On the Relation of Monetary and Political Union

When EMU took effect in 1999, no progress in the direction of political union had been achieved — indeed, it had not even been attempted. Therefore, from the beginning the euro was confronted with a kind of sword of Damocles: can monetary union survive without political union?     

ANFA — National Money Creation as an Existential Threat to the Currency Union?

The recent publication of the previously secret Agreement on Net Financial Assets (ANFA) directed the public’s attention to the possibility that national central banks could create money through purchases of securities on their own account. This paper provides an overview of the legal foundations for ANFA and shows the varying extent to which the member countries use these regulations. What are the interests, risks and consequences for the countries in crisis and the currency union as a whole? Is the ECB properly monitoring ANFA purchases? Could money creation via ANFA act as an explosive device for the currency union?     

The road to European Economic and Monetary Union

The debate on the concrete shape of the second stage of European economic and monetary union ist in full swing. What are the benefits that may be expected from EMU? What risks have to be avoided?     

Europe after Maastricht— Have the monetary questions been settled?

The decisions taken at Maastricht seem to have finally removed the obstacles to European monetary union. So have the monetary questions really been settled? Is the process of monetary convergence irreversible?     

European Monetary Union: No field for political compromise

European Economic and Monetary Union is currently in the course of preparation by an inter-governmental conference. What are the benefits and risks associated with European monetary union? What essential requirements need to be fulfilled when the agreements are concluded?     

Waste without frontiers?

The transfrontier recovery, treatment and disposal of waste in the European Union is governed by regulations both at the union level and in the individual states. Do these various regulations make economic sense? What are the arguments for and against national export bans and import restrictions over and above the EU regulations?     

Integration theory and the problems of integration policy in the Third World

The many groupings of developing countries formed in the fifties and sixties with a view to establishing a customs union have failed to achieve convincing results so far. Would another integration strategy have been more successful?     

Nicholas Onuf and Peter Onuf. Nations, Markets, and War: Modern History and the American Civil War

The bloodiest war ever fought by the United States, the CivilWar remains a focal point of American historical writing andresearch. How could Americans embark in such a war where brothersfought brothers? And what does this experience tell us aboutthe nature of the American union, before and after the CivilWar? Two brothers, historians Nicholas and Peter Onuf, confrontthese questions in a wide-ranging study that will challengetheir readers's     

The aim remains: Monetary union

No doubt the monetary measures taken by the Government of the Federal Republic on May 10 have caused quite a stir. The question is: Can the European economic and monetary union still be achieved, in spite of the German measures?     

Southern Europe facing the single market’s completion

The European Community is now starting the final run-up towards the completion of the single internal market by the end of 1992 and member countries are currently involved in consultations at inter-governmental conferences on the creation of economic and monetary union, and on political union. This provides an appropriate opportunity of looking at what belonging to the Community has meant so far to its new members of Greece, Portugal and Spain, and at what their chances are for the future in the light of these developments. What have their entry into the EC and the Single European Act meant to Greece, Portugal and Spain, and what lessons ought to be learned from that?     

The Euro's place in the world monetary system

The European Union is striding ahead on schedule towards European monetary union (EMU). Eleven member states will introduce the euro for book-keeping purposes on 1.1.1999, assigning responsibility for monetary policy to the European System of Central Banks. On 1.1.2002, the euro will also be in circulation as notes and coins, and the participating countries will abandon their national currencies by 30.6.2002 at the latest. But what part will the euro play in the world monetary system? And what conclusions do we need to draw?     

Evaluating comparable worth: Three perspectives

What are the principal causes of the earnings gap between men and women? Executives, union officials, and compensation experts all put discrimination and bias at the top of their lists, but they don't agree that comparable worth is the most effective way to narrow that gap.     

Regional Competitiveness: Labor-Management Relations,Workplace Practices,and Workforce Quality

This paper examines regional competitiveness as it relates to regional labor-management relations. A survey of recent literature provides perspective and secondary evidence regarding labor-management relations, workplace practices, and workforce quality. It does not answer the question, “Are unions good or bad?” Rather, it investigates the themes of productivity, wage premium, job security, innovation, communication, and economic development—the larger picture to consider when evaluating the impact of unions. The information, issues, and data gained from the literature survey provided a background for several case studies that took the form of structured, group interviews that included both selected management and union representatives. Interview findings provide evidence that union-management cooperation in the workplace is both feasible and productive, supporting findings in the literature.     

