The “financial crisis” and its sequel, the current sovereign debt crisis, appear to be the latest permutations of an old conflict between capitalism and democracy that forcefully reasserted itself after the end of the postwar growth period. Today’s calamities were preceded by high...

This paper critically assesses microfinance’s expansion into the provision of public goods. It focuses on the problem of public goods and collective action and refers to the specific example of water and sanitation. The microfinancing of water and sanitation is a private business model which...

In neueren Analysen der westeuropäischen Integration wird zunehmend auf die strukturellen Grenzen positiver Integration hingewiesen. Vor diesem Hintergrund erscheint die Analyse internationaler Umweltregime als Beispiele für positive Regelungen jenseits des Nationalstaates gewinnbringend. Bei...

It is often said that history matters, but these words are often little more than a hollow statement. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, the view that the economy is a mechanical toy that can be fixed using a few simple tools has continued to be held by economists and policy makers and...

Die Teilnehmerländer der europäischen Währungsunion verfügen über höchst unterschiedliche Regime der Lohnfindung. Diese Unterschiedlichkeit leistete einen eigenständigen Beitrag zur Auseinanderentwicklung der mitgliedsstaatlichen Lohn- und Preisniveaus und damit zu den realen...