The Galileo Project put to the test of European competition and public procurement law

The following article throws some light on the (fragile) legal foundations of the Galileo Project, the European Satellite Navigation System, and gives an interpretation of the normative procurement rules of the EU. Additionally it tries to reveal the practical problems of upholding the principle of free competition and an open market in as much as the procurement of high technology concerns a highly olipolistic market.     

Applications of Business Theatre in New Service Development

Applying business theatre can not only make a contribution in the context of change management, learning and development processes in companies, but also in the new service development (NSD) process. The authors show how business theatre can be applied in each step of NSD and present insights that they gained from a students’ and a research project. As service theatre addresses the “emotional side”, it is an ideal complement to a systematic NSD approach that addresses the “rational side” of a service.     

Assessing the employment effects of the German welfare reform – an integrated CGE-microsimulation approach

The purpose of this article is to quantify the employment effects of the recent German welfare reform. The key element of this reform was to merge the coexisting transfer systems Social Assistance (SA) and Unemployment Assistance (UA) into one unified benefit (Arbeitslosengeld II – ALG II). We also consider a second reform scenario that is intended to further improve the labour supply incentives of low-skilled workers. Our methodological contribution is to use an integrated CGE-microsimulation model. In adopting such an approach, we are able to combine the advantages of microsimulation studies by accounting for the large amount of heterogeneity in terms of households’ preferences and budget constraints with the advantages of an applied general equilibrium model. The latter permits us to identify potential general equilibrium repercussions through changes in wages and unemployment. The simulations indicate that the introduction of ALG II results in a negligible increase in employment of only 45?000 individuals. In contrast, a cut in benefit levels combined with a decrease in transfer withdrawal is shown to produce somewhat larger employment effects of about 190?000 individuals.     

PanelWhiz and the Australian Longitudinal Data Infrastructure in Economics

PanelWhiz is a graphical user interface that was written for the statistical software, Stata SE/MP Version 11 (Win/Mac/Linux) or later, which allows users to extract data from complicated multi‐level longitudinal datasets in an easy and efficient manner. Specifically, Australian datasets, such as Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life, Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, Footprints in Time—The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children and Consumer Attitudes, Sentiments & Expectations in Australia, have already been integrated into the common platform of the PanelWhiz system.     

Der Europäische Stabilitätsmechanismus ist eine Hydra

After the German Federal Constitutional Court had given its consent to the ratification of the ESM Treaty in an interim proceeding with judgment dated 12 September 2012, subject to several precautionary provisions, the court audience of the main action took place on the 11–12 June 2013. Apart from the acts approving the ESM and the fiscal treaty as well as the regulation (EU) 1176/2011, the German Constitutional Court dealt intensely with the announcement of the ECB Council dated 6 September 2012 to buy bond issues to an unlimited extent from ESM/EFSF-programme states (the so-called OMT programme). The author is the attorney in the procedure 2 BvR 1824/12 of Professor von Stein and others. The article reproduces the essential points of his opening and closing pleadings.     

Ist der Fahrplan der Energiewende noch einzuhalten?

The German energy transition represents a policy-driven, sustainability-oriented restructuring of both supply- and demand-side components of the entire energy system by 2050. Whereas the development of renewable energies in the electricity sector is right on track, due to the feed-in tariffs of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act, many other crucial requirements for a successful transition are not, amongst others the improvement of energy effi ciency and the decarbonisation of the transport sector. Contrary to the public discussion, the primary future challenges do not consist in limiting electricity prices or abandoning feed-in support schemes, but rather in coordinating the variety of actors as well as appropriately matching the different system elements (grids, technologies, energy sectors, demand and supply side, etc.). Much remains to be done. By highlighting some examples like the need to take into account future implications of climate change for the energy sector, the consequences of the current crisis in the European Union’s emissions trading scheme and the need for a cautious adjustment of the EEG, the paper argues that the major challenges regarding the German energy transition mainly go beyond the current policy-driven and short-term discussion of energy prices. Germany’s pioneering attempt to integrate steadily increasing share of non-dispatchable electricity from renewable sources is challenging the stability of the system. Several characteristics in the current selfregulating system are identifi ed and analysed, which reveal themselves as potential weaknesses or shortcomings in the upcoming system.     

The neglected need for strategic renewal in emerging markets: Lessons from Vietnam in transition

Research on strategy in emerging markets is based on overly static representations, paying insufficient attention to the impact of contextual change on the value of firms’ resources. This article examines how a sample of the most successful Vietnamese private companies during the first decade of their country's transition from central planning was affected by the shifting rules of the game in their business environment. I suggest the primary takeaway is that sustained superior performance in an environment with changing keys to success requires dedicated and ongoing strategic renewal. I also suggest the need for both scholars and managers to immerse themselves in emerging markets if they care to fully understand the granular ways in which these settings differ from more familiar advanced economies.     

Mergers and Acquisitions in the Software Industry

This paper analyzes approaches investigating success drivers of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the software industry. The literature review covers a classification of research papers in the generic and software industry specific M&A research discipline. The results accentuate that the impact of success factors depends on the research context and that many factors have not been examined so far with respect to the software industry. Building on these insights, the resulting areas for research are pointed out. The investigation of software industry specific factors, in particular, promises to contribute to the analysis of variance in M&A performance.     

AIDS treatment and intrahousehold resource allocation: Children's nutrition and schooling in Kenya

The provision of antiretroviral medications is a central component of the response to HIV/AIDS and consumes substantial public resources from around the world, but little is known about this intervention's impact on the welfare of children in treated persons' households. Using longitudinal survey data from Kenya, we examine the relationship between the provision of treatment to adults and the schooling and nutrition outcomes of children in their households. Weekly hours of school attendance increase by over 20% within 6 months after treatment is initiated for the adult patient. We find some weak evidence that young children's short-term nutritional status also improves. These results suggest how intrahousehold allocations of time and resources may be altered in response to health improvements of adults.     

Notenbankbilanzanalyse: Ein neues Werkzeug der Geldpolitik in der Subprime-Krise

Im Verlauf der Subprime-Krise verschlechterte sich die Notenbankbilanz der FED substanziell. Sind die herk?mmlichen Analyseinstrumente der Geldpolitik vor diesem Hintergrund noch ausreichend? Oder erfordern die aktuellen geldpolitischen Entwicklungen neue Analysemethoden in Form einer Notenbankbilanzanalyse? Müssen Betrachtungen der Geldqualit?t die Beobachtung der Geldmenge sowie der Notenbankzinssetzung erg?nzen?