Lohnpolitische Konvergenz und Solidarität oder offener Bruch

Was vor fünf Jahren für die meisten undenkbar schien, wird heute offen diskutiert: Die Europ?ische W?hrungsunion (EWU) bricht wom?glich auseinander. Wird es tats?chlich geschehen und, wenn ja, wann? Die Antwort auf diese Frage h?ngt für viele Beobachter davon ab, ob und wie schnell Griechenland es schafft, sein Staatsdefizit um mehrere Prozentpunkte zu senken. Das ist erstaunlich. Denn wie kann die Stabilit?t der gesamten EWU durch mangelnde Sparanstrengungen im Staatshaushalt einer so kleinen Volkswirtschaft wie Griechenland gef?hrdet sein?     

Controlling space,controlling labour? Contested space in food delivery gig work

The article investigates the control of the platform labour process by means of the digital production of space and how workers resist it. The segment of German platform‐mediated food delivery is examined via qualitative interviews and auto‐ethnography. It is shown how the platforms create different spaces to efficiently coordinate and control mobile delivery gig work. Steered by geolocalisation and geofencing, the couriers operate autonomously in spatial corridors defined by the platforms. The agency of the riders is thus limited, but they are occasionally able to undermine the platforms’ spatial control and reinterpret it. The article shows that space is a central but contested instrument for controlling labour.     

The global threat of deflation calls for swift interest rate cuts in Europe

Conclusions Given the serious crisis in Asia and evidence of its spreading to other developing and transition countries, the attempt by German economic policymakers to achieve faster economic growth and higher employment almost exclusively by means of successes on export markets appears likely to fail sooner than had been expected by the DIW⁵. The significance of domestic demand has been systematically underestimated in recent years. With the help of extremely low pay settlements, the D-Mark was devalued in real terms; this promoted exports, but at the same time led to growth losses in private consumption and investment that more than offset the gains in exports. On top of this German fiscal policy—as documented in the following report in this issue—has weakened domestic demand and investment activity. This strategy might have worked if a symmetrically oriented monetary policy had reacted to the deflationary trend inherent in pay settlements and the fiscal-policy stance by swiftly and significantly reducing interest rates. This did not happen. It was therefore inevitable that the crisis in sales markets made its full effects felt on economic growth. More seriously still, if cost deflation in Germany is not brought to an end in the coming year by a return to productivity-oriented wage settlements, it will pose a major threat to the European Monetary Union.⁶ If Germany pursues a beggar-thyneighbour policy in a Europe without exchange rates, this can only result in deflation and a downward economic spiral.⁷     

Das Bedingungslose Grundeinkommen — ein tragfähiges Konzept?

The introduction of an unconditional basic income has been discussed in Switzerland for many years. Germany, however, takes a sceptical view of this idea. The authors of this ?Zeitgespräch“ express disparate opinions on how broadly the concept should be defined, but they agree on the motive behind the concept: respect for human dignity. Moreover, it may make many social policy rules obsolete. There are conflicting opinions concerning the reaction of labour supply to the unconditional basic income. Some authors fear that it will shrink substantially. But its financing will be the main problem. There are proposals to increase the value added tax rate. The economic impacts of funding it by income tax revenues are analysed using a macroeconomic model. Ultimately, the implementation of the concept will have distributional effects which are very difficult to predict.     

Disruptive innovation for social change

Countries, organizations, and individuals around the globe spend aggressively to solve social problems, but these efforts often fail to deliver. Misdirected investment is the primary reason for that failure. Most of the money earmarked for social initiatives goes to organizations that are structured to support specific groups of recipients, often with sophisticated solutions. Such organizations rarely reach the broader populations that could be served by simpler alternatives. There is, however, an effective way to get to those underserved populations. The authors call it "catalytic innovation." Based on Clayton Christensen's disruptive-innovation model, catalytic innovations challenge organizational incumbents by offering simpler, good-enough solutions aimed at underserved groups. Unlike disruptive innovations, though, catalytic innovations are focused on creating social change. Catalytic innovators are defined by five distinct qualities. First, they create social change through scaling and replication. Second, they meet a need that is either overserved (that is, the existing solution is more complex than necessary for many people) or not served at all. Third, the products and services they offer are simpler and cheaper than alternatives, but recipients view them as good enough. Fourth, they bring in resources in ways that initially seem unattractive to incumbents. And fifth, they are often ignored, put down, or even encouraged by existing organizations, which don't see the catalytic innovators' solutions as viable. As the authors show through examples in health care, education, and economic development, both nonprofit and for-profit groups are finding ways to create catalytic innovation that drives social change.     

Legal safeguards for direct investments in LDCs

The developing countries are caught in the cleft stick of assertion of national interests and independence, on one side, and need for an improved investment climate to attract foreign direct investment, on the other. The question facing the foreign firms is how they can safeguard their capital investments against encroachment by the host country which may even expropriate their assets.