Waste management companies in Europe 2007

The paper reviews the international companies operating in the waste sector in Europe and recent trends in patterns of ownership, including private equity

On the politicization of intergovernmental fiscal relations in Germany after unification

A recent decision of the German Constitutional Court requires political decision makers to revise the system of intergovernmental transfers in order to limit free bargaining among state and federal government officials. The present paper provides empirical support for the thesis that political discretion has become increasingly important in the transfer negotiations after Unification. We attempt to show why political influences gained weight relative to economic considerations in the determination of net gains. This politicization of the fiscal transfer system appears to be a consequence of the inability of policy makers to agree on a fundamental reform in the early 1990's.

De facto anonymised microdata file on income tax statistics 1998

With the data of the de facto anonymised Income Tax Statistics 1998 (FAST 98), the German official statistics are for the first time publishing microdata from the field of fiscal statistics. The scientific community can use these data to analyse politically-relevant questions on the fiscal and transfer system at their own workplace, subject to the premises of article 16 subsection 6 of the Law on Statistics for Federal Purposes, on the basis of "real" assessment data. Passing on individual data to the scientific community is only possible in a de facto anonymised form. This form may impair possibilities for scientific analysis possibilities. So that anonymised data can nevertheless be used by the scientific community, anonymisation must meet two equal challenges: It must firstly guarantee adequate protection of the individual items of data, and secondly it must optimally conserve the possibilities for analysis of the anonymised data. In order to achieve the right balance between these two goals, the Statistical Offices have involved potential scientific users in the anonymisation work in a research project.In the article entitled "De facto anonymised microdata file on income tax statistics 1998", in addition to the anonymisation concept the framework conditions of the project are explained and the analysis possibilities of income tax statistics demonstrated

Resolving the Anglo-German industrial productivity puzzle, 1895-1935 : a response to Professor Ritschl

This paper offers a critical appraisal of the claim of Ritschl (2008) to have found a “possible resolution” to what he calls the “Anglo-German industrial productivity puzzle”. To understand the origins of this term, it is necessary to describe some recent developments in comparisons of industrial labour productivity between Britain and Germany. The Anglo-German industrial productivity puzzle really arose as the result of a new industrial production index produced by Ritschl (2004), which differed very substantially from the widely used index of Hoffmann (1965). Broadberry and Burhop (2007) pointed out that if the Ritschl (2004) index is combined with an index of German employment from Hoffmann (1965) and time series of UK output and employment from Feinstein (1972), it implies an implausibly high German labour productivity lead over Britain in 1907, when projected back from a widely accepted Germany/UK labour productivity benchmark for 1935/36

Economy as a religious problem: A political approach

This article tackles the problem of understanding money and economy with non-economic analytical categories. The first part is devoted to point out the differences between the exclusively economic approaches to money and the recent research, from anthropology to philosophy, that has laid stress on the political and religious aspects of the monetary phenomenon. The second part is focused on Georg Simmel´s fundamental contributions to a philosophical comprehension of money. Finally, a fragment by Walter Benjamin is the point of departure to consider the religious and political aspects of modern capitalism and their relationships with the works of Karl Marx, Ernst Troeltsch and Max Weber.Fil: Ludueña, Fabian Javier. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Subsidization of the shipbuilding industry in the Federal Republic of Germany

German shipyards were hit extremely hard during World War II, and then again in the following years when the parts that had not been damaged were disassembled by the Allies. But World War II and its consequences proved to be a blessing in disguise as it opened possibilities for a very prosperous shipbuilding industry in the fifties. That is, the yards were rapidly rebuilt with modern equipment, partly through Marshal- Fund aid. Since many of the refugees front the eastern parts of Germany had settled in the coastal regions of West Germany, a qualified work force was readily available. Relatively high productivity and low wages made German shipyards highly competitive and, as a result, by the mid-fifties, German shipbuilding industry had grown to become number two in Europe after the UK; 17.3 p.c. of vessels completed worldwide in 1956 were built on yards of the Federal Republic.

Regional policy in the Central and East European countries prior to the eastward enlargement of the EU, with special focus on regional policy developments in East Germany

The contribution investigates the status and the problems of establishing regional policies in selected CEE countries %28Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary%29 in the preliminary stages of accession to EU. According to the rules of the European structural funds the European financial means can only be used, if the CEE applicants have their own regional policy which must be compatible to the regulations of the EU structural funds. The European Commission still criticises in its progress reports a number of deficits with respect to the formation of the regional policies in the applicant countries. From the Commission’s viewpoint the deficits are seen particularly within the administrative area. The contribution deals itself not only with the administrative aspects, but above all with the conceptional arrangements of the regional policies in the applicant countries. It is investigated, how the CEE countries handle the area designation, whether there exists a regional policy strategy and what kind of strategy (growth vs. equalisation) will be preferred and whether there have been designed policy instruments being suitable to implement the regional policy strategy and what types of instruments are designated to be used. The outlined questions have played an important role since the beginning of the 90''''s also in Germany, when the new German Länder were integrated into the German and European regional policy. Therefore the East German experiences of developing a regional policy which corresponds to the existing regional problems are also included into the contribution. The contribution is based on the analysis of literature and documents about the regional policy in CEE countries and in the new German Länder as well as of documents of the EU, in which the regional policy of CEE applicant countries is analysed and evaluated.

Stimuliert der BioRegio-Wettbewerb die Bildung von Biotechnologieclustern in Deutschland?

Regions with biotechnology-specific knowledge seem to have best chances to attract potential entrepreneurs to establish a biotechnology-firm. Furthermore, regional oriented technology policy is supposed to stimulate the creation process of biotechnology clusters, too. The BioRegio contest (BRC) is the most prominent example for this kind of policy support. The analysis tries to test both hypotheses empirically. Our estimation results are in accordance with expectations and empirical evidence for the US: Scientists at public research institutes are key players for the commercialization of radical biotechnology discoveries in the region of their place. BRC participating regions have best conditions to attract biotech companies on average. Further, exclusive financial support of BRC winning regions does not contribute significantly to cluster biotechnology industry stronger than in non-winning regions. --Biotechnology,start-ups,economic geography,technology policy,count data model

German FDI in Latin America and Caribbean in the Wake of the Crisis

International Relations/Trade,