Is the New Keynesian Phillips curve flat?

Macroeconomic data suggest that the New Keynesian Phillips curve is quite flat - despite microeconomic evidence implying frequent price adjustments. While real rigidities may help to account for the conflicting evidence, we propose an alternative explanation: if price markup/cost-push shocks are persistent and negatively correlated with the labor share, the latter being a widely used measure for marginal costs, the estimated pass-through of measured marginal costs into inflation is limited, even if prices are fairly flexible. Using a standard New Keynesian model, we show that the GMM approach to the New Keynesian Phillips curve leads to inconsistent and upward biased estimates if cost-push shocks indeed are persistent. Monte Carlo experiments suggest that the bias is quite sizeable: we find average price durations estimated as high as 12 quarters, when the true value is about 2 quarters. Moreover, alternative estimators appear to be biased as well, while standard diagnostic tests fail to signal a misspecification of the model. JEL Classification: E30, C15Cost-push shocks, GMM estimation, New Keynesian Phillips curve, Price Rigidities

Banking in the Mediterranean: Financing needs and opportunities in turbulent times

This study explains the latest developments of the banking sectors in Mediterranean Partner Countries and discusses financing needs and opportunities that arise in these turbulent times. Its aim is to contribute to a better understanding of recent market developments as well as a to provide a useful reference text on banking in the region

Sex-specific responses to fecundity selection in the broad-nosed pipefish

Fecundity selection, acting on traits enhancing reproductive output, is an important determinant of organismal body size. Due to a unique mode of reproduction, mating success and fecundity are positively correlated with body size in both sexes of male-pregnant Syngnathus pipefish. As male pipefish brood eggs on their tail and egg production in females occurs in their ovaries (located in the trunk region), fecundity selection is expected to affect both sexes in this species, and is predicted to act differently on body proportions of males and females during their development. Based on this hypothesis, we investigated sexual size dimorphism in body size allometry and vertebral numbers across populations of the widespread European pipefish Syngnathus typhle. Despite the absence of sex-specific differences in overall and region-specific vertebral counts, male and female pipefish differ significantly in the relative lengths of their trunk and tail regions, consistent with region-specific selection pressures in the two sexes. Male pipefish show significant growth allometry, with disproportionate growth in the brooding tail region relative to the trunk, resulting in increasingly skewed region-specific sexual size dimorphism with increasing body size, a pattern consistent across five study populations. Sex-specific differences in patterns of growth in S. typhle support the hypothesis that fecundity selection can contribute to the evolution of sexual size dimorphis

Überlegungen zum Bau und zur Entwicklung bronzezeitlicher Schiffe

The rock paintings of Scandinavia provide a multitude of pictorial sources for navigation in the Bronze Age. Nevertheless, there are no fixed conceptions of the actual appearance and construction of the ships of this epoch. Three reasons can be cited: Firstly, research is frequently limited to regionally confined, easily accessible material, above all from Southern Scandinavia. Secondly, questions posed with regard to the material usually fail to take the Ievei of factual knowledge into account, concentrating instead on more comprehensive 'interpretations.' Thirdly, archaeological findings are extremely scarce. The only preserved vessel is the relatively late (13th c. B.C.) Hjortspring Boat, of which a reconstruction has also been carried out. The circumstances are further aggravated by the fact that the amount of pictorial material is immense and continually increasing, so that to date it has not been possible to draw up a comparative survey taking all regions of Scandinavia into account. The examination of the individual elements of the Bronze Age ship depictions - hull form, ornamentation, subdivision, post form and post embellishment, keel fin (?), paddle propulsion, masts (?), crew sizes - clearly indicates that the rock paintings supply not only an abundance of technical information, but even allow calculations of approximate ship sizes based on the size of the crew. A boat with a crew of 32, for example, is estimated to have measured some 20 metres in length. The vessels depicted served almost exclusively for the transport of persons, who may have carried a !arge number of objects with them (weapons, lurs, paddles, ceremonial [?] equipment). A comparison of the Hjortspring Bost construction with the evidence provided by the rock paintings reveals a !arge degree of correspondence. Furthermore, on this 283 basis, the assumption that Bronze Age ships were built of solid wood appears all the more justified. lt is thus possible to surmise an unbroken tradition of Nordic clinker work from the Bronze Age to the Viking period and beyond. Alternative constructions (skin boats, bark boats) can be found in special regional forms, but are unlikely to apply to the prevalent form. Success can be predicted for the endeavours to extend the tradition back into earlier Stone Age epochs. Furthermore, pictures in Alta (2nd phase) and Nämforsen provide what seems to be very promising material in the quest for transitional forms between the typical boats of the game hunters' period and those of the Bronze Age. Our primary concern should not, however, be the construction of an uninterrupted tradition but the recognition of unique forms developed in correspondence with regional particularities. ln the context ethnic and cultural differences also play a role

Angst, Aggression und die nationale Denkform: Osteuropäische Konflikte

Die den mittel- und osteuropäischen Nationalismus tragende Denkform gründet in spezifischen Mechanismen: Die Zuschreibung individuellen Handelns auf Kollektive macht kollektive Bestrafangen plausibel, die dann zu wechselseitigen, sich zirkulär bestätigenden Strafaktionen fahren können. Im Hintergrund steht die Angst vor dem Tod der Nation - sei es durch »Überflutung«, sei es durch separatistische Zerstückelung. Die Angst jener, die sich mit der Nation identifizierten, ist eine Realität - wenn auch mit fiktiven, durch politische Emotionalisierung erzeugten und damit von Dritten kalkulierbaren Ursachen

Festung Europa: Grenzziehungen in der Ost-West-Migration

Die Auflösung der west-östlichen »Systemgrenzen« weckt seit 1990 die Furcht vor einer massiven Einwanderung aus Osteuropa und der Sowjetunion, obwohl bislang nur eine kontrollierte Immigration stattgefunden hat. Diese Furcht greift auf Weltbilder zurück, die ihrerseits mit politischen Maßnahmen der EG und der ostmitteleuropäischen Länder korrespondieren. Den unterschiedlichen Armuts- und Arbeitslosigkeitsstrukturen entsprechen aber auch fortbestehende Mentalitäten, die sich in unterschiedlichen potentiellen Umgangsformen mit Minoritäten äußern