Resale Price Maintenance for Books in Germany and the European Union: A Legal and Economic Analysis

Traditionally, in the German language area, the resale or end-sale price charged for new books in bookstores to the end customer has been a fixed or list price, observance of the list being enforced by the German Book Traders'''' Association (Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels). The association operates a complex system of rules governing book fairs, registration of copy rights, dispute resolution in the publishing industry, communication between authors, publishers, the book trade and the general public, training and continuous education of the more than 22,000 licensed booksellers and many others. Recently, the European Commission has rescinded a comfort letter and challenged the end price system operated in the German language area for more than a century. This move by the retiring commissioner for competition was, however, challenged in the commission''''s last meeting, and the issue has not yet been resolved. This paper, after an introduction, gives an in-depth review of the history and organisation of the German book trade. The end sale price maintenance rule is considered a part of a complex organisation governing this industry. Part two is devoted to the law and economics analysis, which is complicated by the problem lying at the heart of the battle over competencies, whether the end sale price maintenance is a matter primarily of competition or of cultural diversity. The paper concludes with a set of preliminary findings.business administration and economics ;

Heinrich von Storch’s concept of the use of mathematics in political economy

Heinrich von Storch (1766-1835) can claim a very specific position in the history of political economy. Clearly steeped in Camaralist thought, due to his upbringing and later scholarly work in Russia, he was primarily interested in the nature and the causes of the wealth of a nation that he considered to be richly endowed with natural resources yet badly lagging in development and the creation of wealth. He therefore laid specific emphasis not only on the processes of production and circulation of goods, but in particular on the cultural environment in which the economic process can take place. From this vantage point, he developed a system of political economy in which he also addressed the issue of which role different methods could play. In this short article, his view on the use of mathematics or algebraic methods in particular is discussed.Economics, Mathematics, Russia

The University as an Economic Institution: The Political Economy of the Althoff System

Friedrich Althoff (1839-1908), who created the “Althoff system”, has had a singularly important influence on shaping academic institutions in Germany for almost a generation. As a close collaborator of leading German scholars his influence lasted almost throughout the second empire (1882-1907). He has been described as brilliant by some and disastrous by others. Recent advances in the new institutional economics and the economic analysis of the organization of inquiry, as well as better access to the archival materials, have created the possibility of arriving at a clearer picture of the Althoff system. Is a first attempt at an economic analysis of the Althoff system; therefore should be viewed as an exploratory essay. In particular, addresses three questions: What precisely was the Althoff system? How can we go about analysing the system? How did the system function and perform? The essay has five substantive parts: first, offers a brief introduction to science research as it is currently practised in economics; second, introduces the historical record and the main criticism levelled against the system and offers a stylized description of the Althoff system in terms of emphasizing key features; third, subjects the stylized features of the system to economic analysis, relying heavily on the property rights theory of the firm and treating the university as an economic institution; fourth, takes a slightly different approach by applying Gordon Tullock's analysis of the organization of inquiry to the Althoff system; fifth, offers a summary of the findings and an economic definition of the Althoff system.Economic systems, Economic theory, Economics, Germany, History, Universities