Are imports and remittances cointegrated for the Central and Eastern European countries?

In this article, we investigate the existence of long-run common trends between imports and remittances in 11 Central and Eastern European countries which are part of the European Union. Using the Engle–Granger two-step procedure, we determine that for all countries in our sample there are no long-run common trends (no cointegration) between imports and remittances. However, the results are mixed when running a Granger causality test. For nine countries, we can establish either a bidirectional or unidirectional Granger causality, indicating that past values of one variable have predictive content on the other variable. In two countries, there is no Granger causality between imports and remittances.     

The socio-economic determinants of COVID-19: A spatial analysis of German county level data

The study explores the association of socioeconomic, demographic, and health-related variables at the regional level with COVID-19 related cases and deaths in Germany during the so-called first wave through mid-June 2020. Multivariate spatial models include the 401 counties in Germany to account for regional interrelations and possible spillover effects. The case and death numbers are, for example, significantly positively associated with early cases from the beginning of the epidemic, the average age, the population density and the share of people employed in elderly care. By contrast, they are significantly negatively associated with the share of schoolchildren and children in day care as well as physician density. In addition, significant spillover effects on the case numbers of neighbouring regions were identified for certain variables, with a different sign than the overall effects, giving rise to further future analyses of the regional mechanisms of action of COVID-19 infection. The results complement the knowledge about COVID-19 infection beyond the clinical risk factors discussed so far by a socio-economic perspective at the ecological level.     

Twenty-Five Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall: An Empirical Revisit of West German Consumers' Attitudes Toward Products and Brands from Former East Germany

More than 25 years after the German reunification, data show that products/brands from the eastern regions of Germany (“Neue Länder”) still do not have significant shares in the country's western part (“Alte Länder”). To analyze potential reasons for this phenomenon, our current study replicates a previous study that investigated selected attitudes of Alte Länder consumers toward products/brands from the Neue Länder. It is shown that factors such as consumer ethnocentrism, product judgment, willingness to buy, and economic animosity continue to influence consumer behavior and as such our study offers potential explanation for the failure of Neue Länder products/brands in the western regions of Germany.     

德国自由主义走向法西斯主义的原因探析

自由主义是西方资本主义的代名词，但在德国，有着追求大民族理想的历史传统，自由主义在与浪漫主义的冲突和民族主义的强大势力的威慑下缓慢发展，结果走向了法西斯主义。反思历史可以警惕极端民族主义思潮；同时在全球化的背景下也应避免走向削弱民族意识乃至丧失民族意识的极端思潮。     

Regional job-turnover and industrial policy. a note on a potential time pattern of regional industrial policies and their job effects - the case of the german city-state of bremen

Many regions have experienced long-run economic fluctuations generated by the life cycles of their dominant industrial clusters. During the downswings in the 1970s and 1980s, proactive structural policies were typically launched in German regions to combat job losses in their core clusters and to create new jobs in new industries. With respect to the German State of Bremen, this paper provides empirical evidence of: (1) a long-run regional downswing; (2) the potential job effects of proactive regional industrial policy programmes in terms of increasing regional employment, by safeguarding jobs in the regional core industries and creating new jobs in new growth industries; and (3) a time pattern in the job effects, which are related to the different generations of programmes.     

德国邮政:扩张战略网罗世界物流

对德国邮政的物流战略进行了分析，并通过分析绘制出德国邮政世界网的物流模式。     

新历史学派、德国实践与我国医疗改革——兼论我国医疗保障改革设想

德国新历史学派是19世纪最主要的经济思想之一，其主要观点在抨击自由经济主义的同时，也为德意志帝国社会保障体系的建立提供了直接理论基础。而当今德国的医疗保障实践则是政府主导、市场参与的“混合型”医疗保障模式，这充分综合了政府和市场两种资源配置方式的优势。德国新历史学派的主要观点和德国实践经验对我国当前的医疗改革有较好的指导意义。我国医改必须重新对政府与市场在医疗保障改革中进行合理定位、明确边界，建立国家主导、市场参与的“混合型”医疗保障模式。市场化或者国家统管的医疗改革方案都是违背理论规律和历史实践的。     

Public-private sector wage differentials in Germany: Evidence from quantile regression

This paper measures and decomposes the differences in earnings distributions between public sector and private sector employees in Germany for the years 1984–2001. Oaxaca decomposition results suggest that conditional wages are higher in the public sector for women but lower for men. Using the quantile regression decomposition technique proposed by Machado and Mata (2004), we find that the conditional distribution of wages is more compressed in the public sector. At the low end of wages, differences in characteristics explain less than the raw wage gap when it is the opposite at high wages. Separate analyses by work experience and educational groups reveal that the most experienced employees and those with basic schooling do best in the public sector. All these results are stable over the 80s and 90s.I thank Michael Lechner and the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, for letting me work with the full sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). I am grateful to an anonymous referee and particularly to the editor, Bernd Fitzenberger, for providing me detail comments and suggestions that have significantly improved the paper. I have also benefited from discussions with Michael Lechner and Ruth Miquel.First version received: April 2002/Final version received: June 2004