The shadow economy—An expanding field of activity

The existence of a broad range of economic activities in the “shadow” of the official economy is nothing fundamentally new. However, there are signs that the shift into the shadow economy has been increasing considerably from the seventies onwards. Whereas growth in the “official” economy slowed down perceptibly, the shadow economy has clearly become a pronounced growth sector in the Federal Republic of Germany and in many other industrial countries.     

Employment trends in the USA,Japan and the EC

Since 1973, the underlying tendency in most industrial countries has been for unemployment to increase strongly; the rate of unemployment rose noticeably in almost all instances. Nevertheless, trends in employment were much more varled, with significant differences visible between individual countries. The following article is a summary of the findings of a report concerning the reasons underlying differences between employment trends in the USA, Japan and the EC since 1973.¹     

Upturn overshadowed by asian crisis

The German economy is beginning to show signs of a steady recovery which is increasingly being reflected on the labour market. How do trends in the western and eastern parts of Germany differ? What are the effects of the Asian crisis? What is the outlook for the coming year?     

Strong economic upturn in Germany

A strong economic upturn has developed in Germany. But are there disparities between eastern and western Germany? What developments have there been in foreign trade and monetary policy? Are stimuli from fiscal policy to be expected? How good are the prospects for the year ahead?     

Spatial effects of foreign direct investment in US states

Abstract This paper estimates the aggregate productivity effects of Marshallian externalities generated by foreign direct investment (FDI) in US states, controlling for Marshallian externalities and other spatial spillovers generated by domestic firms. A regional production function framework models externalities and other spatial spillovers explicitly as determinants of total factor productivity. We employ a system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator to account for the potential endogeneity of FDI and the presence of spatial lags. Using data for US states from 1977–2003, the results indicate that FDI generates positive externalities, while externalities from domestic firms are negative.