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 fundamentally challenges the institutional sclerosis explanation of the present German economic stagnation. Instead, we present a macroeconomic explanation focusing on the combined effects of too restrictive monetary policies, too restrictive and sometimes pro- cyclical fiscal policies...

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...