The member states of the European Union have given up sovereignty in quite a number of policy areas and subjected themselves to joint decisionmaking at the European level. Policy instruments are no longer available nationally in many policy areas, including monetary policy, trade policy, the...

Processes of regional economic integration have been shaping the economic relations between countries significantly during the last decades. In addition, an increasing integration of the national economies into the global economy has affected these economic relations, too. In an effort to...

Germany has about the same proportion of foreigners in its population as the United States, it is an immigration country. In a way, Germany has let immigration happen, but it did not really have an explicit immigration policy in the past. Now it has to make up its mind on its immigration policy...

Does European economic integration create more inequality between domestic regions, or is the opposite true? We show that a general answer to this question does not exist, and that the outcome depends on the liberalisation scenario. In order to examine the impact of European and international...

The Great Recession renewed calls for a return of state activism in support of the European economy. The widespread nationalization of ailing companies and the growing activism of national development banks led many to celebrate the reappearance of industrial policy. By reviewing the evolution...

In der vorliegenden empirischen Studie, die auf einer schriftlichen Erhebung des Instituts für Mittelstandsforschung beruht, wurde der Frage nachgegangen, welche Bedeutung Leasing für mittelständische Unternehmen hat und künftig haben wird. Das Hauptaugenmerk der Analyse richtet sich darauf,...

Die Bilanzierung von Leasinggesellschaften stellt eine besondere Herausforderung an die Rechnungslegung dar, da eine klare Abgrenzung von Mietverträgen und kreditfinanzierten Kaufverträgen schwierig ist. Im Mittelpunkt der Problematik steht dabei die grundsätzliche Frage, ob das zu...

Der bisherige Bilanzierungsansatz nach IAS 17 steht aufgrund seiner extremen bilanziellen Konsequenzen und seiner Komplexität in der Kritik. Die zusätzlichen Ermessens- und Gestaltungsspielräume innerhalb des konkreten Zuordnungsmechanismus` führen dazu, dass der Leasingstandard mit...

This paper challenges the assertion that European politics would be closer to the citizens´ preferences if decision power were transferred from the Council of Ministers to the European Parliament. On the one hand, citizens benefit from a greater transparency in the Parliament´s debates...