Book Review on: African Development Bank Group, Enhancing Development in Africa – Public Private Partnerships, 2002, Valencia: Pressgroup Holdings Europe
Tobias Knedlik
African Development Perspectives Yearbook: Private and Public Sectors: Towards a Balance,
2004
Abstract
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East German Exports: Remarkable Catch-up, but Still Lagging Behind
Götz Zeddies
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
20 Jahre Deutsche Einheit - Teil 1 -
2009
Abstract
German reunification entailed severe adjustment processes in East German export industries. With political and economic transition in Eastern Europe, at that time the main export market for East German producers, export demand initially collapsed in the early 1990s. Additionally, the introduction of the Deutschmark in Eastern Germany amounted to a massive revaluation, and international competitiveness of East German producers deteriorated. However, manufacturers in the New Federal States opened up new markets, especially in Western Europe and the Americas. As a consequence, after the downturn of construction activity and investment in the mid-1990s, international trade became the driving force of GDP-growth in Eastern Germany. Although since then, goods exports of the New Federal States grew twice as much as those of Western Germany, export ratio (goods exports as a percentage of GDP) only amounts to 22 per cent in Eastern Germany, compared to 42 per cent in the western part of the country. Even in comparison to Eastern European countries in transition, openness to trade of the New Federal States is still comparatively low. As an empirical analysis shows, this must be largely traced back to smaller firm sizes in the New Federal States as well as to the lower importance of manufacturing industries, which are traditionally more export-oriented. Moreover, East German manufacturers largely specialized on intermediate inputs, which are supplied to final assembly lines in Western Germany, but are not recorded as exports. Thereby, East German export performance is considerably underestimated.
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Competition and Antitrust Policy in the Enlarged European Union: A Level Playing Field?
Jens Hölscher, Johannes Stephan
Journal of Common Market Studies,
2009
Abstract
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Finanzielle Instabilität und Krise in den Post-Transformations-Ländern
Hubert Gabrisch
Wirtschaftspolitische Blätter,
No. 3,
2009
Abstract
Contagion was only the trigger of the unexpectedly severe crisis in European post-transition countries. Rather, increasing financial fragility of the countries since 2001, after their banking and financial sector was overtaken by international financial institutions, was the origin. Euphoric expectations induced an asset price inflation followed by an increasing debt burden of the private sector, which was fueled by net capital inflows. This study argues that simple concepts of demand reduction do not offer any way out of the crisis. A second transition is necessary, which establishes a new growth model being robust against speculative capital flows and offering high growth rates.
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Foreign Investors and Domestic Suppliers: What Feeds Positive External Effects?
Jutta Günther, Björn Jindra, Daniel Sischka
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 9,
2009
Abstract
The empirical study analyses the potential for positive external effects from foreign investors in favor of domestic firms using the IWH-FDI micro database and taking into account firm-specific characteristics of foreign investors in selected Central and East European countries as well as in Eastern Germany. The analysis shows that only half of the foreign investors believe that they are important for technological activities in domestic supplier firms. Thereby, the potential for external positive effects is higher in Central and Eastern Europe than in Eastern Germany. A reason for this might be that supplier firms in Eastern Germany already operate on a clearly higher technological level than their counterparts in Central and Eastern Europe. Taking into account the share of domestic supplies of foreign investors, it shows that the potential for positive external effects increases only to a certain point from which on the spillover potential stagnates or even declines. Furthermore, there is clear evidence for the following characteristics of foreign investors to increase the potential for positive external effects: innovativeness of the foreign investor, internal and external technological cooperation of foreign investors, independence from the headquarters in research and development issues and market entry through acquisition (instead of greenfield investment). The share of foreign participation as well as the duration of presence in the host economy does not show any statistically significant effect on the potential for external effects. Policy makers should therefore not only aim at the settlement of employment intensive foreign investors, but also and particularly support investors that are characterized by technological activity and regional integration.
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Energy Efficient Homes in Germany: Lower Energy Requirement in the East and the South – Results of the ista-IWH-Energy-Efficiency-Index 2007
Claus Michelsen
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 9,
2009
Abstract
At the latest since the oil crisis in the beginning of the 1970s, energy efficiency of homes became a widely discussed topic. In the past, it were in first line aspects of the scarcity of fossil energy sources that motivated the debate. Nowadays, climate protection is a main goal of the European energy policy. For this purpose, a new instrument was introduced in 2009. Europe-wide, the “Energy Performance Certificate” for buildings presents detailed information on the required energy for heating, warm water and (indirectly) the resulting costs for tenants. This instrument is designed to provide further information for consumers to influence their behavior in favor of energy efficient buildings.
