Specialization in Higher Education and Economic Growth

This paper presents a new market failure in the decision on educational type in higher education. Individuals choose types of education with different degrees of specialization. Labor market transformation makes some individuals opt for a non-specialized education type that broadens the future career possibilities in an uncertain labor market. However, the growth rate in the economy is assumed to positively depend on the amount of specialized workers that get a job within their specialized field. Imposing a tax and transfer scheme in favor of specialized education types may correct for the market failure and Pareto improve the economy if the transfer attracts a sufficiently large amount of new students to a specialized education type and if their effect on the growth rate is substantial.Educational Choice; Growth

Enrollment in higher education, ability and growth

This paper examines the importance of the ability of high-educated individuals on the growth rate. I consider two sources of heterogeneity among individuals: ability and consumption value of education. The latter is assumed to depend on family background and will thus generate different ability thresholds to enroll in higher education for different family background types. If the effect of high-educated individuals on the growth rate depends on their ability, this will affect the willingness of low-educated individuals to contribute to the funding of higher education. Whether state funded subsidies to higher education benefit some of the low-educated individuals or even are Pareto improving is shown to depend on the switchers’ ability and hence their influence on the growth rate.Higher education; Growth

Effects of Redistribution Policies - Who Gains and Who Loses?

The paper combines optimal taxation theory with human capital theory and develops a theoretical model with endogenous wages and education decision, in which redistributive policy experiments are carried out and assessed. It is argued that general equilibrium effects of labor income taxation on wages may counteract fiscal redistribution. It is also shown that education subsidies may only benefit skilled workers, suggesting that this subsidy can merely be viewed as a redistribution from unskilled to skilled individuals. Therefore, optimal policy involves a lump-sum education tax in the form of a negative education subsidy.Income Redistribution; Education Subsidies

Women and Reparations

Reparations for victims of gross human rights violations are becoming an increasingly acknowledged feature in post-authoritarian and post-conflict societies coping with the legacy of a violent past. Despite some recent progress much more work needs to be done for massive reparations programs to respond better to the needs of women. This article, resting as it does on a comprehensive conception of reparations, outlines both the procedural and substantive components of reparations programs necessary for the programs to fulfill the goal of providing (partial) justice to women

Learning with whom to Interact: A Public Good Game on a Dynamic Network

We use a public good game with rewards, played on a dynamic network, to illustrate how self-organizing communities can achieve the provision of a public good without a central authority or privatization. Given that rewards are given to contributors and that the choice of whom to reward depends on social distance, free-riders will be excluded from rewards and the (almost efficient) provision of a public good becomes possible. We review the related experimental economics literature and illustrate how the model can be tested in the laboratory

Eine legierungstechnische Diskussion über den möglichen Zusammenhang zwischen Schmuckwaren und Münzsilber im 10. Jahrhundert

Im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts Reiterkrieger – Burgenbauer: die frühen Ungarn und das ‚Deutsche Reich‘ vom 9. bis zum 11. Jahrhundert wurden an Funden frühungarischer Silberwaren des 10. Jahrhunderts minimalinvasive chemische Legierungsanalysen durchgeführt. Anhand einer stichprobenartigen Gegenüberstellung von Schmucksilber aus Grab 595 und Münzen aus Grab 100 von Szeged-Kiskundorozsma wurde die Frage diskutiert, ob die untersuchten Silbermünzen dieses Fundortes ohne weitere Veränderung der Legierung zur Herstellung der dort gefundenen silbernen Beschläge zu verwenden gewesen wären. Die Analysen zeigten, dass die Mehrzahl der Münzen sich deutlich von den Beschlägen unterscheidet, jedoch eine Prägung Hugos von Provence große Ähnlichkeiten mit drei Objekten aufweist und als Ausgangsmaterial für deren Herstellung hätte dienen können