German Social Democracy is faced with tremendous challenges of societal and economic changes: party dealignment, a bourgeoisifying of society, the rise of media democracy and economic and cultural globalisation. The party's reaction - a third order change in its ideological objectives and a...

The traditional theory of economic policy of the Tinbergen-Theil-type has come under severe criticism: in the ontological setting of the New Classical Macroeconomics based on the Rational Expectations Hypothesis (REH), economic policy is ineffective or neutral with respect to real variables. In...

After having been ignored for a long time by economists, happiness is becoming an object of serious research in 21st century economics. In Section 2 we sketch the present status of happiness economics. In Section 3 we consider the practical applicability of happiness economics, retaining the...

In the last years, a number of contributions has argued that monetary - and, more generally, economic - policy is finally becoming more of a science. According to these authors, policy rules implemented by central banks are nowadays well supported by a theoretical framework (the New Neoclassical...

Eine integrierte und nachhaltige Mobilitätsentwicklung stellt die Verkehrspolitik auch zukünftig vor zentrale Herausforderungen. Vor dem Hintergrund des Klimawandels und der Verknappung fossiler Energieträger wird es auch in Zukunft notwendig sein, Strategien und Konzepte zu entwickeln, die...

We quantitatively assess the macroeconomic effects of country-specific supply-side reforms in the euro area by simulating EAGLE, a multi-country dynamic general equilibrium model. We consider reforms in the labor and services markets of Germany (or, alternatively, Portugal) and the rest of the...

The paper provides an evaluation of the development of the South African economy since the end of apartheid in 1994. Taking the 1993 situation as the point of departure, it gives an account of the path leading to the formulation of the major policy documents, and examines to what extent their...

Motivated by the process of economic development in Eastern Germany since the German reunification we set up a dynamic macroeconomic model of a small open economy where both capital and labor are mobile and there are increasing returns to scale at the aggregate level. The model features multiple...

The aim of this discussion paper is not only to activate a debate over the interrelation between rising income inequality and economic policy measures but also to initiate comparative research in several European countries and North America. It discusses the consequences of a rising income...