The purpose of this paper is to examine with econometric methods the impact of foreign trade on the German business cycle. The outcome is that the fluctuations of German GDP can be explained to a considerable amount by the fluctuations of world demand and changes in the terms of trade.

Introduction to human capital and economic growth -- The concept of human capital : a brief historical review -- Theoretical models of human capital and economic growth -- Human capital and endogenous models of economic growth -- Threshold effects, multiple equilibria, and nonlinearities in...