Is there aJ-curve for the economic transition from socialism to capitalism?

It is often assumed that the process of transition from socialism to capitalism involves a dislocation and disorganization of the economy in the early stages of the transition. Thus, it is argued, economic performance will at first worsen and then gradually improve as the new system takes hold. This paper argues that, based on evidence from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, there is no evidence for such aJ-curve phenomenon. Using a simple macroeconomic model, we show that, in these three reforming countries, the decline in production can be explained by exogenous shocks to the balance of trade, to investments and to autonomous consumption. This finding also suggests that macroeconomic policy in these countries may be too restrictive to permit a recovery of employment and production.     

Tourism in Austria a case study of the influence of tourism on ethnic relations

This study discusses the influence of tourism on ethnic relations between two populations in southern Austria. For many centuries the two populations have co-existed in the same geographical area. This co-existence was based on the exploitation of two separate ecological niches in the same environment — trading and farming. With the coming of tourism in the late 1950's, however, both populations are now cooperating and competing within the same ecological niche, tourism. Tourism has led to increased contact between the two groups and greater participation in each other's affairs. This contact and participation in turn has had the effect of breaking down ethnic boundaries which had remained virtually unchanged for over one thousand years prior to the advent of tourism.     

Die Reform des Konsumentenkreditrechts auf dem 53. Deutschen Juristentag Zu Reichs Bericht in ZVP, 4, 1980/4

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Perfect foresight dynamics in binary supermodular games

The present paper considers equilibrium selection in binary supermodular games based on perfect foresight dynamics. We provide complete characterizations of absorbing and globally accessible equilibria and apply them to two subclasses of games. First, for unanimity games, it is shown that our selection criterion is not in agreement with that in terms of Nash products, and an example is presented in which two strict Nash equilibria are simultaneously globally accessible when the friction is sufficiently small. Second, a class of games with invariant diagonal are proposed and shown to generically admit an absorbing and globally accessible equilibrium for small frictions.     

Inequality and growth: the neglected time dimension

Inequality affects economic performance through many mechanisms, both beneficial and harmful. Moreover, some of these mechanisms tend to set in fast while others are rather slow. The present paper (i) introduces a simple theoretical model to study how changes in inequality affect economic growth over different time horizons; (ii) empirically investigates the inequality–growth relationship, thereby relying on specifications derived from the theory. Our empirical findings are in line with the theoretical predictions: Higher inequality helps economic performance in the short term but reduces the growth rate of GDP per capita farther in the future. The long-run (or total) effect of higher inequality tends to be negative.