Until now, there is only little information on spatial aspects of the energy efficiency of housing in Germany. This article presents data on the level of Germany’s NUTS2 regions. In our calculations, we include information on more than 2.6 million flats, interpolating it representatively for the total stock of multifamily buildings and considering the regional climate.
The results of the first ista-IWH-Energy-Efficiency-Index indicate large differences between regions. The required energy for housing is much lower in the eastern and southern parts of Germany, compared to the western or northern parts. Explanations can be seen in a different structure of the housing stock (e.g. age of construction, level of refurbishment). Moreover, first analyses of the market structure indicate that owner occupied flats are more efficient in energy requirement than rental flats. Vacancy rates, the duration of occupation of rented flats and the level of regional income play an additional role for the energy efficiency of the regional housing stock.
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Regional Growth and Finance in Europe: Is there a Quality Effect of Bank Efficiency?
Iftekhar Hasan, Michael Koetter, Michael Wedow
Journal of Banking and Finance,
No. 8,
2009
Abstract
In this study, we test whether regional growth in 11 European countries depends on financial development and suggest the use of cost- and profit-efficiency estimates as quality measures of financial institutions. Contrary to the usual quantitative proxies of financial development, the quality of financial institutions is measured in this study as the relative ability of banks to intermediate funds. An improvement in bank efficiency spurs five times more regional growth then an identical increase in credit does. More credit provided by efficient banks exerts an independent growth effect in addition to direct quantity and quality channel effects.
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Currency Appreciation and Exports: Empirical Evidence for Germany
Götz Zeddies
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 6,
2009
Abstract
In the first decade after its introduction, the Euro didn’t just hold up well, but compared to important currencies even appreciated considerably. Of course, exchange rate risks were noticeably lowered by introducing the single currency, since the bulk of EMU Member States’ exports are conducted within the currency union. Nevertheless, a strong Euro is unfavourable especially for open economies like Germany.
The article investigates the effects of exchange rate movements on German exports over time. The analyses reveal a downward impact of nominal effective exchange rates, not only for total, but also for exports to countries outside the currency union. Although an increasing pass-through of exchange rate changes to export prices is apparently at hand, further reasons for the dwindling effect of nominal exchange rates on exports are likely to exist.
In this context, it is shown that exports are less sensitive not only with respect to nominal, but also with respect to real effective exchange rate changes, suggesting a declining price elasticity of demand. Instead, exports are increasingly determined by economic activity in trading partner countries. In consequence of its geographic proximity, Germany did particularly benefit from the economic upswing in Eastern Europe, overlaying the appreciation of the Euro. Additionally, the latter could hardly impair German export industries due to their specialization on capital and high-quality consumer goods less vulnerable to exchange rate fluctuations.
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A Dynamic Approach to Interest Rate Convergence in Selected Euro-candidate Countries
Hubert Gabrisch, Lucjan T. Orlowski
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 10,
2009
Abstract
We advocate a dynamic approach to monetary convergence to a common currency that is based on the analysis of financial system stability. Accordingly, we empirically test volatility dynamics of the ten-year sovereign bond yields of the 2004 EU accession countries in relation to the eurozone yields during the January 2, 2001 untill January 22, 2009 sample period. Our results show a varied degree of bond yield co-movements, the most pronounced for the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland, and weaker for Hungary and Slovakia. However, since the EU accession, we find some divergence of relative bond yields. We argue that a ‘static’ specification of the Maastricht criterion for long-term bond yields is not fully conducive for advancing stability of financial systems in the euro-candidate countries.
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Interest Rate Convergence in Euro Candidate Countries: A Dynamic Analysis
Hubert Gabrisch, Lucjan T. Orlowski
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 5,
2009
Abstract
The study advocates a dynamic approach to monetary convergence to a common currency that is based on the analysis of financial system stability. Accordingly, the study tests empirically volatility dynamics of the ten-year sovereign bond yields of the 2004 EU accession countries in relation to the euro zone yields during the January 2, 2001 to January 22, 2009 sample period. Results show a varied degree of bond yield co-movements, the most pronounced for the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland, and weaker for Hungary and Slovakia. However, since the EU accession, the study finds some divergence of relative bond yields. One can argue that a ‘static’ specification of the Maastricht criterion for long-term bond yields is not fully conducive for advancing stability of financial systems in the euro-candidate countries.
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