Economic growth in the post-socialist Russian Federation after 1991: The role of Institutions

The paper emphasizes the transition in Russia and the role institutions played before and during the process. In Russia, a big bang approach was applied. That is to say, transition was conducted all of a sudden, omitting important underlying reforms. This practice should function as a shock therapy. Hence, the approach should leave no other chance than an abrupt adaption to the new free-market rules. These rules would then lead to fast economic growth and development, as they did in other places. However, since Russian GDP per capita and thereby living standards deteriorated dramatically in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the plan did not work. At any rate, since then Russian economic indicators recovered and partly achieved their pre-1991 levels at the end of the last decade. The paper depicts Russia's reform efforts and the subsequent developments. The close ties among the political elite, the banking sector and the old nomenklatura are demonstrated. The patrimonial system that persisted for centuries is still observable at the state level. At any rate, Russia can neither evade its historical and institutional development path nor its societal structures that are based on networks and nepotism. Russia's systemic lack of the rule of law and therewith of secure property, the character of the Russian political system with the patriarch as the head of state and the resulting necessity of corruption and bribes inhibit the realization of its full growth potential. --country studies,economic systems,formerly centrally planned economies,growth,institutions,transition economies

Perspectives of Workers with Low Qualifications in Germany under the Pressures of Globalization and Technical Progress

This paper gives a detailed analysis of the perspectives of workers with low qualifications in Germany under the twofold pressures of globalization and technological change. First, alter-native explanations for the skill-bias in the development of labour demand are discussed, with particular emphasis on the “trade versus technology” debate. The consequences of the demand shift away from low-skilled labour in Germany are examined in a detailed empirical analysis of the development of (un)employment problems differentiated for qualification groups. Compared to other advanced economies, Germany shows a higher unemployment rate among less-qualified workers which is generally associated with a lack of flexibility in the German wage structure. However, an analysis of German, U.S. and British wage data based on the Cross National Equivalent File (CNEF) does not confirm the assumption of a simple mono-causal relationship between wage disparity and the intensity of group-specific unemployment. Finally, some political approaches for an improvement of the job prospects of less-qualified persons in Germany are outlined briefly and evaluated against the background of the empiri-cal results.low-skilled labour, unemployment, wage inequality, globalization, skill-biased technological change, CNEF

Deutsche Innovationspolitik: Herausforderungen im Zuge der Globalisierung

Das Wirtschaftswachstum eines Landes hängt immer stärker von dessen Innovationsfähigkeit ab. Ohne ein leistungsfähiges und international vernetztes Innovationssystem wird Deutschland den zunehmenden Herausforderungen im Zuge der Globalisierung immer weniger gewachsen sein. Über die Integration in den Europäischen Raum und den Ausbau der Beziehungen zu dem weltweit führenden amerikanischen Innovationssystem hinaus muss sich Deutschland verstärkt um die Vernetzung mit den asiatischen Ländern, wie Japan, Südkorea, China und Indien, bemühen. Deutschland kann sich hier durch seine Kompetenzen in den Schlüsselbereichen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie, Nanotechnologie, Bio- und Gentechnologie sowie Medizintechnik als attraktiver Partner für diese Länder profilieren. Hierzu müssen die institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen für eine flexible, strategisch orientierte Innovationspolitik in Deutschland verbessert werden, insbesondere durch Fokussierung auf zentrale Technologie- und Anwendungsfelder und verstärkte zentrale Koordination

Economic growth in the post-socialist Russian Federation after 1991 : the role of institutions

The paper emphasizes the transition in Russia and the role institutions played before and during the process. In Russia, a ?big bang? approach was applied. That is to say, transition was conducted all of a sudden, omitting important underlying reforms. This practice should function as a shock therapy. Hence, the approach should leave no other chance than an abrupt adaption to the new free-market rules. These rules would then lead to fast economic growth and development, as they did in other places. However, since Russian GDP per capita and thereby living standards deteriorated dramatically in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the plan did not work. At any rate, since then Russian economic indicators recovered and partly achieved their pre-1991 levels at the end of the last decade. The paper depicts Russia?s reform efforts and the subsequent developments. The close ties among the political elite, the banking sector and the old nomenklatura are demonstrated. The patrimonial system that persisted for centuries is still observable at the state level. At any rate, Russia can neither evade its historical and institutional development path nor its societal structures that are based on networks and nepotism. Russia?s systemic lack of the rule of law and therewith of secure property, the character of the Russian political system with the patriarch as the head of state and the resulting necessity of corruption and bribes inhibit the realization of its full growth potential

