Will the (German) NAIRU Please Stand Up?

Abstract. This paper deals with a critical assessment of the ‘non‐accelerating inflation rate of unemployment’ (NAIRU) for Germany. There are quite a few obstacles to perceiving the NAIRU as an easy‐to‐use analytical instrument: the possibility of a non‐vertical Phillips curve, the occurrence of shocks and hysteresis effects, and the (mis‐)measurement of important variables, cointegration issues and a time variability of the NAIRU. A new attempt is made to estimate a NAIRU for Germany using direct measures of inflationary expectations. However, by any method, the NAIRU is very hard to determine and subject to considerable arbitrariness.     

Ill-behaviour of transformation-frontiers with environmental quality versus pollution

If one looks at environmental quality N as a renewable natural resource (with its own natural dynamics) which is changed by emissions Z, then one gets a better understanding of the shape of the damage function. In the case of a logistic growth dynamics one obtains a well-shaped transformation frontier N(Z), even in a two-species natural dynamics. For a more general natural interaction in the framework of a prey-predator model one obtains the possibilities of a cusp catastrophe which makes the transformation frontier N(Z) ill-shaped for the standard arguments of economists and their most favoured environmental policy instruments.     

Advancing into the 21st Century: Visions and Challenges Facing the Downunder Economy

Long-term visions serve to focus on essentials for sustained economic and social welfare. We now have to face up to the challenge of globalisation (growing international capital mobility), at a time when we are undoing our historic, self-imposed protectionism. This also creates new opportunities, in particular in the dynamic Asia-Pacific economies.
There still is a 'window of opportunity' before an aging population will become a dominant problem. In the next 25 years, business will have to cope with high real interest rates and major uncertainties that now surround environmental policies.
If we are to take on these challenges in constructive and beneficial ways, we have to develop an institutional order that enables the utilisation of knowledge by enterprising people. This requires a simple, transparent and reliable legal and regulatory framework, which supports competitive market processes, and the defence of openness to international trade and capital flows against particular interest groups.
It seems plausible that the Downunder economy can grow over the next 25 years at about 3.5 per cent per capita if the right institutional conditions are created. If we fail to do so, a growing share of the capital, the skills and the enterprise made Down-under will move to offshore locations which encourage a better use of knowledge and capital by enterprising people. This would deprive many of economic opportunity. The central challenge therefore is to develop a system of government and labour relations which makes the Downunder economy internationally attractive.     

Debt-equity swaps and the heavily indebted countries

In search of solutions to the international debt crisis, attention has recently been focused on a new financing technique, so-called debt-equity swaps. An essential difference between these and the usual swapping of debt into equity is that the former allow a wider range of applications. The following article seeks to elucidate the possible contribution of debt-equity swaps towards easing the debt burden and to estimate the potential for a reduction in external debt and its effect on the balance of payments of the debtor nation.     

Right to work: Job creation New Zealand style

Between 1984 and 1994, successive New Zealand governments—first of the left, then of the right—managed the most dramatic and comprehensive deregulation exercise of any OECD country in decades. What have been the effects of this on the labour market?     

Economic reforms in the industrial sector of the People's Republic of China

At the end of the 1970s there occurred a re-orientation of development policy in the People's Republic of China. Changes were introduced in the sectoral development priorities, the guiding principles of the State's incomes and foreign trade policies and in the organization of agricultural production. Above all, initial steps were taken to realign the administrative control system in the industrial sector more towards a market-oriented economic system. This article examines the guiding ideas behind the reform of the industrial sector and the measures taken so far. Emphasis is placed on the introduction of taxation on enterprises' profits which was recently decided and had long been a subject of dispute.     

Strategy Development: Conceptual Framework on Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its action-oriented offspring Corporate Citizenship (CC) currently trigger an intensifying debate on ethics, role and behavior of companies within civil society. For companies, CSR raises the question of what may be the “good reason(s)” for acting responsible towards its members, customers or society. In order to answer this question, we face the debate on CSR and its strategic engagement drivers on the levels of corporate culture, social innovation, and civil society. In this article, we provide a conceptual framework based on the analytic distinction of legitimation and sensemaking. The conceptual framework developed in this article can serve as a basis to develop a company’s CSR strategy. It provides measures and instruments to make complex CSR processes more visible and manageable.