Specialisation patterns and the synchronicity of regional employment cycles in Europe

This paper examines the degree of correlation, i.e. the synchronicity, among EU regional employment cycles and attempts to link it to changing patterns of specialisation. This topic deserves attention since the existing evidence seems to suggest a rather limited role for a region’s industry structure in explaining its employment growth. A dynamic panel data model is estimated for pairs of regions by within groups, i.e., by a standard fixed effects estimator. The results indicate that synchronicity between regions has declined and differences in regional industry structure can be held account for this.

FDI promotion through bilateral investment treaties: more than a bit?

Policy makers in developing countries have increasingly pinned their hopes on bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in order to improve their chances in the worldwide competition for foreign direct investment (FDI). However, the effectiveness of BITs in inducing higher FDI inflows is still open to debate. It is in several ways that we attempt to clarify the inconclusive empirical findings of earlier studies. We cover a much larger sample of host and source countries by drawing on an extensive data set on bilateral FDI flows. Furthermore, we account for unilateral FDI liberalization, in order not to overestimate the effect of BITs, as well as for the potential endogeneity of BITs. Employing a gravity-type model and various model specifications, including an instrumental variable approach, we find that BITs do promote FDI flows to developing countries. BITs may even substitute for weak domestic institutions, though probably not for unilateral capital account liberalization.     

Fakten und Fiktionen. Über den Umgang mit Medienwirklichkeiten: Jahrestagung der DGPuK in Münster vom 23. bis 25. Mai 2001

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Elektronische Datenträger als Informationsmedium

The insurer may meet his obligation to inform the insured by using a CD-ROM or an USB-Stick instead of using a paper form. Although the information’s content doesn’t depend on the used medium, special questions arise in respect of some information-parts when an electronic data medium is used. For instance, the practical question how to put the “Produktinformationsblatt” (product fact sheet) in front. Further problems in connection with the use of an electronic data medium concern the information in due time and to the burden of proof.     

Herausforderung Organisations-Controlling — Entwicklung von Bewertungskriterien für die Aufbau- und Führungsorganisation

Ohne Zusammenfassung Prof. Dr. habil. Jens Grundei Professor für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, insb. Organisation und Personal, Fachhochschule für Oekonomie und Management (FOM), und selbstst?ndiger Berater. Dipl.-Vw. Ludger Becker Leiter Corporate Organization der Bayer AG und Lehrbeauftragter an der Technischen Universit?t Berlin. Bayer AG, Corporate Human Resources & Organization, 51368 Leverkusen     

Decentralized pricing in minimum cost spanning trees

In the minimum cost spanning tree model we consider decentralized pricing rules, i.e., rules that cover at least the efficient cost while the price charged to each user only depends upon his own connection costs. We define a canonical pricing rule and provide two axiomatic characterizations. First, the canonical pricing rule is the smallest among those that improve upon the Stand Alone bound, and are either superadditive or piece-wise linear in connection costs. Our second, direct characterization relies on two simple properties highlighting the special role of the source cost.     

China and India in the global economy

The purpose of this overview paper is to present the economic growth in China and India over the last three decades with a specific focus on the integration of these countries into the global economy. In the first part, we briefly review the long-run process of growth and institutional change, emphasizing the reforms leading to the “opening” of the two economies. Then, we focus on key structural features and compare the recent development processes of the two countries. At the end, there are some hints about certain persisting imbalances and the sustainability of the growth processes.     

Global economic sustainability indicator: analysis and policy options for the Copenhagen process

The traditional discussion about CO₂ emissions and greenhouse gases as a source of global warming has been rather static, namely in the sense that innovation dynamics have not been considered much. Given the global nature of the climate problem, it is natural to develop a more dynamic Schumpeterian perspective and to emphasize a broader international analysis, which takes innovation dynamics and green international competitiveness into account: We discuss key issues of developing a consistent global sustainability indicator, which should cover the crucial dimensions of sustainability in a simple and straightforward way. The basic elements presented here concern genuine savings rates—covering not only depreciations on capital, but on the natural capital as well—, the international competitiveness of the respective country in the field of environmental (“green”) goods and the share of renewable energy generation. International benchmarking can thus be encouraged and opportunities emphasized—an approach developed here. This new EIIW-vita Global Sustainability Indicator is consistent with the recent OECD requirements on composite indicators and thus, we suggest new options for policymakers. The US and Indonesia have suffered from a decline in their performance in the period 2000–07; Germany has improved its performance as judged by the new composite indicator whose weights are determined from factor analysis. The countries covered stand for roughly 91% of world GDP, 94% of global exports, 82% of global CO₂ emissions and 68% of the population.