Verbesserung der Regierungsführung in den AKP-Ländern?

Die Europ?ische Union verhandelt zurzeit mit den AKP-L?ndern über so genannte Economic Partnership Agreements. Diese Abkommen haben vor allem die Entwicklung der AKP-L?nder als Ziel. Eine elementare Vorbedingung für Entwicklung ist die Qualit?t der Regierungsführung. Jedoch ist eine gute Regierungsführung in vielen AKP-L?ndern derzeit alles andere als selbstverst?ndlich. Wie kann die Europ?ische Union dazu beitragen, diese Missst?nde zu beheben und eine nachhaltige Entwicklung der betroffenen L?nder zu f?rdern? Sind die Economic Partnership Agreements überhaupt ein ad?quates Mittel, um diese Herausforderung zu bew?ltigen? PD Dr. Matthias Busse, 41, leitet den Kompetenzbereich Weltwirtschaft am Hamburgischen WeltWirtschaftsInstitut (HWWI); Steffen Gr?ning, 28, MA International Economics, ist Forschungsassistent am HWWI und promoviert an der Universit?t Hamburg. Dieser Artikel basiert auf einer Studie, die im Auftrag der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung durchgeführt wurde. Die vollst?ndige Studie kann von der Webseite des HWWI heruntergeladen werden: www.hwwi.org.     

Playing Cournot although they shouldn’t

Summary. In this note, we experimentally investigate the extended game with action commitment in a Cournot duopoly with asymmetric cost. Risk dominance considerations allow to select a unique equilibrium in which the low-cost firm is the Stackelberg leader. The data, however, do not support the theory as simultaneous-move play is modal. Average output choices are in line with the Cournot equilibrium. This suggests that Cournot is a much more robust predictor for competition in markets than theory suggests.Received: 14 October 2002, Revised: 1 December 2003, JEL Classification Numbers: C72, C92, D43. Correspondence to: Hans-Theo Normann     

Editorial

Original Papers

Editorial     

Boon or bane? Others' unemployment,well-being and job insecurity

The social norm of unemployment suggests that aggregate unemployment reduces the well-being of the employed, but has a far smaller effect on the unemployed. We use German panel data to reproduce this standard result, but then suggest that the appropriate distinction may not be between employment and unemployment, but rather between higher and lower levels of labour-market security, at least for men. Men with good job prospects, both employed and unemployed, are strongly negatively affected by regional unemployment. However, insecure employed men and poor-prospect unemployed men are less negatively, or even positively, affected. There is however no clear relationship for women. We analyse labour-market inequality and unemployment hysteresis in the light of our results.     

Estimating a high-frequency New-Keynesian Phillips curve

This paper estimates a high-frequency New-Keynesian Phillips curve via the generalized method of moments. Allowing for higher-than-usual frequencies strongly mitigates the problems of small-sample bias and structural breaks. Applying a daily frequency allows us to obtain estimates for the Calvo parameter of nominal rigidity over a very short period—for instance for the recent financial and economic crisis—which can then be easily transformed into their low-frequency equivalences. With Argentine data from the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2011 we estimate the daily Calvo parameter and find that on average prices remain fixed for approximately two to three months which is in line with recent microeconomic evidence.     

Cultural change that sticks

When a major change initiative runs aground, leaders often blame their company's culture for pushing it off course. They try to forge ahead by overhauling the culture--a tactic that tends to fizzle, fail, or backfire. Most cultures are too well entrenched to be jettisoned. The secret is to stop fighting your culture--and to work with and within it, until it evolves in the right direction. Today's best-performing companies, such as Southwest Airlines, Apple, and the Four Seasons, understand this, say the authors, three consultants from Booz & Company. These organizations follow five principles for making the most of their cultures: 1. Match strategy to culture. Culture trumps strategy every time, no matter how brilliant the plan, so the two need to be in alignment. 2. Focus on a few critical shifts in behavior. Wholesale change is hard; choose your battles wisely. 3. Honor the strengths of the existing culture. Every culture is the product of good intentions and has strengths; put them to use. 4. Integrate formal and informal interventions. Don't just implement new rules and processes; identify "influencers" who can bring other employees along. 5. Measure and monitor cultural evolution. Otherwise you can't identify backsliding or correct course. When the leaders of Aetna applied these rules while implementing a new strategy in the early 2000s, they reinvigorated the company's ailing culture and restored employee pride. That shift was reflected in the business results, as Aetna went from a $300 million loss to a $1.7 billion gain.