The Organisational Evolution of the Childcare Regime in Germany: Issues and Dynamics of a Public‐private Partnership

In many European countries, institutional childcare has developed as a field shaped by both statutory and associative agency, the German system being emblematic for this. In Germany, a considerable proportion of childcare services are provided by nonprofit organizations under public regulation. Departing from a historical overview, the article elaborates on the mixed economy of welfare in that system and sheds light on recent transformations of the existing public‐private partnership. It is argued that with a range of cultural and civil‐society‐related evolutions, the system is going to adopt elements of a market regulation that are prone to change the rules of games within the partnership as such.     

Landing on all fours? Communist elites in post-Soviet Russia

This paper analyzes the economic situation of former Communist party members in post-Soviet Russia. On the basis of the Russian Socio-Economic Transition Panel, we are able to identify members of the Communist party prior to transition so that we can assess their relative economic performance between 1993 and 1999. We find a significant wage premium associated with former membership in the Soviet Communist party during the period from 1993 to 1999. After addressing non-random selection into the Communist party using an instrumental variables approach, we demonstrate that the overall Communist wage premium can be attributed to positive unobservable characteristics of former party members. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 700–719.     

Country risk,portfolio decisions and regulation in international bank lending

This paper examines the concept of ‘country risk’ and relates it to the construction of efficient loan portfolios in international banking. Applicability of conventional portfolio-theoretic concepts to the management of country lending exposure is examined, as are the requisites of country review systems for national exposure management. The issue of international banking regulation is assessed in this context, focusing on the dangers inherent in national and international regulatory initiatives for optimum global capital allocation.     

Pollution and protection: U. S. environmental controls as competitive distortions

Zusammenfassung Umweltverschmutzung und Protektion: Umweltschutzauflagen in den Vereinigten Staaten als Wettbewerbsverzerrungen. — In Anbetracht der ?leads? und ?lags?, die zwangsl?ufig entstehen, wenn unabh?ngige Nationen mit verschiedenen Umweltbedingungen in unterschiedlichem Tempo Umweltschutzma\nahmen ergreifen, die sich zudem in Sch?rfe und Methoden unterscheiden, hat sich in den betroffenen Industrien die Frage nach der Richtung und dem relativen Gewicht derartiger Ver?nderungen der Wettbewerbssituation erhoben. Zweck dieser Arbeit ist es, die Netto-Belastungen abzusch?tzen, die sich für die Importwettbewerbsf?higkeit amerikanischer Industrien durch die (gesch?tzten) Kosten der Erfüllung der Umweltschutzauflage ergeben, und zwar sowohl über die Kostenbeeinflussung bei den Inputs als auch bei den Endprodukten. Ferner wird in diesem Aufsatz versucht, die Bedeutung zu ermitteln, die diese Kosten im Verh?ltnis zur effektiven Protektion haben, die den unter Importkonkurrenz stehenden amerikanischen Industrien gew?hrt wird.

---

Résumé Pollution et protection: Les contr?les de l’environnement aux Etats-Unis comme des distorsions de la compétition. — En vue des avances et des retards qui surgissent inévitablement si les nations souveraines introduisent des contr?les de l’environnement avec une vitesse et une vigueur différentes et si elles utilisent des techniques qui se diffèrent selon des situations écologiques, quelques branches potentiellement affectées s’inquiètent de plus en plus en ce qui concerne la direction et la portée relative des effets sur leur position compétitive. Le but de cet article est d’évaluer l’effet net des co?ts en conséquence d’une telle politique sur la situation compétitive internationale des branches américaines; l’évaluation comprend les effets sur les co?ts des inputs et des produits finis. En outre, l’auteur apprécie l’importance de ces co?ts relatifs à la protection effective donnée aux branches américaines qui font concurrence aux importations.

---

Resumen Polución y protección: el control del medio ambiente en los E.E.U.U. como distorsion competitiva. — En vista de los adelantos y rezagos que surgirán inevitablemente en cuanto los diversos países se dediquen a controlar el medio ambiente con diferente intensidad, rigor y técnicas, y bajo diferentes condiciones ecológicas, existe un creciente interés por el impacto que todo ésto tendrá sobre la posición competitiva de las diversas industrias. El propósito de este trabajo es el de evaluar la repercusión neta en la competitividad de las industrias norteamericanas competidoras con importaciones, del cumplimiento de estándards cualitativos del medio ambiente, evaluatión que se efectúa a base de los efectos sobre los costos de los inputs y su peso en el precio del producto final. Se basa también en una comparación de la importancia de estos costos con la protección efectiva otorgada a las industrias competidoras con importaciones.

     

III. Weltwirtschaft und wirtschaft einzlner länderund und gebiete

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

事半功倍：提高创新成功率

波士顿咨询公司曾帮助许多世界领先公司转型创新项目：加强研发和战略之间的关系、削减成本、加快投放市场的时间、以及最重要的是提高成功率。最近,我们的一家客户告诉我们他在一趟欧洲航班上与同行乘客的对话。我们的客户是一家全球汽车供应公司的CEO,乐于谈论公司创新项目的转型历程和其所带来的惊人成果。     

The Representation of Social Actors in Corporate Codes of Ethics. How Code Language Positions Internal Actors

This article understands codes of ethics as written documents that represent social actors in specific ways through the use of language. It presents an empirical study that investigated the codes of ethics of the German Dax30 companies. The study adopted a critical discourse analysis-approach in order to reveal how the code-texts produce a particular understanding of the various internal social groups for the readers. Language is regarded as social practice that functions at creating particular understandings of individuals and groups, how they are interrelated, and how they should behave. Findings show that codes of ethics do not represent employees as a group that is empowered or morally enlightened; instead they are positioned as passive receivers of rules and regulations. Furthermore, codes of ethics classify employees as having a need to be monitored and controlled by the higher levels of the corporate hierarchy. Overall, code language enforces compliance through maintaining existing and building new asymmetries between the different groups within a company. As a consequence, the article discusses a somewhat different understanding of code effectiveness. Reproducing and reemphasizing hierarchical relations could also lead to code compliance, perhaps without any need for developing the moral employee that is committed to ethical values.     

The crisis-resilience of services trade

Much attention has been focused on the impact of the current crisis on goods trade; hardly any on its impact on services trade. Using new trade data from the USA, and more aggregate data from other OECD countries, the authors show that services trade is weathering the current crisis much better than goods trade. On the basis of new evidence from Indian services exporters, it is suggested that services trade is more robust relative to goods trade for three reasons: less cyclical demand; lesser dependence on external finance; and few explicitly protectionist measures so far taken in services.     

Domestic concentration,foreign trade and economic performance

In a competitive fringe model the impact of concentration on price-cost margins can be shown to be ambiguous. Therefore, looking at the relationship between rates of return and concentration ratios is not sufficient for perceiving collusive elements. In this paper a model is set up that permits discerning collusion more clearly. Additional evidence concerning collusion can be gained by analyzing the influence of exports and imports on price-cost margins. Applying this approach to West Germany yields the result that the collusiveness prevailing in domestic markets has not visibly decreased in spite of a substantial increase in foreign trade.