Household Portfolios in Germany

This paper describes portfolio choices of German households in the 1980's and 1990's. We present stylized facts and analyze recent trends of asset ownership rates and asset shares on the basis of national accounts and survey data. We correlate socio-demographic household characteristics with asset shares and ownership, and analyze how German households have adjusted their asset portfolios in response to the policy changes during this time. A particular focus is on the effects of German reunification and the portfolio adjustments of East German households during the transition process.

A scalability analysis of grid allocation mechanisms

This article examines the broker's behavior with regard to a varying number of participating nodes and shows that incremental losses have to be accepted in central resource allocation when introducing new nodes. --Grid Computing

Antidumping enforcement in the European Community

In the European Community (EC), as in the United States,"injury"is what antidumping is all about. Antidumping laws are a flexible tool for preventing imports from displacing domestic production in politically influential industries. The vehicle for achieving that goal in the EC, however, is not protectionist rules, as in the United States, but protectionist discretion. The empirical results of this study have implications for EC trade policy after 1992. If protectionist interests demand compensation for the abolition of national protectionist barriers after 1992, EC antidumping measures offer them considerable scope for achieving their goals since measures are largely determined by political discretion. Antidumping measures could therefore become a pinnacle of"Fortress Europe". The results also suggest certain strategic considerations for the trade policy of developing countries. The authors argue that antidumping measures affecting developing countries are concentrated in industries with shifting comparative advantage, such as steel products, basic chemicals, and synthetic fibers. And such protection is more likely in sectors with strong, politically influential interest groups.TF054105-DONOR FUNDEDOPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade Policy,Access to Markets

Analysis of simulation environment

In this paper the requirements for an ALN simulation environment are analysed, as needed in the CATNETS Project. A number of grid and general purpose simulators are evaluated regarding the identified requirements for simulating economical resource allocation mechanisms in ALNs. Subsequently a suitable simulator is chosen for usage in the CATNETS project. --CATNETS simulator,requirements analysis,simulator selection

Zur Simulated Maximum-Likelihood-Schätzung von Mehrperioden-Mehralternativen-Probitmodellen

Die Simulated Maximum-Likelihood-Methode erlaubt die Schätzung von multinomialen Probitmodellen für Querschnitts- oder Paneldaten bei einer größeren Zahl von Entscheidungsalternativen. Im Rahmen von Monte-Carlo-Studien wird hier gezeigt, daß die Simulated Maximum-Likelihood-Methode bei Anwendung des Geweke-Hajivassiliou-Keane-Simulators auch für eine relativ geringe Anzahl an Zufallsziehungen zu exakten Schätzern der Koeffizienten der erklärenden Variablen im Mehrperioden-Mehralternativen-Probitmodell führt. Die Präzision der Schätzung der Varianz-Kovarianz-Parameter scheint dagegen sensitiv bezüglich der Größe der individuellen Auswahlwahrscheinlichkeiten, d.h. bezüglich der Anzahl der Entscheidungsalternativen und der Panelwellen zu sein. In einem einperiodigen Mehralternativen-Probitmodell lassen sich die Varianz-Kovarianz-Parameter relativ exakt bestimmen. Die Schätzgenauigkeit der Varianz- Kovarianz-Parameter im Mehrperioden-Mehralternativen-Probitmodell scheint dagegen mit zunehmender Anzahl der Perioden und Alternativen zu sinken

Microeconometric models of tourists' destination choice

Within the framework of a microeconomic model of leisure demand, the determinants of German tourists' decisions whether to spend vacation at all, which activities to pursue, and which travel destination to choose are investigated empirically. Three-stage nested multinomial logit models are applied to data from three independent samples of persons interviewed for their vacation behaviour in 1975, 1980, and 1985. Implicit prices for the bundles of activities chosen at each of the various destinations are determined by hedonic regression of total expenditure per person and day on the characteristics of the vacation spent. The estimates of these prices, together with a number of socioeconomic variables and individual judgements on destination-specific characteristics are used to explain the individual decision between the alternatives in the choice set. Estimation results clearly reflect the relevance of individual-specific search costs as well as the costs of overcrowding for the tourists' destination choice. While the budget constraint seems to have been alleviated over time, the time constraint has never lost its binding effects on the decision whether to spend vacation at all

Microeconometric models of tourists' destination choise

The focus of this paper is on the microeconometric analysis of spatial choice in a cross section. Nested multinomial logit models are used to analyze the determi-nants of individual choice among destinations and vacation activities. Cramer and Ridder's likelihood ratio test for pooled alternatives in multinomial logit models is sequentially applied in order to determine the adequate aggregation level of the mutually exclusive alternatives in the choice set. The specification test suggested by Chesher and Santos Silva (1992) is used to investigate whether or not the IIA proposition is fulfilled within the assumed choice subsets

Socio-Economic Mechanisms to Coordinate the Internet of Services: The Simulation Environment SimIS

Visions of 21st century information systems show highly specialized digital services and resources, which interact continuously and with a global reach. Especially with the emergence of technologies, such as the semantic web or software agents, intelligent services within these settings can be implemented, automatically communicating and negotiating over the Internet about digital resources without human intervention. Such environments will eventually realize the vision of an open and global Internet of Services (IoS). In this paper we present an agent-based simulation model and toolkit for the IoS: 'SimIS - Simulating an Internet of Services'. Employing SimIS, distributed management mechanisms and protocols can be investigated in a simulated IoS environment before their actual deployment.Multi-Agent Simulation, Internet, Simulation Tools

Evaluation and metrics framework

In this paper a metrics framework for evaluating different scenarios in the CATNETS project is defined. The aim is to use this framework to compare the catallactic scenario against the central auctioneer. --Grid Computing

Simulator Development - Annual Report Year 3

This document describes the progress of the simulator development with in the third year of the CATNETS project. The refinement of the simulator as well as a detailed guide to conducting simulations is presented. --Grid Computing