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.     

Stopping deforestation in the Amazon: Trade-off between ecological and economic targets?

Stopping Deforestation in the Amazon: Trade-off between Ecological and Economic Targets? —Using a computable general equilibrium model the paper analyzes the regional, sectoral and macroeconomic dimension of Brazil’s “deforestation problem”. It is shown that macroeconomic reform is not in conflict with conservation policies. Therefore, there is no need for compensation payments but rather for improving the effectiveness of conservation policies by macroeconomic reform. The analysis also shows that regional conservation policies are generally superior to sectoral conservation policies.     

The Method of Purging Applied to Repeated Cross-Sectional Data

In cross-sectional survey research, it is quite common to estimate the(standardized) effect of independent variable(s) on a dependent variable. However, if repeated cross-sectional data are available, much is to be gained if the consequences of these effects on longitudinal social change are considered.To assess these consequences, we describe a type of simulation in whichlongitudinal shifts in the independent variable's distribution, and longitudinal variation in effect on the dependent variable are `purged' from the data. Although the method of purging is known for many years, we add new practical features by relating the method to logistic and linear regression analysis. Because both logistic and linear regression analysis can be found in all majorstatistical packages, the method of purging is made available to a wider group of social scientists. With the use of repeated cross-sectional data, gathered in the Netherlands between 1970 and 1998, the new practical features of the purging method are shown, using the SPSS package.     

Three characteristic functions and tentative remarks on credible threats

In this paper the α and β characteristic functions are reviewed and a new concept, the credible threat function, is introduced following some tentative remarks on the credibility of threats.     

The social market economy: an export for the Third World?

Long before the socialist industrialized nations began to call their centrally planned, or government controlled, economies into question, policymakers in many developing countries with dirigistic, interventionist systems, including capitalist oriented ones, had started to rethink their economic philosophies. Now that the former exporters of the concept of the centrally planned economy are themselves interested in importing free-enterprise ideas, reform in the Third World is likely to take on more momentum and interest in the social market economy will increase.     

DasKeynessche System in einer wachsenden Wirtschaft

Ohne ZusammenfassungMit 2 TextabbildungenDer Verfasser dankt Herrn Prof. Dr. A. Woll, Gießen, für eine kritische Durchsicht des Manuskriptes sowie Herrn Dr. H. Abele, Wien, für hilfreiche Anregungen zu einigen Punkten der Formulierung des Modelles.