Foreign Takeovers and Wages in Hungary

This study investigates the wage premium that foreign takeover firms pay for a type of worker on top of the wage before takeover. We apply Hungarian employee-employer matched data from 1992 until 2001, and find a nonlinear wage premium profile before and after a foreign takeover. Takeover targets do not pursue a different wage policy before ownership change compared to other indigenous firms. Then, there is a hike in the wage premium during the takeover year. Moreover, there is gradually building up a wage premium over the following years after the takeover. The later stylized fact helps discriminating bargaining theories of the foreign-investor wage premium from technology spillover theories. JEL no. E24, F16, F23     

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?     

Studie zur Methodenunterstützung im Target Costing

Die Methode des Target Costing entwickelt sich sowohl funktional zu einer Komplettl?sung als auch in der L?nge der abgedeckten Prozesskette zu einer Lifecyclebetrachtung.     

Schumpeter’s Split Between “Pure” Economics and Institutional Economics: Why Methodological Individualism Was Not Fully Considered

While Joseph A. Schumpeter is classified as a pioneer of evolutionary economics in a wide sense and of entrepreneurship and innovation management in a narrower sense, Schumpeter is less known for his contributions in the area of scientific methodology and history of science. The paper deals with methodological premises in Schumpeter’s scientific positioning. In 1908, in his Das Wesen und der Hauptinhalt der theoretischen Nationalökonomie, Schumpeter developed and pioneered his methodological individualism which is very much acknowledged. However, comparing these early positions with methodological writings in his History of Economic Analysis (1954) shows that he has not really shifted from methodological individualism to an institutional perspective that addresses the academic interplay and sees economic action rooted in historical predispositions, paths and social constraints.     

No solution for international monetary problems

At its 14th meeting (in Hamburg) the Interim Committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held further discussions on the establishment of a substitution account through which the monetary authorities would voluntarily transfer a part of their dollar reserves¹ to the IMF in return for interest-bearing claims denominated in Special Drawing Rights (SDR)². The transferred dollars would be invested by the Fund long-term³ in US Government securities so that they would be withdrawn from international circulation. As was to be expected, the meeting did not yet bring an accord. Technical difficulties were stated to be the reason for this but at this juncture no state seems to be especially interested in setting up such an account.