Real estate is the biggest real asset class in an economy, and Germany is the biggest economy in Europe. This implies opportunities as well as specific risks for investors and policy makers. As the German real estate markets have by and large been spared severe disruptions in the course of the...

We argue that the institutionalization of direct democratic elements in a constitution will tend to enhance the efficiency of an economy. In a model of direct democracy it is shown that -- contrary to the political process in a representative democracy -- efficient projects will always be...

The authors contend that the costs of the euro in Germany outweigh the benefits. How they determine this is interesting and controversial. But this point of view deserves a hearing.

This paper analyses the housing markets of OECD countries using a scoring model. This model is based on a European Systematic Risk Board approach to risk assessment of housing markets but extends this approach in two important ways. First, this paper distinguishes between cyclical and structural...

Die deutsche Immobilienwirtschaft ist und bleibt ein wesentlicher Stabilitätsanker der deutschen Wirtschaft. Die Branche wächst seit 2008 um durchschnittlich zwei Prozent pro Jahr und hat damit entscheidend zur schnellen Erholung nach dem Konjunktureinbruch beigetragen. Die hohe Stabilität...

Strengthening elements of direct democracy has become a hotly debated issue especially in purely representative democracies where distrust in political institutions and policymakers has been continually growing in recent years. We develop a compensation model of interest groups seeking a...

No abstract available.

In this paper, we examine students' attitudes towards various allocation mechanisms for a scarce resource. For this purpose, we have run a survey among officers of the German military who are enrolled in different courses of study (such as economics) at the University of the German Federal Armed...

The demographic trends in Germany will seriously impact supply and demand for public infrastructure. Significant savings for the public budgets are not expected, though. There might plausibly be fewer com-muters in an ageing and shrinking society. But as road freight transport is likely to...