In the post-war economic history of West Germany, there have been two periods of significant unemployment. If we take full employment to mean a jobless rate of less than 3 %, the two periods can be dated as 1948 to 1958 and 1975 to the present. While the latter period has naturally been subject...

This paper is a preliminary appraisal ofthe stylised facts and the major open questions - both methodological and Substantive - that have emerged in the empirical literature on international per-capita income and productivity convergence. On basis of various distinctivc lines of reasoning, it is...

This paper is an empirical critique of Barry Eichengreen's interpretation of the exceptional growth performance of Western Europe during the 1950s and 1960s. The main part of the paper shows that, at least for the important case of West Germany, Eichengreen fs view of a broad-based economic and...

In recent years, there has been an intense debate among economists about the causes of unemployment in Europe. Broadly speaking, the views can be grouped into two familiar camps: those with a more (neo-)classical outlook - stressing the importance of factor price movements, institutional...

In German post-war historiography, the 1960s are usually viewed as a time of political and economic transition. Politically, the period marks the watershed between the paternalistic conservatism of the Adenauer era and the full-scale social democracy of the early seventies, with the so-called...

This paper is a tentative summary and appraisal of the main theoretical arguments and empirical evidence for/against an industrial policy in support of high-tech industries. The paper reviews arguments based on endogenous growth theory and strategic trade theory and surveys the most relevant...

This paper presents a synoptic interpretation of structural unemployment in Europe. The paper consists of three parts. Part 1 summarises some major stilysed facts of the record and the state of unemployment in Europe. In part 2, these facts are taken as the basis for a theoretical interpretation...

Seit Schumpeters Tod im Jahre 1950 ist eine Vielzahl biographischer Essays**erschienen, die teils mit nostalgischer Schwärmerei, teils mit distanzierter Kühle von der facettenreichen Persönlichkeit Schumpeters Zeugnis ablegen. Im folgenden wird versucht, aus diesen Berichten eine Art...