Capitalist dynamics is energized in part by imaginaries of future states of the world (Beckert 2016). The paper deals with two questions: Why do fictional expectations change in the course of capitalist development? And: Are fictional expectations becoming more important in contemporary capitalism?

Die Mehrheit des wissenschaftlichen Personals an den Hochschulen und außeruniversitären Forschungseinrichtungen in Deutschland ist heute befristet beschäftigt. Der Beitrag rekonstruiert die Ursachen und Dynamiken dieser Entwicklung, die in den 1970er-Jahren begann, am Gegenstand der...

The paper studies the effects of cross-country differences in the productionprocess of human capital on income distribution and growth. Our overlapping gen-erations economy has the following features: (1) consumers are heterogenous withrespect to parental human capital and wealth; (2)...

Insufficiently flexible labour markets combined with high welfare costs are often thought to be the main cause of unsatisfactory growth in Europe. This paper uses the OECD data on regulation of the product and labour market to confirm the difference in the extent of regulation between US and...

As the EU economies and societies become increasingly integrated, and as labour market behaviour patterns converge across borders, the EU strives to develop a substantially common social identity. To this end, it seeks to promote the development of a sustainable institutional framework which...

The paper examines the applicability of GDP-linked bonds for the financing of developing countries and emerging markets. GDP-linked bonds are bonds of which the coupon and/or redemption payments are tied to the GDP of the issuing country. The study encompasses a detailed empirical analysis of...

The paper focuses in the calculation of the oil capital value in a small open economy depending on oil rents. The Venezuelan case is used as an example. In valuing the oil capital, two issues are recalled and discussed: how should the exploration costs and the capital gains be treated? It is...

Venezuela experienced slow economic growth during the 2000s. The economy suffered a recession in the early years of the period and during the international crisis of 2008, but most labour market indicators improved and moved along with the business cycle over the period. The only indicators that...

How does trade liberalization affect the wage gap between skilled workers and unskilled workers? The Heckscher-Ohlin (HO) trade model gives a prediction about the relation between wages and prices. However, its simple Stolper-Samuelson (SS) and Specific-Factors (SF) versions make opposite...