The stalling engine in Wirtschaftswunder-Land: Germany's economic policy challenges

An Englishman once watched his first American football game. He looked intently as the team gathered into a huddle after each play. His American host asked him what he thought of the proceedings. “Not a bad sport,” remarked the visitor, “but they do seem to engage in an excessive number of committee meetings.” Maybe what is true for American football is much more typical for the German economy nowadays, where trade unions and employers’ associations determine the wage rate and where round tables are used to find solutions to economic policy challenges. On the more serious side, I want to talk about some of the economic policy challenges that Germany faces. Being an optimist by nature, I would paint a rosy picture, especially when abroad. As an academic, however, I have to paint a realistic picture. --

The role of the Russian Federation in the Pridnestrovian conflict: an international humanitarian law perspective

Pridnestrovie, a de facto state within the territory of the Republic of Moldova, declared itself independent in September 1990, a declaration that was followed by an armed conflict between Moldova and Pridnestrovie in 1992. To date no settlement has been achieved between the conflicting parties. The situation is complicated by the fact that the Soviet Union and subsequently the Russian Federation has been involved in the conflict in various ways. This article seeks to analyse the conflict from an international humanitarian law perspective. The involvement of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation in the conflict is of great significance because third-party involvement, depending on the level of involvement, has the potential to change the categorisation of a conflict from a non-international armed conflict to an international armed conflict. This in turn impacts on the number and nature of international humanitarian law provisions applicable to the conflict situation. As international humanitarian law provides protection to those fighting in and those caught up in a conflict, it is important to investigate which international humanitarian law provisions could be applicable. The article offers an assessment of the categorisation of the Pridnestrovian conflict, focusing on the role of the Soviet Union and Russian Federation, and the consequent implications for the application of international humanitarian law

Does Economic Uncertainty Have an Impact on Decisions to Bear Children? Evidence from Eastern Germany

Economic agents routinely face various types of economic uncertainty. Seldom have these various forms of uncertainty manifested themselves more sharply than in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe. In East Germany, the transition was especially rapid and sharp since East Germany virtually over night made the transition from the Eastern European system to the market economy of Western Germany. Uncertainties increased and many institutional and behavioral adjustments took place in a concentrated period of time. Among the latter was a sharp fall in fertility rates, leading to a growing literature on the explanation for this decline. This paper focuses directly on the link between uncertainty and childbearing decisions and examines the link at the micro level. It develops a stylized overlapping generations model showing that the relationship between economic uncertainty and childbearing decisions is not necessarily monotonic, and hence that the aforementioned inverse relationship is merely a testable hypothesis. It then uses GSOEP data for 1992 and 1996 to estimate the nature of this relationship, and concludes that while this relationship was indeed negative for East German women during these two years, the nature of uncertainty affecting their childbearing decisions differed across the years.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39876/3/wp491.pd

Policy responses to regional unemployment:Lessons from Germany, Spain and Italy

The paper examines the causes of high regional unemployment in Germany, Spain and Italy, and identifies a number of areas where policy action is needed. Lower unemployment rates will not only depend on stability-oriented macroeconomic policies and a sufficiently flexible labour market, but also on moves towards more decentralised wage bargaining systems; efforts to reduce regions' long-term dependency on fiscal transfers; changes in tax-benefit systems to improve incentives to create and take up jobs; efficient public expenditure on physical and human capital and action to reduce obstacles to labour mobility.labour force,wages,policy changes,labour mobility,European Economy. Economic Papers

Converting Europe - the potential for organic farming as mainstream

Organic farming is increasingly recognised, by consumers, farmers, environmentalists and policy-makers, as one of a number of possible models for environmental, social and financial sustainability in agriculture. It has taken a long time to get this far. Organic farming’s roots can be traced back more than 100 years. Certified organic production dates back 25-30 years (70 years in the case of Demeter-certified bio-dynamic production). Yet little more than one percent of agriculture in Europe is organic, and much less than that in other parts of the world. Many have argued that organic farming will never capture the hearts and minds of the majority of farmers, because it is too idealistic and restrictive. What is needed, they argue, is an intermediate approach, such as integrated crop management or an ill-specified ‘low-input’ or ‘sustainable’ agriculture that is not as ‘extreme’ as organic farming and is therefore more likely to be acceptable to the majority of farmers. Policy-makers face a difficult choice. Should they encourage more organic farming, which, as research increasingly demonstrates, often offers more environmental and other benefits than the intermediate approaches, but is believed to be only a minority interest? Or should they encourage the intermediate approaches, which, although the environmental benefits are more limited, may be adopted by more farmers, with possibly greater overall impact? And if, contrary to expectations, organic farming did become widely adopted, how could we feed a growing global population? It is time to dispel the myths and challenge the assumptions behind some of these statements in order to permit a fairer assessment of the potential of organic farming to meet sustainability goals in a European context, while also contributing to the pressing need to feed a growing global population in the next century. This paper discuses the growth of organic farming in Europe, and the potential, pre-conditions and implications for widespread conversion

The German monetary unification (Gmu): converting marks to d-marks

Monetary policy - Germany ; Germany

Maritime Commerce in Greater Philadelphia: Assessing Industry Trends and Growth Opportunities for Delaware River Ports

Maritime Commerce in Greater Philadelphia: Assessing Industry Trends and Growth Opportunities for Delaware River Ports is an evaluation of existing port conditions along the Delaware River and market-driven opportunities for expansion. The report includes an economic impact analysis, Delaware River port descriptions, global trends, and recommended strategies for ports growth. Key findings include:Region-wide port activity generates $69 million in tax revenues for state governments across Greater Philadelphia and more than$11 million in Philadelphia Wage Tax revenues.Each on-site port job supports two jobs from port activity and employee spending. Total regional port-related employment is 12,000+ jobs.Delaware River ports import nearly 1/2 of the nation's cocoa beans, almost 1/3 of the bananas, and a 1/4 of all fruit and nuts.Growing maritime commerce in Greater Philadelphia will require collaboration among Delaware River ports to leverage existing strengths and strategically invest in regional infrastructure improvements

Does Economic Uncertainty Affect the Decision to Bear Children? Evidence from East and West Germany

During their social, political and economic transition, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe experienced significant economic uncertainty. Many of these countries also experienced sharply falling fertility rates. There have been some suggestions that that these two phenomena are linked, i.e., that uncertainty has an impact of the decision to bear children. But the strength and nature of this relationship has not been examined carefully. This paper demonstrates the existence of such a link at the micro level using two different types of uncertainty measures based on GSOEP data from Eastern (and for comparison purposes also Western) Germany for the years 1992-2002. The results suggest that employment uncertainty (but not financial uncertainty) was considerably greater in Eastern Germany during its post-reunification transition than in Western Germany and had a highly nonlinear effect on the likelihood of childbirth. We also show that this uncertainty may have contributed significantly to the sharp drop in East Germany’s total fertility rate in the immediate aftermath of the reunification.

Becoming a parent in East Germany during the 1990s. The impact of personal considerations on the timing of entry to parenthood

This paper deals with psychological determinants of fertility differentials in East Germany in the 1990s. We test the explanatory and statistical power of psychological covariates in an event-history model of first-birth intensities together with other covariates. We show that different psychological covariates (wishes and fears, coping-styles, etc.) are important determinants of the transition to parenthood. A crucial finding is the existence of strong sex differentials in such impacts.Germany (Neue Bundesländer), fertility determinants, sex differentials, social psychology