Deutschlands Wachstums- und Investitionsdynamik nach der globalen Finanzkrise

Deutschland hat sich von dem scharfen Einbruch infolge der globalen Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise schneller erholt als die meisten anderen entwickelten Länder. Die Schwäche der Nachfrage aus dem Euroraum wurde kompensiert durch ein starkes Wachstum der Exporte in die Länder außerhalb der Eurozone. Eine wesentliche Rolle spielte dabei die hohe Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der deutschen Wirtschaft auf den Weltmärkten, insbesondere auf den dynamischen Märkten der Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländer. Dagegen haben vor allem die Krisenländer der Eurozone in der zurückliegenden Dekade an internationaler Wettbewerbsfähigkeit eingebüßt. Aufgrund ihrer Abhängigkeit vom europäischen Binnenmarkt und der fehlenden Spezialisierung auf innovative, auf den Weltmärkten nachgefragte Produkte zählen sie im globalen Standortwettbewerb zu den Verlierern. Die eingeleiteten Reformen werden nicht sofort eine Wende herbeiführen können. Selbst Deutschland wird es nicht leichtfallen, seine günstige Weltmarktstellung zu bewahren, da sich der globale Strukturwandel und Standortwettbewerb noch verschärfen dürften.The German economy recovered more rapidly than the majority of other developed countries from the severe slump that the global economic and financial crisis brought in its wake. Weak demand in the euro area was offset by robust growth in exports to countries outside the region. The German economy's strong competitive position on global markets, particularly on the dynamic emerging and developing markets, played a vital role here. In contrast, over the last decade, the euro area's crisis countries in particular have experienced a decline in their competitiveness on international markets. Due to their dependence on the single European market and failure to focus on innovative products in demand on global markets, they are among the losers in the global competition for foreign direct investment. The reforms that have been introduced will not be able to generate an immediate trend reversal. Even Germany will struggle to maintain its favorable market position as global structural change and competition to attract business to the region are likely to increase in intensity

New economy in der Krise?

Der scharfe konjunkturelle Einbruch in den USA seit Beginn des vergangenen Jahres hat in der breiten Öffentlichkeit zur Frage geführt, ob sich die zuvor viel gepriesene New Economy als Illusion erweisen könnte. Doch von den Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) gehen auch weiterhin zunehmend wichtige Impulse für die Gesamtwirtschaft aus. Wie kann die große Unsicherheit über die mittel- bis langfristigen Entwicklungstrends der New Economy verringert werden

Perspectives of workers with low qualifications in Germany under the pressures of globalization and technical progress

This paper gives a detailed analysis of the perspectives of workers with low qualifications in Germany under the twofold pressures of globalization and technological change. First, alternative explanations for the skill-bias in the development of labour demand are discussed, with particular emphasis on the ?trade versus technology? debate. The consequences of the demand shift away from low-skilled labour in Germany are examined in a detailed empirical analysis of the development of (un)employment problems differentiated for qualification groups. Compared to other advanced economies, Germany shows a higher unemployment rate among less-qualified workers which is generally associated with a lack of flexibility in the German wage structure. However, an analysis of German, U.S. and British wage data based on the Cross National Equivalent File (CNEF) does not confirm the assumption of a simple monocausal relationship between wage disparity and the intensity of group-specific unemployment. Finally, some political approaches for an improvement of the job prospects of less-qualified persons in Germany are outlined briefly and evaluated against the background of the empirical results

The political Kuznets Curve for Russia : income inequality, rent seeking regional elites and empirical determinants of protests during 2011/2012

The goal of this paper is to apply the theory of the political Kuznets curve to Russia and reveal the key determinants of the probability of recent protests during 2011-2012 in the Russian regions. We apply the political Kuznets curve in the time and spatial dimensions, and find mixed evidence: throughout time, we observe an almost linear and positive relation between income and income distribution, whereas in the spatial dimension there exists an evidence of a concave curve. Empirical investigation of the role of income inequality using the latent variable framework allows us to outmanoeuvre certain measurement issues and state that conventional measures of income inequality, such as the Gini coefficient, may not be able to predict protests. Instead, we use the relation of the governors? family income to the average family income in the region, a proxy for rent-seeking of regional elites, which turns out to be a positive, significant and robust determinant of the protests. Applying additional controls ensures the robustness of the results and highlights the fact that democracy score and the economic factors are also significant. Mapping the distribution of the protests provides information on the clustering effect