Das adaptierte deutsche Arbeitsbeziehungsmodell im Vergleich

Zusammenfassung  Das deutsche Modell der Beziehungen zwischen Arbeitgebern und Arbeitnehmern innerhalb eines Unternehmens — vor allem die betriebliche Mitbestimmung — stand lange Zeit in der Kritik, w?hrend das anglo-amerikanische Modell als überlegen angesehen wurde. Welches Arbeitsbeziehungsmodell w?hlen deutsche und amerikanische Unternehmen in einem in Hinblick auf die Ausgestaltung der Arbeitsbeziehungen freizügigen Umfeld, wie es in Gro?britannien herrscht? Wie wirkt sich die Wahl des Modells auf Arbeitsproduktivit?t und Profi tabilit?t der Tochterunternehmen aus? Prof. Dr. Arne Heise, 48, lehrt Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Universit?t Hamburg und an der Izmir Economics University, Türkei; Prof. Dr. Heinz Tüselmann, 49, lehrt International Business an der Manchester Metropolitan University; Prof. Dr. Frank McDonald, 58, lehrt International Business an der University of Bradford; und Matthew Allen, 38, ist Lecturer an der Manchester Business School. Prof. Dr. Arne Heise, 48, lehrt Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Universit?t Hamburg und an der Izmir Economics University, Türkei; Prof. Dr. Heinz Tüselmann, 49, lehrt International Business an der Manchester Metropolitan University; Prof. Dr. Frank McDonald, 58, lehrt International Business an der University of Bradford; und Matthew Allen, 38, ist Lecturer an der Manchester Business School. Dieser Aufsatz fasst die Ergebnisse eines von der Hans-B?ckler-Stiftung gef?rderten Projektes „Employee Relations and Firm Performance: A Comparison of German and US Multinational Companies in the United Kingdom“ zusammen.     

The demand for relational goods: empirical evidence from the European Social Survey

How are happiness and the demand for relational goods and status goods related? Using cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey, this relationship is investigated for European countries. The main result is that the demand for relational goods is not reduced by high opportunity costs of time. Rather, both wage rate and income are positively related to the frequency of social contacts. In contrast to financial means, while status is more important for happiness in richer European countries than in poorer ones, social status is not decisive for the frequency of meeting friends regardless of the home country’s economic well-being. Thus, while no crowding out of relational contacts by status could be observed, relational goods are even boosted by material well-being.     

The economics of delegated regulation: The EEC and the case of insurance

It is the stated objective of the European Commission to open hitherto protected industries to international competition by the end of 1992. To this end, national governments have ceded regulatory authority over insurance to the Commission. Rather surprisingly however, the Commission in its turn appears to delegate this authority to insurance associations in EEC member countries. In this contribution, an attempt is made to explain why a supranational government might take the dual decision not to wield newly-won powers and to choose industry associations rather than governments as its partners in the regulatory process. The paper also sheds some light on the implications of such delegated regulation both for the Commission and insurers.     

Hedging Long-Term Forwards with Short-Term Futures: A Two-Regime Approach

In this paper we investigate Metallgesellschafts problem of hedging long-term forwards with short-term futures. Very different hedging strategies have been proposed in the literature. We attribute these differences to the underlying valuation approaches for oil futures and empirically compare five model-based hedging strategies. In particular, we consider a strategy which results from a two-regime pricing model. This continuous-time equilibrium model reflects the observation that prices of oil futures exhibit a very different behavior for low and high oil prices. Our empirical study shows that time diversification is the dominant effect for an effective hedging of long-term oil forwards with short-term futures. JEL classification G13, G30