Economic disparities between the regions of the European Union are of constant concern both for policy and economic research. In this paper we examine whether there are overlapping trends of regional development in the EU: overall convergence on the one hand and persistent or even increasing...

Economic disparities between the regions of the European Union are of constant concern both for policy and economic research. One of the “stylised facts” from the empirical literature is that the process of absolute convergence observed for decades has slowed down or even petered out during...

The analysis of regional income and productivity differences in the European Union (EU) has some tradition. The theoretical framework of most empirical studies on these subjects is the neoclassical growth model. Thus, research has focussed on convergence of income and productivity among EU...

Using panel data on European regions and applying Analysis of Covariance, our study provides an empirical assessment of the relative importance of national, regional and spatial factors for explaining variations of productivity. Our analysis shows that initial economic conditions or...

The Risk Adjustment Reform Act of 2001 mandates that a health-status-based risk adjustment mechanism has to be implemented in Germany's Statutory Health Insurance system by January 1, 2007. German parliament decided this as with the existing demographic risk adjustment model, that means there is...

Utility-based measures for health-related quality of life gain more and more importance in cost-effectiveness analysis. The axiomatic foundation qualifies them as decision weights in use of the QALY concept. But their use is strained for they are loaded with assumptions to make them work....

Most would agree that priority setting is necessary to avoid a financial collapse in the health sector. It is much harder to find criteria how to do it. Discussions lead straight to the principles of decision making. But since all theories depend on assumptions given to make them work, debates...

Heute gilt Berlin wieder als 'in'. Trotz prekärer Haushaltslage hat die Stadt ihre zentralen Standortmerkmale Kultur, Bildung und Forschung profiliert. Die Investitionen der Wirtschaft steigen, die Zahl der Menschen, die hier Arbeit finden, ebenfalls. Allerdings sah es nach der Euphorie der...

[Zielsetzung] Unmittelbar nach der Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands und der daraus resultierenden Vereinigung von West- und Ostberlin wurden die ökonomischen Entwicklungsperspektiven der Stadt in aller Welt außerordentlich positiv eingeschätzt. Ob in Politik, Wissenschaft oder in der Wirtschaft...