Today, German machine toolmakers accuse their Chinese competitors of violating patent rights and imitating German technology. A century ago, German machine toolmakers used the same methods to imitate American technology. To understand the dynamics of this catching-up process, we use patent...

The <italic>Knappschaft</italic> was a mutual association through which German miners insured themselves against accident, illness, and old age. The <italic>Knappschaft</italic> underlies Bismarck's sickness and accident insurance legislation, and thus Germany's system today. This article focuses on moral hazard, which plagued...