Decomposing a decade's growth of Central and Eastern Europe's trade

After the breakdown of the central planning system, Central and East European countries (CEECs) took considerable effort in liberalising their economies leading to lasting changes in CEEC trade. As a result, between 1996 and 2004 almost all of these countries displayed very high growth rates of both exports and imports, exceeding OECD and Russian performance. These trade developments are described and interpreted in this note on a descriptive rather than an analytical basis. First, trade volumes by goods categories are examined to account for what kind of goods are the major trade growth drivers. In general, growth in exports and imports is mainly driven by goods used in production rather than consumer goods. Specifically for the Central and East European EU members (EU-8), export and import growth is mainly driven by capital goods and two-way trade in a special subgroup of intermediate goods, i.e., parts and accessories of capital goods. This result can be associated with increasing offshoring activities between the old EU member states and the new EU-8 countries. A closer look at EU-8 exports to and imports from Germany confirms this finding: EU-8 states tend to import parts and accessories of capital goods from Germany to produce and export parts and accessories of capital goods or final capital goods to Germany. Second, the effects of liberalisation on the variety versus the intensity of trade are described. Here as well, CEEC growth in trade at the extensive margin is driven by intermediate rather than consumer goods. Considering the import side this finding has important implications: While more consumer goods “only” have static welfare effects, a higher input variety might signal a change of the economy’s state of technology. The author is a graduate student at the Department of Economics, University of Regensburg and a research assistant at the OEI. I am grateful to Richard Frensch for many helpful discussions and guidance on this note.

How Trade Credits Foster International Trade

Internationally active firms rely intensively on trade credits even though they are considered particularly expensive. This phenomenon has been little explored so far. Our theoretical analysis shows that trade credits can alleviate financial constraints arising from asymmetric information because they serve as a quality signal and reduce the uncertainty related to international transactions. We use unique survey data on German enterprises to test the effect of the use of trade credits on firms' exporting and importing behavior, both at the extensive and intensive margins. Our results support the assertion that trade credits have a positive impact on firms' exporting and importing activities

The Effect of Cash-in-Advance Financing on Exporting during the Recent Financial Crisis -Firm Level Evidence from Europe and Central Asia

Abstract Trade credits are an important financing tool for firms and even more so for internationally active firms. In times of restrictive bank lending redistributional trade credit financing from financially sound to credit rationed firms can alleviate financial constraints. Thus, during a financial crisis, access to trade credit financing should become even more important for internationally active firms. In this paper, we analyze the effect of cash-in-advance financing on exporting activities of firms during the recent financial crisis. For a sample of European and Central Asian firms, we first explore how cash-in-advance financing is affected by the crisis. We then test whether cash-inadvance financing alleviates the negative impact of the crisis on the export activities of firms. We find evidence for a positive impact of cash-in-advance financing on exporting which is more pronounced in the crisis period

Ameublement in differenter Wiederholung. Über Maßstäbe, Technisierung und Typisierung in den Wohndiskursen im Journal des Luxus und der Moden

This essay centers around the Journal of Luxury and Fashion, one of the most popular journals around 1800 in Germany. The focus lies on the modes of representation it currently uses –  establishing a cluster of typification – and on the underlying models from art history: in three distinctive exemplary discussions, the author analyzes the Journal’s aesthetic schemes orientated on the genre of Interior/Room Pictures, on costume books like the Habiti antichi et moderni from Cesare Vecellio, and on „technical“ drawings commonly used in architectural sketches. Giving various examples from the Journal’s high quality copperplate engravings, and analyzing the interrelations of images and text paragraphs, the author’s aim is to put emphasis on how the Journal presents living as tactics of measurement and comparing/ normalization. Hence, it takes part in overall normalization and optimization processes that (gendered) subjects are confronted with in their everyday lives

Ameublement in differenter Wiederholung : Über Maßstäbe, Technisierung und Typisierung in den Wohndiskursen im Journal des Luxus und der Moden

This essay centers around the Journal of Luxury and Fashion, one of the most popular journals around 1800 in Germany. The focus lies on the modes of representation it currently uses –  establishing a cluster of typification – and on the underlying models from art history: in three distinctive exemplary discussions, the author analyzes the Journal’s aesthetic schemes orientated on the genre of Interior/Room Pictures, on costume books like the Habiti antichi et moderni from Cesare Vecellio, and on „technical“ drawings commonly used in architectural sketches. Giving various examples from the Journal’s high quality copperplate engravings, and analyzing the interrelations of images and text paragraphs, the author’s aim is to put emphasis on how the Journal presents living as tactics of measurement and comparing/ normalization. Hence, it takes part in overall normalization and optimization processes that (gendered) subjects are confronted with in their everyday lives

(Wie) Führt Außenhandel zu Wirtschaftswachstum?

This working paper deals with the question how international trade can lead to economic growth. Since only technical progress can lead to sustained economic growth international trade has to accelerate the rate of technical progress to promote economic growth. Technical progress is mainly generated by the production and the use of ideas. It can be shown that international trade fosters the production of ideas in industrialised countries and that it enables the use of ideas in developing countries. Therefore international trade can promote growth at least in the short run. This is demonstrated via theoretical models and empirical evidence as well as a separate empirical analysis concerning the variety of imported capital goods.

Analoge Objekte, digitale Ausstellungen – Neue Wege für die Präsentation universitärer Sammlungen. Ein Werkstattbericht

Wie auch andere Universitäten verfügt die Philipps-Universität Marburg über wissenschaftliche Sammlungen, zum Teil mit unikalem Charakter. Sie stärker sichtbar und für Forschung und Lehre weiter nutzbar zu machen, ist eine der zentralen Aufgaben des „Arbeitskreises Sammlungen“. Angesichts knapper personeller und finanzieller Ressourcen liegt der Schritt ins Digitale nahe: Bessere Zugänglichkeit, digitale Erschließungsmethoden und neue Vermittlungsoptionen werden möglich. Im Kontext der in Marburg nun von 2020 auf 2021 verschobenen Sammlungstagung der Gesellschaft für Universitätssammlungen e.V. (GfU) unter dem Motto „Digitales Kuratieren“ wurde eine Ausstellung konzipiert, die eine flexible und zugleich nachhaltige physische und digitale Präsentation von Sammlungsgegenständen in unterschiedlichen Sinnzusammenhängen ermöglicht. Wie sieht das Konzept aus, welche technischen Umsetzungen für die digitale Präsentation wurden gewählt, wie können die Ergebnisse des Projekts in zukünftige Dienstleistungsangebote der Universitätsbibliothek für Forschung, Lehre und Wissensvermittlung einfließen