Since 1975 the European Union has developed an impressive body of waste management legislation, though, according to the principle of subsidiarity, responsibilities belong to the most local level at which the tasks can be carried out effectively. This paper examines several factors that...

Rubins Modell zur Analyse kausaler Abhängigkeiten gewinnt in den vergangenen Jahren verstärkte Aufmerksamkeit in der Statistik. Dies ist nicht zuletzt auf die Verwendung von Graphen zur Beschreibung komplexer Abhängigkeitsstrukturen zurückzuführen. J.Pearl und P.Sprites u.a. haben kausale...

The conventional lists of stylized facts are composed of sentences about the comovement of ordinary macroeconomic time-series and the business cycle. It is argued that these lists are incomplete because heterogeneous agent stylized facts are missing. But there is evidence about the heterogeneity...

An essential feature of Schumpeter’s business cycle theory is the attempt to explain the macrodynamics of an economy by means of innovative heterogeneous agents. It has been criticized for being theoretically inconsistent as well as for its lack of empirical confirmation. In particular, the...

Empirical studies show that agents often violate Bayes' rule in updating probability expectations. This paper deals with errors in combining observations with prior knowledge. Such errors neccessarily occur when agents have limited information-processing capacities. It is shown that rational...

In this paper the Malmquist index of total factor productivity is applied to a sample of 87 countries observed over the period 1960-90. This index and the method needed to quantify it, the data envelopment analysis, has substantial advantages as compared to traditional growth accounting. Two of...

The paper extends the Nash equilibrium concept to account for arbitrary behavioral heuristics. Players are allowed not only to choose strategies, but also to select behavioral rules how to choose strategies. It is argued that behavioral profiles are in equilibrium if no player can benefit from...

Budgetary policy in the Federal Republic of Germany is viewed by many as being relatively inefficient as measured against the economic principle of Pareto-efficiency. It is shown that the "inefficiencies" in budgetary planning, execution and oversight can be related to the credible commitments...

Immer wieder wird diskutiert, ob öffentlich-rechtliche Sparkassen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zu privatisieren seien. In dem vorliegenden Papier wird unter Rückgriff auf Methoden der Neuen Politischen ökonomie gezeigt, daß die Durchsetzung eines derartigen Privatisierungsschrittes...