Die volkswirtschaftliche Produktionsfunktion in dynamischer Betrachtung

Ohne ZusammenfassungDas Manuskript dieses Artikels wurde im Juni 1958 abgeschlossen.     

Growth Effects of EU Membership: The Case of East Germany

The East German experience after unification in 1990 probably comes close to what might be called a controlled experiment for assessing the growth effects of EU membership. This article uses an open-economy neoclassical growth model as a measure of reference against which the actual performance of the East German economy can be evaluated. With no obvious differences in institutions and technology, and with physical capital accumulation in East Germany exceeding the West German rate, differences in human capital remain as the major reason for differences between the theoretical and the actual East German growth rate. Simulation results suggest that East Germany's stock of human capital per worker reaches only about one third of the West Germany level. The main lesson from the East German experience for other EU accession countries is that catching up may come to a halt below the EU average, even under pretty favorable institutional and financial conditions.     

Factor Price Equality and Biased Technical Change in a Two-Cone Trade Model

We reconsider the effects of long‐run economic growth on relative factor prices across cones of specialization. We model economic growth as exogenous technical change. Allowing for capital biased technical change with a sector bias and for endogenous commodity prices, we find that economic growth may increase or decrease factor price differences across cones. For a neutral demand side and capital biased growth in the most capital intensive sector, we find that economic growth encourages less factor price diversity across cones.     

Ineligibles and eligible non-participants as a double comparison group in regression-discontinuity designs

In a sharp regression-discontinuity design (RDD) the participation status deterministically depends on whether a pre-programme characteristic is above or below a specified threshold. The attractiveness of such a design rests on close similarities with a formal experiment. Nevertheless, it is of limited applicability since participation into a programme is seldom determined according to this rule. Besides, in the presence of heterogeneous effects a sharp RDD only allows identification of mean effects for individuals around the threshold for participation. Two results are presented in this paper, and they both partially overcome the two limitations described above. We show that when individuals self-select into participation conditional on some eligibility criteria a sharp RDD provides a natural framework to define a specification test for the non-experimental estimation of programme effects for participants away from the threshold. We also show that, in this set-up, the regularity conditions required for the identification of the mean counterfactual outcome for participants marginally eligible for the programme are essentially the same as in a sharp RDD.     

Technology differences in empirical studies of international trade

We show that the specification of technology differences in recent empirical studies of trade is not supported by basic growth theory and may lead to biased estimates of the pattern of specialization and trade.     

Political regime type and variation in economic growth rates

Research about the effects of regime type on economic growth rates did not establish any robust differences in average growth rates between democracies and autocracies. Here, it is suggested that we may have asked the wrong question. There still might be a difference in variances. Democracy implies similar constraints on rulers and thereby might lead to quite similar economic performances. Among autocracies, however, constitutional and institutional constraints are likely to be weak and variable. Moreover, personal inclinations of autocrats might matter much more than personality differences between democratic rulers. Data from the 1960–87 period supply some evidence that there is indeed greater variation in growth rates among autocracies than among democracies.     

Consumer Adaptation Strategies: From Austrian Shilling to the Euro

On 1st January 2002, in 12 countries of the European Union, euro notes and coins replaced existing national currencies. The currency changeover required citizens to adapt in various ways. They had to learn to handle new coins and notes, and evaluate prices in the new currency. Data on how these tasks were performed by Austrians are presented. In particular, Austrian consumers applied four different strategies to establish price intuition for the euro: a conversion strategy, an intuitive strategy, an anchor strategy, and a marker value strategy. Data on these strategies show that their application varies across socio-demographic characteristics, differs with purchase situations, relates to euro attitudes, and changes over time. Although the introduction of the euro took place about 5 years ago, the adaptation process is still ongoing.     

Rau,Hermann and Roscher: contributions of German economics around the middle of the nineteenth century

The main contributions to the now much neglected, though highly innovative proto-neoclassical tradition of German economics during the middle two quarters of the nineteenth century are surveyed. Particularly stressed are the creation of a subjective demand analysis with an ‘objective’, i.e. costorientated supply analysis with a rising long-run supply curve (foreshadowing Marshall); and furthermore the full development of marginal productivity analysis of factor remuneration, not only by Thuenen.