Staatliche Banken können eine wichtige Rolle bei der Sicherung der Funktionsfähigkeit von Finanzsystemen und für die gesamtwirtschaftliche Entwicklung spielen. Dies gilt offenbar vor allem dann, wenn die Bankenregulierung schwach ist und Banken nicht ausreichend überwacht werden. Die...

We evaluate explanations for why Germany grew so quickly in the 1950s. The recent literature has emphasized convergence, structural change and institutional shake-up while minimizing the importance of the postwar shock. We show that this shock and its consequences were more important than...

Germany has had an extremely low growth performance since 1995. The paper looks at the long-run reasons for this loss of economic dynamics besides German unification: These include leaving labor idle, a declining share of investment in GDP, a weaker innovative activity, an ineffective system for...

This paper discusses the goal conflict between social protection and economic growth as well as employment. Taking the German economy as an example for the large continental economies of Old Europe, it analyzes twenty mechanisms that affect the fundamentals of the economy negatively and imply...