Können Fiskalräte die europäische Schuldenkrise lösen?

This article analyses the role of independent fiscal institutions (IFIs) in dealing with the debt crisis in Europe. IFIs take the role of a fiscal watchdog by producing their own (or assessing the government’s) budget and macroeconomic forecast and have recently spread across many industrialized countries. Empirical evidence suggests that IFIs can contribute to solid public finances in conjunction with fiscal rules if these institutions are truly independent, have a clear mandate and access to sufficient resources, as well as a strong media impact.     

Vor der Europawahl: Wie lässt sich die demokratische Legitimität verbessern?

The EU suffers from a democratic deficit that arises not first and foremost from a lack of institutional competencies, but rather from the double weakness of politics vis-à-vis economics and law at the European level. This “functional democratic deficit” renders the existing mechanisms of democratic control increasingly ineffective. Especially for its citizens, a politically integrated Europen Union might be difficult to grasp, and it may only be reached gradually through a continuous process of dynamic development; however, “United in Diversity” seems to be the better alternative, and not only for historical reasons. The direct elections for the European Parliament, although not denying deficits of democratic legitimacy and participation at the Union level, should not be underestimated in their legitimising influence for the Union as an associated structure of members without obvious hierarchies.     

Wenn die Gehirnfunktion nachlässt

Die alternde Gesellschaft - Aufgrund des demographischen Wandels rollt eine Lawine auf uns zu, die sich kaum noch aufhalten l?sst: Derzeit sind in Deutschland rund eine Million Menschen an Demenz erkrankt, 2050 wird sich die Zahl voraussichtlich verdoppelt haben – eine übersicht über die Grundlagen der krankhaften Vergesslichkeit.     

Gefährdet TTIP die ökonomische Zukunftsfähigkeit?

This article contributes to the discussion on the economic effects of TTIP by focusing on the opportunities for the participating economies of enhancing their innovative capacities. Referring to the insights of Neo-Schumpeterian evolutionary innovation economics the article concludes that according to the currently published documents the legal properties of TTIP can harm the ability of states to adapt their regulatory standards — a main instrument for a dynamic and technology-specific innovation policy. The missing flexibility for the new supranational standards can be a major reason for difficulties in the reform of standards aiming at a “creative disturbance” of market processes by the state in order to stimulate innovative activities and to induce additional growth.     

Flexible Geschäftsmodelle in der Telekommunikation und die Netzneutralitätsdebatte

The net neutrality debate concerns the differential treatment of data on the Internet and the pricing models used by enduser internet service providers (IPSs). In particular, end-user ISPs may want to prioritize certain services and charge on the sender or the receiver side for this activity. In the policy debate it is asked whether regulatory intervention is warranted to restrict such behavior. The introduction of new end-user tariffs for fixed-line Internet access by Deutsche Telekom has heated up the debate in Germany. At the national level, the German Ministry of Economics and Technology has prepared a draft regulation on net neutrality, which aims at limiting the differential treatment of data transmission on the internet including the access networks and, thus, to protect the “Open Internet”. The European Commission has prepared an alternative draft regulation for a single European market in telecommunications, which contains provisions for an “Open Internet”. In this article, the authors investigate the extent to which the new tariff structure by Deutsche Telekom relates to the net neutrality debate. They also provide a first critical analysis of the proposals by the German Ministry of Economics and Technology and the European Commission.     

Regionale Konvergenz: Der ländliche Raum schlägt sich gut

Since 2000, there has been a convergence between urban and rural regions in Germany measured by GDP per capita. This is somewhat surprising, as the fate of “left behind” areas and an ostensibly widening gap between rich and poor regions are dominating the public discourse. But contrary to public perception, the continuing migration of the German population into urban regions is not accompanied by a similar clustering of economic activities. Instead, rural regions hold their ground in terms of their share of total value added in Germany. As a result, GDP per capita is rising faster in rural regions, driving convergence. But this positive development doesn’t apply to all rural regions – and the negative demographics in comparison to urban areas will become a growing burden.     

