This volume challenges the view that unemployment is exclusively determined by structural characteristics of the labour market and the social benefit system. Macroeconomic policies and investment in capital stock are included in the analysis and are shown to have a major role to play.

Books reviewed: Schettkat, Ronald/Langkau, Jochem (Hg.) (2007): Aufschwung für Deutschland. Plädoyer international renommierter Ökonomen für eine bessere Wirtschaftspolitik, Bonn Roncaglia, Alessandro/Sylos Labini, Paolo (2008): Geschichte des ökonomischen Denkens. Eine kurze Einführung,...

Based on a post-Keynesian model of the relationship between wages, prices and employment, this paper begins by studying the extent to which unit labour cost trends have been responsible for disinflation and deflationary tendencies in Germany and Europe. Thereafter, the reasons for the...

This paper traces the euro zone's inadequate macroeconomic performance in recent years back to the predominance of a restrictive macroeconomic policy mix based on a 'new monetarist' approach to economic policy. An approach based on a (post-)Keynesian analysis is presented as a growth and...

It is by now widely accepted that the structural characteristics of the countries to become the euro area did not adhere to the conditions of an optimum currency area (OCA) when the euro was introduced in 1999. However, the satisfaction of OCA criteria may not be required for a workable currency...

This paper challenges the institutional sclerosis view of the German crisis according to which rigid labour markets and generous welfare state institutions have driven Germany into its position as "Europe's sick man". In general, the view is not convincing, because the underlying hypotheses...

The aim of our contribution is to present an innovative instrument to teach macroeconomics at the undergraduate and master level. We develop a digital learning platform to present and explore some controversies at the very foundations of macroeconomic theory. For this purpose, we explicitly...