Too Many Cooks? Committees in Monetary Policy

How many people should decide monetary policy? In this article, we take an empirical perspective on this issue and analyze the relationship between the number of monetary policy decision makers and monetary policy outcomes. Using a new data set that characterizes central bank monetary policy committees (MPCs) in more than 30 countries from 1960 through 2006, we find a U‐shaped relationship between MPC size and inflation; our results suggest that the lowest level of inflation is reached at MPCs with an intermediate size of about five to nine members. Similar results are obtained for inflation variability. Other MPC characteristics also matter for monetary policy outcomes, though to a smaller degree. For instance, the membership composition of the MPC as well as the frequency of MPC membership turnover appears to affect economic variables.     

Religion,economics and politics: The Bishops and Keynes in the post-Keynesian ERA

This paper makes a proposal for reintroducing sociological or social economics into contemporary economic science. Such a reintroduction is proposed to be substantive, by analyzing the social structuring of the economy, and formal, by including sociological/social economics in the current (JEL) classification system of economic disciplines (code A.15). Both epistemological and ontological arguments can be presented to support the proposal. Epistemological arguments invoke the presence of essential components of sociological economics in the development of economic thought, and ontological arguments stress the role of social factors in economic life. In this paper I present primarily epistemological (theoretical-methodological) arguments for sociological economics, and secondarily ontological ones. I show that the present designation, sociology of economics, is something different from sociological or social economics in that the former refers to economic epistemology (knowledge) and the latter to economic ontology (reality). I conclude that, in addition to a sociology of economic science, we need a sociology of economic life.     

Do Three Trade Blocs Minimize World Welfare?

Two interesting results have emerged from research on symmetric models that make the analysis of bilateralism tractable. Krugman reported that three trade blocs minimize world welfare. Frankel, Stein, and Wei argued that the formation of continental trading blocs can reduce welfare. This paper shows that these results are not robust. In particular, it is argued that the inclusion of more realistic assumptions into a symmetric model changes the picture considerably. Specifically, if one allows for transportation costs, conventional results are obtained. The phenomenon of three welfare-minimizing blocs and "super-natural" blocs disappears.     

Same Same But Different: Dialects and Trade

Language is a strong and robust determinant of international trade patterns: Countries sharing a common language trade significantly more with each other than countries using different languages, holding other factors constant. In this article we present the first analysis of the effect of language on trade in an intra‐national context. Analyzing unique data for a single‐language country, Germany, we find that similarities in the local dialect have a significantly positive impact on regional trade. We interpret this finding as evidence for the trade‐promoting effect of culture, because linguistic similarities likely reflect cultural ties across regions, rather than lower costs of communication or similar institutions.     

Politik mal anders: Die Politikdarstellung in „Harald Schmidt“ im Kontrast zur „Tagesschau“

Politics on television is no longer reserved for the news media; it is rather increasingly expanding into formats with their main focus on entertainment, e.g. late night comedy. However, so far research in German-speaking countries has more or less neglected these programs and their potential for political discourse. This article focuses on the specific characteristics in the depiction of politics in the German late night comedy Harald Schmidt and compares the results with the news-show Tagesschau. The interest is on the share of political issues, on the political actors and their depiction and on the presentation of the political stories. The quantitative content analysis includes all weekly episodes of one season of Harald Schmidt (2009/10), and for each episode the three preceding episodes of the Tagesschau. As expected Harald Schmidt has a lower share of political issues than Tagesschau. With regard to the selection of political actors, the late night comedy favors individual and national actors and focuses more frequently on private aspects. The presentation of the political stories is characterized by a lower degree of information, a higher degree of personalization and less balanced comments.     

Social economics and the new world order: A roman-catholic perspective

Revised version of a paper presented at the 1993 Midwest regional meetings of the Association for Social Economics, Indianapolis, IN.