Die Messung von Stress im Finanzsystem — ein Überblick

Die aktuelle Finanzkrise kam für viele überraschend. Gut funktionierende Frühwarnsysteme h?tten ?konomischen Schaden abwenden k?nnen. Es gibt zwar Indikatoren zur Messung von Finanzmarktstress. Diese sind aber offensichtlich nicht für eine pr?zise Prognose geeignet. Wie die Indikatoren verbessert werden k?nnten, beschreiben Guido Zimmermann und Jelena Zivanovic.     

What drives spreads in the euro area government bond market?

Spreads between euro area government bond yields are related to short-term interest rates, which are in turn related to market liquidity, to cyclical conditions, and to investors' incentives to take risk. In theory, lower interest rates are associated with lower degrees of risk aversion and smaller government bond spreads. Empirically, the Eurosystem's short-term interest rates are positively related to those spreads, which our econometric model finds to include significant and policy-relevant default risk and liquidity risk components.
— Simone Manganelli and Guido Wolswijk     

A realist approach to equilibrium analysis

Conclusion Science seeks to explain objective facts by reference to constant relationships that link them to other facts. Yet economic science deals with human action, which is directed by individual choice, which seems by its very nature to contradict the notion of constancy. How can we reconcile the idea that there are laws of human action, that manifest themselves in market prices and the structure of production, with the idea that there is also freedom of choice? All modern discussions of the relevance of equilibrium economics revolve around this problem. We have argued that there are constant relationships in choice itself — in particular, in the dichotomy of success and failure. Recognizing this fact paves the way toward a realistic equilibrium analysis, which consists in comparing an actual choice with its counterfactual alternatives in terms of success and failure. This approach underscores Mises’s insight that equilibrium analysis deals only with a very limited range of phenomena — it is only a part of economic science. And, in distinct contrast to all previous approaches, it does not rely on fictions of the mind or unrealistic constructs. It is an integral part of a realistic science, a precious tool for the understanding of reality. Completion of this essay would not have been possible without financial support by the DAAD, the Humboldt Foundation, and the Mises Institute. Comments by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Joseph T. Salerno, Christian Comanescu, Barry Smith, Jeff Tucker, David Gordon, Robert Murphy, Jeffrey M. Herbener, and Alexandre Padilla are gratefully acknowledged.     

The CSR-Quality Trade-Off: When can Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Ability Compensate Each Other?

This paper investigates under what conditions a good corporate social responsibility (CSR) can compensate for a relatively poor corporate ability (CA) (quality), and vice versa. The authors conducted an experiment among business administration students, in which information about a financial services company’s CA and CSR was provided. Participants indicated their preferences for the company’s products, stocks, and jobs. The results show that for stock and job preferences, a poor CA can be compensated by a good CSR. For product preferences, a poor CA could not be compensated by a good CSR, at least when people thought that CA is personally relevant to them. Furthermore, a poor CSR could be compensated by a good CA for product, stocks, and job preferences. Guido Berens is Assistant Professor of Corporate Communication at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His research interests include corporate branding, corporate social responsibility, and reputation management. His research has been published in the Journal of Marketing and the Corporate Reputation Review, as well as in several international books. Cees B. M. van Riel is Professor of Corporate Communication at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His research interests include organizational identity, reputation management, and corporate branding. He is the author of several books, and his research has appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, and Journal of Marketing, among others. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Corporate Reputation Review, and has been working as a consultant for many large international companies in the last 15 years. Johan van Rekom is Assistant Professor at the Rotterdam School of Management at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where he also received his PhD. His research interests include organizational identity, the effects of organizational identity on the motivation of organization members, cognitive structures at the individual and at the organizational level, and the essence of brands. His research has appeared in the Journal of Management Studies and the European Journal of Marketing, among others.     

Price oscillation, oligopolistic behaviour and inflation: The Argentine case

This paper argues that the degree of relative price oscillation is one of the essential characteristics of any inflationary process. Inflations which are similar in terms of their overall inflationary rates may be differentiated by the degree of price oscillations. The paper also contends that price oscillations are very much the consequence of an underlying struggle between oligopolistic groups for a share of the income, and that this behaviour has become more generalized than before and has become one of the major causes, and one of the most dangerous effects, of inflation. Much of this interpretation is based on the recent experience of Argentina.