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This paper examines the relationship between the development of the aggregate bond markets and real GDP in 13 highly developed economies. The recent interest in the ties between the real and the financial sector has usually been on the banking sector and the stock markets, rather ignoring the bond markets as a third essential source of external finance. We fill this gap by providing empirical evidence for causality patterns supporting the supply-leading approach in the USA, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Spain over the 1950 to 2000 period. In the cases of Japan, Finland and Italy we find evidence of interdependence between bond market capitalization growth and real output growth. Granger causality test and co-integration approach are employed to support this conjecture. (author's abstract), Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Repatriates are mostly an underestimated resource within a company. Repatriates could contribute to sustained competitive advantage of firms as a rare and imperfectly imitable resource, if firms would fully employ their knowledge. In extant literature, we find four major categories of expatriate knowledge: market specific knowledge, personal skills (Adler 2000, Antal 2000, Downes/Thomas, 1999, Kühlmann/Stahl 1995), job related management skills, and network skills (Antal 2000, Downes/Thomas 1999, Kühlmann/Stahl 1995). In an explorative qualitative case study in Austrian commercial banks, we collected data about the knowledge acquired by expatriates using narrative interview techniques. From the perspective of the interviewed repatriates, the existent categories could be confirmed and an additional category of importance was found that so far was not identified in the literature: the general management capacity of expatriates was substantially enhanced during their assignment abroad.

Many countries are going through severe transitions as they move from one system of economic management to another, experiencing a traumatic state which we term collective culture shock. Taking a cue from psychology, we suggest that collective culture shock can be seen as comprising four components: integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalisation. The movement towards free market economic systems calls for complex institutional adjustments, but these seem very difficult for societies to introduce in a systematic way. In order to exemplify collective culture shock, we examine four countries (including one country group): Russia, East Central Europe, South Africa, and Japan. Our treatment of these countries will show how collective culture shock is the product of complex economic, social and political forces specific to each situation. We hope to demonstrate that the phenomenon of collective culture shock is an important conceptual tool for managers responsible for international business strategy to help them to understand the complexities of change - or rather resistance to change - in transitional economies. (author's abstract), Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Without doubt a well-developed financial sector is related to efficient resource allocation and growth, but there is modest consensus on the direction of that link, on the notion of what is meant by "well developed", on which subset of the financial market is crucial and thus which organisational set-up provides optimal returns for both architects and market participants alike. With sluggish growth, torn down market barriers and systemic change in the EU accession countries the direction, magnitude, sustainability, institutional set-up of the finance-growth nexus (and which), becomes one of the core issues of both macroeconomic theory and practice. This paper reviews the economic theory available, provides a well structured overview of 54 empirical studies conducted since 1964, sets the stage for constructing a data base encompassing the major three segments of financial markets (stock, bond and bank credit) and provides the methodological background for combining cross-country production function and time-series approaches in order to answer the following questions: (1) What is the direction of the finance-growth nexus, (2) which segment of the financial sector drives whatever nexus there is, and (3) what are the features of a growth supportive financial architecture., Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

The Usage of the magnetic resonance imaging (mri) technique to determine material properties inside a body without destroying the corpus is a major advantage of this method. In this context the aim of mapping local stiffness in a body and representing it in form of an image is commonly refered to as ‘mr-elastography’. This can be accomplished by observing an induced mechanical wave passing through the material. Here it is necessary to measure the local motions spacially resolved and to interpret these displacement data in terms of local stiffness utilizing a model. The local motion itself can be regarded as a periodic and cyclical one whose average displacement is zero. Using appropriate oscillating magnetic field gradients {G (t)} in the mri experiment allows to utilize this periodicity to gain in sensitivity for small amplitudes of local periodic motions. To point out the possible fields of application for these oscillating gradients in mr-elastography and to verify these experimentally is the topic of this thesis. Starting from the time-dependant functions of local motion {xi(r,t)} and experimental magnetic field gradient {G(t)} the general equations of interaction are deduced. The interpretation of the amplitude of cyclic motion {xi(r,t)} and the gradient amplitude – in form of the linear dependant q-space coordinate {q_os} – as a Fourier pair facilitates new representations of the experiment and implies interesting applications. Among these are the determination of the amplitude distribution within a given voxel (i.e. the sample volume which is represented as a single point in the final image) and the correlation of motions along the orthogonal space coordinates (i.e. x,y,z). The feasibility of this concept is demonstrated by the experimental results received on a gel phantom. Besides the motion amplitude (

Kein Autorenreferat vorhanden., Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Many of the 10 Central European candidate member countries for EU accession entered into the transition period with strongly undervalued exchange rates to stimulate exports and protect domestic industries. However, this policy was not maintained. During 1993-1995 real currency appreciation increased competitive pressure by foreign firms. To protect domestic firms governments applied high third country tariffs, temporary import taxes, and numerous administrative barriers to trade. As countervailing pressure by the EU and the USA increased and current account deficits soared in 1996 and 1997, the CE-10 more and more brought exchange rate policies in line with the changes in purchasing power parity. However, petty protection and harassment of importers prevails. (author's abstract), Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Due to the fact that the European transition economies practically started from scratch in financial market development the size of financial markets in the CE-10 is significantly smaller with respect to GDP than in developed market economies. We can show by residual analysis that financial markets in the Czech Republic and Slovakia still need some restructuring. We also find that stock markets hardly contribute to economic prosperity, neither in the CE-10 nor in the EU. (authors' abstract), Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

1) Financing Firms in East European Countries: An Asymmetric Information and Agency Costs Approach, by Debora Revoltella 2) Seven Years of Financial Market Reform in Central Europe, by Peter H. Haiss and Gerhard Fink.

Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut