Leader of the pack? German monetary dominance in Europe prior to EMU

In this paper, the monetary policy independence of European nations in the years before European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is investigated using cointegration techniques. Daily data is used to assess pairwise relationships between individual EMU nations and ‘lead’ nation Germany, to assess the hypothesis that Germany was the dominant European nation prior to EMU. By and large our econometric investigations support this hypothesis, and lead us to conclude that the only European nation to lose monetary policy independence in the light of monetary union was Germany. Our results have important policy implications. Given that the loss of monetary policy independence is generally viewed as the main cost of monetary unification, our findings suggest a reconsideration of the costs and benefits of monetary integration. A country can only lose what it has, and in Europe the countries that joined EMU — spare Germany — apparently did not have much to lose, at least not in terms of monetary independence. Instead, they actually gained monetary policy influence by getting a seat in the ECB's governing council which is responsible for setting interest policy in the euro area.     

Bei Anruf Hilfe

Pflege-Notruf-Zentrale ist rund um die Uhr erreichbar - H?ufig geraten hilfsbedürftige Menschen unerwartet in Situationen, in denen schnelle, kompetente und unbürokratische Hilfe erforderlich ist. In Düsseldorf startete die Pflegenotruf Deutschland GmbH im April mit dem Pilotprojekt „Pflege-Notruf-Zentrale“ (PNZ). Was kann sie leisten?     

Den Pflegeberuf jetzt aufwerten

Pflege spielt eine zunehmend wichtige Rolle im Gesundheitswesen - Dies macht eine ?ffentlich-rechtliche Regulierung der Pflegeberufe und ihrer T?tigkeit notwendig. So lautet das Fazit eines neuen Rechtsgutachtens des Kieler Juristen Gerhard Igl.     

Gesundheits-Coaching

Zusammenfassung  Telefonische Betreuung für chronisch Kranke — In den USA gibt es diesen Service schon seit über 20 Jahren. Auch in Deutschland greifen immer mehr Krankenkassen zum H?rer, um ihre Versicherten bei wichtigen Gesundheitsfragen zu unterstützen. Besonders geeignet für diese Aufgabe sind Pflegekr?fte. Sie haben den „besten Zugang zu den Patienten“, betont etwa die Kaufm?nnische Krankenkasse (KKH). Seit genau einem Jahr testet die Krankenkasse in Halle und München den Einsatz von Gesundheitsberatern.     

Trade policy impacts under alternative land market regimes in rural China

In this paper we apply a simulation model of a village economy in Guizhou province, China, to assess impacts of trade reform at the household and the village level under alternative land market regimes. Putting special emphasis on the modeling of household migration a trade reform scenario is simulated with and without the existence of a land rental market in the village.Significant impacts of the land market on the policy outcome regarding household production, income and welfare are found. The possibility to trade land within the village leads to increasing specialization into agriculture and migration among the households as a response to the policy shock. In a situation with a land market, incomes of households which expand agricultural production are less negatively affected by trade reform than incomes of households which migration more.At the village level, a land market does not influence the poverty outcome of the reform but reduces its inequality enhancing impact. Village migration and exports of agricultural outputs increase.     

Avoiding market dominance: product compatibility in markets with network effects

As is well recognized, market dominance is a typical outcome in markets with network effects. A firm with a larger installed base offers a more attractive product which induces more consumers to buy its product which produces a yet bigger installed base advantage. Such a setting is investigated here but with the main difference that firms have the option of making their products compatible. When firms have similar installed bases, they make their products compatible in order to expand the market. Nevertheless, random forces could result in one firm having a bigger installed base, in which case the larger firm may make its product incompatible. We find that strategic pricing tends to prevent the installed base differential from expanding to the point that incompatibility occurs. This pricing dynamic is able to neutralize increasing returns and avoid the emergence of market dominance.