Hartz IV: The Solution to the Unemployment Problems in the Eurozone?

The Hartz IV reforms are consistently regarded as a successful German model for the reduction of structural unemployment. Is it therefore appropriate to advise other member states of the European monetary union to carry out similar reforms? This paper strongly disagrees, arguing that the reduction in unemployment in Germany since 2005 is mainly due to cyclical factors and to the petering out of the negative employment effects caused by the economic transformation after German unification.     

Estimating the Impact of Currency Unions on Trade: Solving the Glick and Rose Puzzle

Does leaving a currency union reduce international trade? This paper uses a historical approach to re‐examine the puzzling large apparent impact of currency unions on trade. I find that the early time series estimates were driven by the gradual decaying of colonial trade ties and other major geopolitical factors, including warfare, communist takeovers and ethnic cleansing episodes. My methodology, which carries lessons for other uses of gravity equations in policy analysis, yields point estimates of currency unions on trade that are not statistically distinct from zero.     

International Enterprises and Trade Unions

A “shipping war” has broken out between two friendly neighbouring countries: Estonia (a rather poor land; liberated of Soviet occupation in 1991), and Finland (a wealthy one; independent since 1918). Led by their trade union the Finnish dockers boycott Estonian ships demanding for Estonian sailors the salary in the same range as that is in wealthy West-European countries. Estonian Sailors' Union finds that such a war is not for their better work-conditions but against their working possibilities: the cheap labour force is the only possibility for a poor country to entice foreign investments in it. No matter how the “shipping war” will be solved – the problem will remain. This is the problem of two opposites – cheap labour force of poor countries and expensive one of wealthy countries –, and international enterprises standing between them. Could such an enterprise survive without using the cheap labour force? And if it could, how could the poor countries survive then? Could there be found a clear unambiguous ethical solution? What ought to be the role of trade unions in such international business conflicts?     

Price‐level co‐movements within currency unions: An alternative integration metric

This paper analyses currency union integration by testing whether price levels in member countries possess a common stochastic trend. The trace statistic test for cointegration proposed by (Johansen, 1995) demonstrates the presence of such a trend for most unions. A disaggregated analysis identifies a common stochastic trend for several though fewer than half of country pairs within a union. Some unions such as the Eurozone have small shares of cointegrated country pairs. Yet, the share of cointegrated country pairs is large relative to countries outside currency unions. Comparison to a control group (country pairs where one country belongs to a given union and the other country does not) indicates that the cointegration found within a currency union is a union‐specific trait and not a feature of the individual countries within the union. These results provide an alternative metric to intraunion trade for gauging the extent of currency union integration.     

工会覆盖效应与工会会员效应下的工资分布研究——来自2012年雇员雇主匹配数据的经验

文章采用2012年雇员雇主匹配数据,运用无条件分位数回归的方法研究了中国工会对工资分布的影响问题。研究结果表明：工会覆盖效应下工会企业劳动者与非工会企业劳动者的工资差距呈现“粘地板效应”;工会身份效应下工会会员和非工会会员的工资差距呈现“粘地板效应”;工会覆盖效应和工会身份效应下特征差异作用明显不同;工会企业更有利于减缓中等收入的性别工资歧视;最后根据研究结论提出了两点政策建议。     

基于元数据整合的信息资源共知体系建设

在图书馆共享联盟内,要实现信息资源的共享,首先必须解决信息资源状况的通报问题,即信息资源的共知。在现代信息技术条件下,图书馆联盟的信息资源共知体系建设,要充分运用知识挖掘、知识聚类和元数据整合技术,以基于元数据整合的共享联合目录体系建设作为主线,正确地处理好纸质资源与数字资源的关系,解决好馆藏联合目录与数字资源导航体系的整合,构建起跨系统、跨平台、跨地域的多馆信息资源联合目录揭示系统。