The aim of this study was to provide answers to two research questions. While the first one is concerned with the causes of the remarkable macroeconomic resilience of the Nordic EU-countries since the mid-1990s, the second one is related to the sustainability of a high degree of government...

This paper challenges the institutional sclerosis view of the German crisis according to which rigid labour markets and generous welfare state institutions have driven Germany into its position as „Europe’s sick man“. In general, the view is not convincing, because the underlying...

The paper questions the predominant view on unemployment and wages in the European Un-ion according to which high unemployment is primarily caused by labour market rigidities, i.e. social institutions and regulations which prevent “market-clearing” real wage levels and structures. It is...

The bank-based financial systems of Germany and Japan were considered most conducive to growth in the 1980s. After the Japanese stagnation of the 1990s and the most recent slump in Germany, the conviction that the market-based Anglo-American financial systems are a prerequisite for a dynamic...

This study analyses the longer term implications of 'financialisation' in the US and in Germany from a macroeconomic perspective. In the process of 'financialisation' the importance of the financial sector of an economy increases relative to that of the non-financial sector. While discussing...

This paper traces the euro zone’s inadequate macroeconomic performance in recent years back to the predominance of a restrictive macroeconomic policy mix based on a ‘new monetarist’ approach to economic policy. An approach based on a (post-)Keynesian analysis is presented as a growth and...