Rezension

Ohne Zusammenfassung

---

Rezension

     

Two more classes of games with the continuous-time fictitious play property

Fictitious Play is the oldest and most studied learning process for games. Since the already classical result for zero-sum games, convergence of beliefs to the set of Nash equilibria has been established for several classes of games, including weighted potential games, supermodular games with diminishing returns, and 3×3 supermodular games. Extending these results, we establish convergence of Continuous-time Fictitious Play for ordinal potential games and quasi-supermodular games with diminishing returns. As a by-product we obtain convergence for 3×m and 4×4 quasi-supermodular games.     

A discrete model of optimal economic growth

Contrary to most of the literature on optimal economic growth a discrete rather than a continuous model is investigated. It is shown that in such a discrete model it is easy to account for relatively freely changing functions and parameters. Thus, the production function, labor, the investment ratio, and the parameters for time preference, marginal utility, and depreciation are all allowed to depend on time. Using discrete dynamic programming methods, optimal investment policies are determined explicitly. These generalize important results from previous literature on optimal economic growth.     

Does the dispersion of unit labor cost dynamics in the EMU imply long-run divergence?

Using unit labor cost (ULC) data from Euro area countries as well as US States and German Länder we investigate inflation convergence using different approaches, namely panel unit root tests, cointegration tests and error-correction models. All in all we cannot reject convergence of ULC growth in EMU. However, country-specific deviations from the rest of the currency union are much more pronounced and much more persistent in Europe than in the US or Germany. This holds before and after the introduction of the common currency. Hence, asymmetric shocks in the future might take a long time to dissipate.     

Price competition in markets with customer testing: the captive customer effect

We introduce product differentiation into the analysis of price competition in markets where suppliers test customers in order to assess whether they will pay for received goods or services. We find that, if the degree of differentiation is sufficiently high, suppliers may improve the average probability that their clientele will pay by charging higher prices. This helps suppliers to sustain high prices in equilibrium. Moreover, endogenizing locations in product space, we demonstrate that the high price level can be implemented in a pure-strategy subgame-perfect equilibrium with a high degree of differentiation. This is in contrast to the original Hotelling model with linear travel costs where a pure-strategy subgame-perfect equilibrium fails to exist.     

Ist die Kritik an internationalen Standortrankings berechtigt?

Internationale Standortrankings sind in jüngerer Zeit zunehmend in die wissenschaftliche Kritik geraten. Sebastian Gundel und Ulrich van Suntum analysieren im Folgenden, inwieweit eine kritische Studie zum L?nderranking von Ullrich Heilemann, Harald Lehmann und Joachim Ragnitz¹ ihrem wissenschaftlichen Anspruch selbst gerecht wird. Daran anschlie?end eine Erwiderung von Ullrich Heilemann, Harald Lehmann und Joachim Ragnitz.     

Effizienter Steuerverbund statt korrigierender Finanzausgleich

Der für diese Legislaturperiode geplante zweite Teil der F?deralismusreform bietet die Chance eines grundlegenden Systemwechsels. Wie k?nnen die widerstreitenden Finanzinteressen der Bundesl?nder mit den Anforderungen an die Anreizeffizienz des Systems in Einklang gebracht werden? Prof. Dr. Ulrich van Suntum, 53, ist gesch?ftsführender Direktor des Centrums für angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung der Universit?t Münster (CAWM); Klaus Hafemann, 32, Dipl.-Volkswirt, ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am CAWM.     

Vom Sofa aufs Kanape

Ohne Zusammenfassung Ulrich van Suntum ist Direktor des Instituts für Siedlungs- und Wohnungswesen der Universit?t Münster und Professor für Volkswirtschaftslehre