femern qui va relier la Scandinavie et l'Allemagne, Reg. Studies 33, 751-768. Cet article présente une méthodologie théoriquement éclectique qui a été développée afin de permettre une évaluation des retombées économiques régionales de la liaison fixe qui va relier le Danemark et l'Allemagne à travers le Chenal de Femern. La méthodologie se voit comparer à d'autres structures de modélisation. On présente des estimations des retombées économiques régionales de cette liaison fixe, y compris une évaluation de la synergie de cette liaison par rapport à deux autres liaisons fixes situées dans la Baltique occidentale. Il semble que les retombées économiques régionales à moyen terme de cet investissement sont limitées et sont d'autant plus importantes que les régions sont plus éloignées de la liaison. JENSEN-BUTLER C. und MADSEN B. (1999) Eine eklektische Methodik zur Einschätzung regionalwirtschaftlicher Auswirkungen der Fehmarn Beltverbindung zwischen Skandinavien und Deutschland, Reg. Studies 33, 751–768. Dieser Aufsatz beschreibt eine theoretisch eklektische Methodik, die zur Einschätzung der regionalwirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der geplanten festen Verbindung zwischen Dänemark und Deutschland über den Fehmarn Belt entwickelt worden ist. Die Methodik wird mit alternativen Rahmenmodellen verglichen. Es werden Schätzungen der regionalwirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen dieser festen Verbindung vorgelegt, einschließlich der Bewertung synergetischer Wirkungen dieser Verbindung in bezug auf zwei andere feste Verbindungen in der westlichen Ostsee. Die mittelfristigen regionalwirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen dieser infrastrukturellen Investierung scheinen begrenzt zu sein, jedoch möglicherweise größer in Gebieten, die weiter von der Verbindung entfernt liegen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]