The results of the PISA 2000 study renewed the interest in the contribution of human capital to economic growth. So far the exploration of large country comparisons delivered rather mixed results. Concentrating on those OECD member countries which participated in PISA 2000, this paper uses panel...

We examine the dynamics of bank lending to the private sector for countries of the Euro area by applying a Markov switching error correction model. We identify for Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Portugal stable, mean reverting regimes and unstable regimes with no tendency to return to the long...

This paper evaluates whether the Germany economy is currently affected by a credit crunch, i.e. a supply-side restriction of loans that is not in line with market interest rates and profitability of investment projects. With help of a disequilibrium-model, we calculate a credit supply and a...

In this paper we analyse to what extent movements in oil prices can help to explain business cycle fluctuations in Germany. We proceed in several steps: As a starting point we use a standard real business cycle model for the German economy and introduce energy as an additional factor in the...