Borders, policies and illusions: Essays on the political economy of federalism and trade

This PhD thesis studies the implications of local governance, decentralisation and regional autonomy under federalism. Furthermore, it contributes to the trade literature by bringing together the largely separated research on cartel behaviour and anti-dumping policy. More explicitly, this thesis identifies empirically that the implementation of communal mergers, regional autonomy and anti-dumping policy leads to unexpected outcomes. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 use the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1945-1991 as a case to study the local implications of communal mergers and of the decentralisation of government functions. Chapter 4 combines the largest databases on anti-dumping and antitrust cases to study the relationship of global cartels and anti-dumping laws. In response to policy-makers, this thesis argues that it is an illusion to expect that communal mergers only improve governance efficiency, that it is an illusion to expect federalism to more accurately reflect preferences of local populations, and that it is an illusion to expect that anti-dumping policy only protects competitive markets

The Start of Yugoslavia’s Disintegration: Where Borders Cut Commuting Spheres

Borders are often associated with low economic activity. A popular explanation for this phenomenon argues that borders cut market access. But as a growing amount of literature demonstrates that border effects persist after the removal of formal barriers, the forces behind low economic activity near borders remain unclear. This paper develops a new methodology to measure the market access of 16,596 settlements in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1965, right before the hardening of Yugoslavia’s federal borders. Based on elevation, rivers, roads and the Dijkstra algorithm, this methodology identifies 4,682 settlements whose commuting spheres crossed Yugoslavia’s federal borders. Using panel data for the 1948-1991 period, a difference-in-differences estimation identifies that the settlements that lost access to their nearest town due to hardened federal borders experienced strong decline in population growth following the reforms. Robustness checks demonstrate that depopulation occurred when settlements lost access to towns of significant size. This effect appears regardless of ethnicity and history. Instead, depopulation occurred in the absence of a nearby alternative town in the same federal unit

S3-Leitlinie zur Therapie der Psoriasis vulgaris Update - Kurzfassung Teil 2 - Besondere Patientengruppen und spezielle Behandlungssituationen

Die deutsche Psoriasis-Leitlinie zur Behandlung der Psoriasis vulgaris wurde unter Verwendung der GRADE-Methodik aktualisiert. Die Leitlinie wurde aufbauend auf einer systematischen Literaturrecherche (letzte Update-Recherche am 01.12.2016) entwickelt und in einem formalen Konsensus- und Freigabeverfahren verabschiedet. Der zweite Teil dieser Kurzfassung stellt die Empfehlungen zum Tuberkulose-Screening vor und unter Therapie, zur Therapieauswahl bei Kinderwunsch, Schwangerschaft und Stillzeit, vorliegender Gelenkbeteiligung sowie zum Umgang mit Impfungen dar. Zudem werden die Empfehlungen zur Therapieauswahl bei Komorbidität mit Hepatitis und Leberfunktionseinschränkungen, HIV, Tumorerkrankungen, Erkrankungen aus dem neurologischen und psychiatrischen Formenkreis, koronarer Herzkrankheit und Herzinsuffizienz, Diabetes mellitus, Niereninsuffizienz sowie chronisch entzündlicher Darmerkrankung dargestellt