Ein Risikostrukturausgleich für die Bundesländer

In Germany, a lively debate about the reform of the financial equalisation scheme between the member states (“Länder”) is under way. There is broad consensus that the member states’ financial responsibility has to be strengthened. A reduction of the transfer level of tax receipts from high-income to low-income states could achieve this objective, but at the cost of solidarity between states. To avoid this trade-off, the authors propose an indicator-based risk adjustment scheme. Their aim is to equalise different financial needs, not only differences in tax revenues across states. Risk adjustment schemes are a well-established instrument, especially in social health care systems.     

Schutz für die helfenden Hände

Handschuhe im Gesundheitswesen müssen verschiedenen Anforderungen gerecht werden: Der eine ben?tigt sie zum Ansetzen einer Desinfektionsl?sung, der n?chste im Rahmen des Verbandswechsels und der Dritte zur Intimpflege. Somit sollte klar sein, dass nicht ein Handschuh allen Aufgaben gerecht werden kann, sondern Pflegende vor einer mittlerweile endlos scheinenden Vielfalt stehen.     

Die radikalen Steuerpläne der US-Republikaner und die Folgen für die EU

The Republican majority in the US House of Representatives is considering the introduction of a destination-based cash flow tax (DBCFT). While its global implementation has the potential to substantially increase welfare, a unilateral introduction of such a tax system raises a range of questions due to the existence of source-based taxation systems abroad. We consider the US tax plans from an EU perspective. We show that European exporters may suffer, but European firms with affiliation in the US may benefit from a switch to the DBCFT. American firms will be the likely losers of this policy. Finally, we discuss potential policy reactions by the EU and its member countries as well as legal and economic implications of possible adjustments in EU tax systems.     

Folgen der Hartz-Reformen für die Beschäftigung

After the Hartz reforms of 2003–2005, unemployment in Germany has gone down significantly. Using a structural evaluation, it is shown that the contribution of the Hartz IV reform to this decrease was extremely modest. Hartz IV explains less than 0.1 percentage point of the decline in the observed unemployment rate. A substantial degree of influence, to the contrary, is attributed to the preceding Hartz III reform. Thus, the reduction of unemployment compensation could have been generally avoided.     

Das Tempo wird erklärt,nicht die Richtung

The prize honours the ground-breaking theoretical contribution of Paul M. Romer who found that the speed of growth is no longer exogenous but depends on economic forces. The drivers of growth are human capital, ideas and innovation; these differ from conventional goods due to the fact that their effect is not limited by decreasing returns, but rather grows with use. Romer‘s model, and practically all models of endogenous growth theory, do not differentiate whether technical progress is labour or resource saving — a distinction that makes an important difference in welfare and climate policy. In his policy agenda, Romer proposes creating “charter cities” to stimulate growth in countries with unstable governments, as in the East Asia example. While this could rapidly reduce poverty, it is important to pay attention to the adaption of imported technologies to local preferences and ownership of the developing regions.     

Die Bedeutung der monetären Analyse für die Europäische Zentralbank

Die geldpolitische Strategie der Europäischen Zentralbank beruht auf der wirtschaftlichen und der monetären Analyse von Risiken für die Preisstabilität im Euroraum. Sollte der monetären Analyse eine prominente Rolle zugewiesen werden?Eva-Ulrike Feldkord, 31, Dipl.-Volkswirtin, ist wis senschaftliche Mitarbeiterin in der Abteilung Internationale Makroökonomie im Hamburgischen Welt-Wirtschafts-Archiv (HWWA).     

Wie weit ist die Verschuldungskrise in der Europäischen Währungsunion überwunden?

In the first years of the eurozone debt crisis, European governments were busy struggling to achieve short-term financial stabilisation of banks and entire countries. Now, after the OMT programme and other stabilisation measures have calmed investors, attention has shifted to two issues: Firstly, are there signs of recovery in the real economy? Secondly, what will be the long-term institutional structure of the eurozone? This paper argues that the economic situation in the periphery countries is still fragile, despite significant adjustments that have taken place. Moreover, the most important institutional challenge is to avoid a situation in which national control over fiscal policy is combined with mutualisation of government debt.