It has been argued that the increasing importance of global value chains necessitates a modification of conventional competitiveness measures. We compile a broad dataset including value added trade, gross exports and conventional and value added based real exchange rates. To sharply focus on...

In some countries around the world, the advantages of globalisation have been increasingly called into question recently. In particular, takeovers by foreign firms raise suspicions of technology theft and job cuts at the newly acquired local plant. By looking at Germany, as a large open economy,...

Wage flexibility is often considered to be caused by the highly regulated labor market and the rigid system of labor law existing in Germany, especially in the field of wage determination. In this paper the impact of existing labor agreements on incentive systems in Germany is analyzed. It...