Applying cooperative game theory to power relations

The power of people and the power of some people over others have long been a topic in sociology, politics, psychology, and, to a lesser extent, economics. This paper shows how cooperative game theory can be used to analyze the power relation between agents 1 and 2. First, we identify payoff reflections of the power of agent 1 over agent 2. Second, we suggest how to look for action reflections of power-over. We will provide many examples and reconsider (an important part of) the power-over literature from the viewpoint of our approach.     

Transitions in the German labor market: Structure and crisis

Since the so-called Hartz IV reforms around 2005 and during the global crisis of 2008/2009, the German labor market featured mainly declining unemployment rates. We develop a search and matching model with heterogeneous skills to explore the role of structural and cyclical policies for this performance. Calibrating unemployment benefits to approximate legislation before and after the reforms, we find a large reduction in unemployment and its duration, with the transition concluding after about three years. During the crisis, the extended use of short-time labor subsidies that prevent jobs from being destroyed is likely to have prevented strong increases in unemployment.     

Exchange Rates, Equity Prices, and Capital Flows

We develop an equilibrium model in which exchange rates, stockprices, and capital flows are jointly determined under incompleteforeign exchange (forex) risk trading. Incomplete hedging offorex risk, documented for U.S. global mutual funds, inducesthe following price and capital flow dynamics: Higher returnsin the home equity market relative to the foreign equity marketare associated with a home currency depreciation. Net equityflows into the foreign market are positively correlated witha foreign currency appreciation. The model predictions are stronglysupported at daily, monthly, and quarterly frequencies for 17OECD countries vis-à-vis the United States. Correlationsare strongest after 1990 and for countries with higher equitymarket capitalization relative to GDP, suggesting that the observedexchange rate dynamics is indeed related to equity market development.     

What are the effects of monetary policy on output? Results from an agnostic identification procedure

This paper proposes to estimate the effects of monetary policy shocks by a new agnostic method, imposing sign restrictions on the impulse responses of prices, nonborrowed reserves and the federal funds rate in response to a monetary policy shock. No restrictions are imposed on the response of real GDP to answer the key question in the title. I find that “contractionary” monetary policy shocks have no clear effect on real GDP, even though prices move only gradually in response to a monetary policy shock. Neutrality of monetary policy shocks is not inconsistent with the data.     

I. Allgemeine Wirstchaftslehre

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

High animal welfare standards in the EU and international trade – How to prevent potential ‘low animal welfare havens’?

Future costs of compliance with obligatory animal welfare standards in the EU for poultry and egg production are significant and may lead to relocation of production to third countries. After an overview of different rationales for complementary policies to prevent relocation, this article systematically compares such policies. Some policies, like multilateral agreements and labelling, may be supporting, but may not be able to prevent relocation comprehensively. Compensatory payments to domestic producers, in contrast, are effective but disadvantage third country producers that comply with equivalent standards. Therefore, tariff discrimination may be a better alternative. A major drawback of tariff discrimination, however, is its severe institutional requirements. Future research questions include quantification of potential relocation as well as transaction costs of various complementary policies.     

Commentary: Internationalization of the world's securities markets: Economic causes and regulatory consequences

Commentary: Internationalization of the world's securities markets: Economic causes and regulatory consequences