EU Enlargement and Trade Integration: Lessons from a Gravity Model

The authors estimate gravity models using a large panel of bilateral trade flows across 61 countries between 1980 and 2003, which are applied as a benchmark for the integration of Central and South Eastern European countries with the euro area. They show that a careful examination of the fixed effects of the model is crucial for the proper interpretation of the results. The results suggest that trade integration between most new EU member states and the euro area is already relatively advanced, while the remaining Central and Eastern European countries have significant scope to strengthen trade links with the euro area.     

Contest Theory and Sport

Contrary to most sports fans economists tend to view tournamentsnot only as a mechanism to identify the most able and most talentedathlete(s) but also as an instrument to increase the athletes'effort levels by designing an adequate compensation system thattakes into account the specificities of the contest under consideration.The paper proceeds in two different steps: First, it reviewsthe available evidence on sports contests and identifies somepuzzles that have not yet been resolved in the literature (theempirical separation of selection and incentive effects andthe impact of incentive pay in team settings). Second, it addressesthese puzzles and offers some new evidence supporting the basicassumptions offered by economic theory.     

Geothermische Stromerzeugung in Deutschland — Stiefkind oder schlafender Riese?

This contribution analyses the development of power generation from geothermal energy in Germany. It considers research funding schemes, the support through the german Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and the role of decisive actors as well as technical, economic and societal framework conditions. Compared to other renewable energy sources research funding for geothermal energy had played an inferior role in the past. After the potentials for geothermal power generation had been underlined by a study in 2003, geothermal power gained more political and institutional advocates. Subsequently it was equipped with a higher tariff in the EEG 2004 and led to realization of demonstration projects. Yet, the appliance of technologies for electrical power transformation, ORC and Kalina, are at the very beginning. Presently, the geothermal energy industry consists of a small amount of medium-sized businesses. Regional and nationwide energy providers, acting as operators and investors, do not exert much pressure in view of limited returns. Despite the compatibility with existing power supply systems, constraints to the expansion of geothermal energy use — above all exploration risks and high drilling costs- are likely to lead to a step-by step enhancement rather than a rush.     

Die ermittlung der anschaffungs- und herstellungskosten und niedrigerer werte nach ias und U.S. GAAP

Die Ermittlung der Anschaffungskosten nach IAS/U.S. GAAP erfolgt analog der Ermittlung nach HGB. In den Herstellungskosten nach IAS k?nnen unter Umst?nden Entwicklungskosten enthalten sein. Die Aktivierung von allgemeinen Verwaltungs- und Vertriebsgemeinkosten ist nicht zul?ssig. Das Niederstwertprinzip nach IAS/U.S. GAAP orientiert sich st?rker am Absatzmarkt (net realizable value). G?ngige Verbrauchsfolgeverfahren (FIFO, LIFO etc.) sind auch nach IAS/U.S. GAAP zul?ssig.     

Segmenting nonprofit stakeholders to enable successful relationship marketing: a review

• When establishing relationships with stakeholders, nonprofit organizations must define appropriate target groups to allocate resources purposively. This paper explicates that link by reviewing the literature on nonprofit stakeholder segmentation and by discussing whether stakeholder segmentation is perceived as a prerequisite of successful relationship marketing by nonprofit researchers.
• We develop two conceptual dimensions of nonprofit stakeholder segmentation: the stakeholders segmented and the segmentation criteria used. A systematic database and journal search yielded 53 papers, categorized according to these two dimensions. The studies are described briefly, and the relevance of the relationship marketing concept is examined and discussed. Several research gaps emerge from this review, leading to propositions for further research.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Eastern European Public Opinion on Economic Issues:

Abstract Survey data on Eastern Europe is investigated with respect to two major questions: How do people view the creation of a market economy and how do they assess the speed of economic transformation and privatization. These questions are analyzed by looking at the development over 1990 to 1992 and by performing regressions with a number of demographic variables as regressors. Some findings are that the opposition to the creation of a market economy is increasing over time, that in Hungary and Poland people are quite satisfied with the speed of transformation as compared to Czechs and Slovaks, that the Polish are divided over the speed of privatization, and that the relationship between the speed of transformation and privatization is not considered to be very tight by the respondents.     

HYPERBOLIC DISCOUNTING,PUBLIC DEBT AND BALANCED BUDGET RULES

This paper considers a government that chooses its tax and borrowing policy in order to minimize the present value of the excess burden caused by taxation. In doing so, the government uses hyperbolic discounting. It turns out that public deficits are positive even if public expenditures are constant over time. With cyclical expenditures, the government chooses an asymmetric debt policy, i.e., in bad times it borrows more than it repays in good times. In contrast to tax smoothing and political economy theories of public debt, the welfare effects of a balanced budget rule are ambiguous.