Imbalances: Should the EU intervene? Bertelsmann Stiftung EUROPA Briefing 2017

Economic imbalances keep recurring in the EU. Differences in trade balances dominate the debate. Germany has been generating very high surpluses for years and meets criticism for this reason. Are imbalances a threat to the EU, and what role does the euro play in this? Should politicians adjust differences in the balance of trade? And if so, is that up to national governments or the EU

European taxes: Do we need them? Bertelsmann Stiftung EUROPA Briefing 2017

In the European Union, each member state is responsible for its tax system. Different national regimes help with tax competition, but can also lead to tax evasion or unfair rules in the Single Market. That is why better coordination or even standardisation of taxes is debated. What tax regulations are there already in the Single Market? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of a European tax? And what reforms are being discussed in Europe

The four freedoms in the EU: Are they inseparable? Bertelsmann Stiftung EUROPA Briefing 2017

The four freedoms govern the movement of goods, persons, services and capital within the EU. They are the cornerstones of the Single Market and the common currency. Many citizens see them as the greatest achievement of the European unification project. Brexit has reignited the discussion surrounding the free movement of people - that is the opportunity to live and work in any EU country. Technically speaking, it is possible to separate the four freedoms, but does it make political sense

Convergence: Are the Eurozone countries too different? Bertelsmann Stiftung EUROPA Briefing 2017

The Eurozone countries are economically different. The crisis has rendered some of these differences more acute and this could destabilize the currency union. The Eurozone countries therefore need to agree on which type of convergence is most important to them and the best way to achieve it. In what areas should they converge? What differences could or should remain? And what policy instruments are required to achieve this

Why the euro area needs new convergence goals and how to choose them

Economic convergence is generally taken as an important requirement for the euro area to function correctly. Without this, the significant differences between euro area economies could make sharing a currency problematic. As Anna auf dem Brinke writes, however, political and market forces have so far proven unable to prevent imbalances between member states. She argues that new convergence goals should be a key priority for the euro area and suggests a number of principles for choosing better convergence indicators

Parallel currencies in historical perspective

[Introduction ...] To make the topic accessible to a bachelor thesis, and prevent the discussion from becoming too superficial, only a few representative parallel currency systems will be considered here. The second and third chapter will begin with a discussion of parallel currencies and currency competition throughout ancient, medieval, and modern Europe. Comparing the monetary history of Ancient Greece and Rome will illustrate the virtues of competing parallel currencies. A discussion of imaginary money' in medieval Europe will show that separation of the functions of money is a common feature of monetary history. The fourth chapter will look into flexible domestic exchange rates in China and Japan between the 17th and 19th century. The Chinese experience will demonstrate parallel currencies' ability to discover the boundaries of optimum currency areas, while the Japanese case will show how separating the functions of money can help protect agents from the detrimental effects of debasements. In the fourth chapter, the introduction of parallel paper currencies in America, such as the continentals and greenbacks, will be considered. These issues usually failed due to a lack of trust in the issuing authorities, illustrating the difficulties of introducing a weak parallel currency. Finally, the fifth chapter will discuss the role of stable and indexed parallel currencies as tools of monetary reform during hyperinflations - namely, the rentenmark in the German hyperinflation of 1932 and the tax pengö in the Hungarian hyperinflation of 1945/46. The conclusion will discuss the differences and communalities between the historical episodes. Last but not least, some tentative conclusions regarding the relevance of historical experience for the introduction of parallel currencies in the Eurozone will be drawn

An EPQ model with trapezoidal demand under volume flexibility

In this paper, we explored an economic production quantity model (EPQ) model for finite production rate and deteriorating items with time-dependent trapezoidal demand. The objective of the model under study is to determine the optimal production run-time as well as the number of production cycle in order to maximize the profit. Numerical example is also given to illustrate the model and sensitivity analyses regarding various parameters are performed to study their effects on the optimal policy

CLIPPER: an add-on to the Trans-Proteomic Pipeline for the automated analysis of TAILS N-terminomics data

Data analysis in proteomics is complex and with the extra challenges involved in the interpretation of data from N-terminomics experiments, this can be daunting. Therefore, we have devised a rational pipeline of steps to approach N-terminomics data analysis in a statistically-based and valid manner. We have automated these steps in CLIPPER, an add-on to the Trans-Proteomic Pipeline (TPP). Applying CLIPPER to the analysis of N-terminomics data generated by terminal amine isotopic labeling of substrates (TAILS) enables high confidence peptide to protein assignment, protein N-terminal characterization and annotation, and for protease analysis readily allows protease substrate discovery with high confidenc

Women and men with coronary heart disease in three countries : are they treated differently?

Non-medical determinants of medical decision making were investigated in an international research project in the US, in the UK and in Germany. The key question in this paper is whether and to what extent doctors' diagnostic and therapeutic decisions in coronary heart disease (CHD) are influenced by the patients' gender. A factorial experiment with a videotaped patient consultation was conducted. Professional actors played the role of patients with symptoms of CHD. Several alternative versions were taped featuring the same script with patient-actors of different sex, age, race and socio-economic status. The videotapes were presented to a randomly selected sample of 128 primary care physicians in each country. Using an interview with standardized and open-ended questions, physicians were asked how they would diagnose and treat such a patient after they had seen the video. Results show gender differences in the diagnostic strategies of the doctors. Women were asked different questions, a CHD was mentioned more often as a possible diagnosis for men than for women, and physicians were less certain about their diagnosis with female patients. Moreover, results indicate that gender differences in management decisions (therapy and lifestyle advice) are less pronounced and less consistent than in diagnostic decisions. Magnitude of gender effect on doctors' decisions varies between countries with smaller influences in the US. Although patients with identical symptoms were presented, primary care doctors’ behavior differed by patients' gender in all three countries under study. These gender differences suggest that women may be less likely to receive an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment than men