After the death of inflation: will fiscal drag survive?

Declining inflation rates might have negative consequences for tax revenues. Phenomena such as the inflationary bracket creep in a progressive income tax system do not work any longer. With this background, the paper analyses the extent of fiscal drag for OECD countries since 1965. Some consideration of the role of money illusion and indexation in this context lays the theoretical base. A framework is presented that allows for the classification of fiscal structures with regard to the type of fiscal drag. The subsequent econometric panel analysis is performed for total and disaggregated government revenues. The results back theoretical considerations of inflation's impact on different kinds of taxes, which tends to be positive for individual income taxes and social security contributions and is negative for corporate income taxation. The paper concludes that both declining inflation and changing tax structures limit the potential for future fiscal drag.     

Monitoring structural change in dynamic econometric models

The classical approach to testing for structural change employs retrospective tests using a historical data set of a given length. Here we consider a wide array of fluctuation‐type tests in a monitoring situation—given a history period for which a regression relationship is known to be stable, we test whether incoming data are consistent with the previously established relationship. Procedures based on estimates of the regression coefficients are extended in three directions: we introduce (a) procedures based on OLS residuals, (b) rescaled statistics and (c) alternative asymptotic boundaries. Compared to the existing tests our extensions offer ease of computation, improved size in finite samples for dynamic models and better power against certain alternatives, respectively. We apply our methods to three data sets, German M1 money demand, US labour productivity and S&P 500 stock returns. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gesundheitspolitik in der Kompromissfalle: Kein Problem gelöst, aber neue geschaffen

Gesundheits?konomen nehmen Stellung zu den „Eckpunkten zu einer Gesundheitsreform“ der Koalitionsparteien vom 4. Juli 2006.     

An inverse relationship between efficiency and profitability according to size of (Upper-)Austrian firms? Some further tentative results

This paper examines the relationships between profitability and firm size, and efficiency and firm size, based on firms in Upper Austria. There is considerable evidence suggesting that the average profitability of small enterprises exceeds that of large firms. However, productivity tends to be positively related to firm size. These empirical findings present something of a paradox.An earlier version was presented at the ICSB 36th World Conference on Small Business and Partnership, June 24–26, 1991, Vienna, Austria. The authors gratefully acknowledge the most helpful comments on and suggested improvements of this paper by Professor Robert E. Kuenne (Princeton University) and the participants of the ICSB World Conference.     

Politikvermittlung durch Boulevardjournalismus

Research on tabloid journalism suffers from two shortcomings: On the one hand, scholars regard tabloid journalism mostly as an entertaining but apolitical form of journalism with little societal relevance. On the other hand, empirical research measures a variety of supposedly tabloid features but fails to ground these aspects in a theoretical concept of tabloid journalism. The paper addresses these shortcomings by theorizing tabloid media as mediated arenas for a distinct public sphere, which may very well contribute to the political functions of mass media for democracy. On this theoretical basis, the paper identifies indicators that researchers should consider when measuring the political dimension of tabloid journalism.     

The socio-economic determinants of terrorism and political violence in Western Europe (1994–2007)

The main objective of this paper is to empirically investigate the socio-economic causes of terrorism and political violence in a sample of 12 countries in Western Europe. First, we show that in western European countries the classical economic argument of opportunity cost is confirmed. That is, the larger is the set of current economic opportunities for individuals the lower is the likelihood or the willingness for them to be involved in a terrorist activity. Second, expected future economic growth seems to be associated with an increase in current terrorist activities. Eventually, our results also show that terrorist brutality (measured in people killed) is positively associated with real GDP per capita.     

Die Wiener Stadtbank und das Staatsbankprojekt des Grafen Kaunitz aus dem Jahre 1761

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

A two-speed Europe: How (un)stable would such a solution be?

Assuming the convergency criteria are not watered down, European Monetary Union will begin on 1.1.1999 with just a few core countries. With the help of the theory of clubs, Professor F. L. Sell analyses the incentive effects of the “monetary club” on founding members and “outsiders”.