Konjunkturschlaglicht: Mehr Steuereinnahmen

HWWA-FORUM

Konjunkturschlaglicht: Mehr Steuereinnahmen     

The economics of exhaustible resources

Are natural resources getting scarcer? How should the limited reservoir of non-replenishable raw materials such as metals and fossile fuels be utilized by successive generations? What possible solutions are proposed by economics in the face of diminishing reserves of raw materials? These are the questions which occupied German and foreign economists at the meeting of Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften—Verein für Socialpolitik—in Mannheim on September 24–26, 1979. The following report on the crucial issues raised at the meeting is not claimed to cover the full range of the discussion.     

Environmental policy in the two-country-case

Summary The paper analyzes the problem how environmental policy affects sector structure, the allocation of resources, relative price (and comparative advantage) and national income in a two-country case with varying terms of trade. The frame of reference is a two-sector model in which production generates pollutants as a joint product. If a country exports the pollution-intensively produced commodity environmental policy will improve its terms of trade under suitable conditions with respect to demand. Whereas in the political debate the negative effect of environmental policy on the international competiveness of a country is stressed, the terms-of-trade effect gives more leeway to environmental policy. The effects on output, export, imports and the other variables of the system are discussed.Help for calculating the results is acknowledged to J. Eichberger. I acknowledge helpful comments from an anonymous referee. I am also grateful to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for financial support.     

Endogenous vertical restraints in international trade

This paper examines interbrand competition between a domestic and a foreign manufacturer who market their products through intermediaries. The contracts manufacturers offer these intermediaries are endogenous. In equilibrium contracts may specify exclusive territories (ET), depending on the degree of substitutability between products and the level and degree of transparency of trade barriers. Trade liberalization, through lower or more transparent barriers, may lead manufacturers to use ET, thereby substituting private anti-competitive arrangements for government-imposed barriers. This substitution may decrease competition and welfare, and thus create a role for competition policy in a freer trade environment.     

Acknowledgement to referees

Acknowledgement to referees

Acknowledgement to referees