We argue that wages have increased so far ahead of labor productivity in east Germany as to produce a problem that will continue to hound German policy-makers for the next two decades.

The crucial difference between the German and the Anglo-American system of corporate control is not the influence of the banks, but the different role played by capital markets and company boards. Banks in Germany have begun to reduce their role in corporate governance, particularly with respect...

A low-credibility currency such as the Mexican peso or the Polish zloty that is overshadowed by a hard, international currency in a neighboring country cannot remain competitive in an integrating region. The devices used to protect the banking and financial business conducted in such currencies...

This paper examines investment behavior at the aggregate level, for a panel of 24 OECD countries over the period 1964-92. Defining two groups of countries as having German-type or Anglo-Saxon type financial systems, we estimate cross section time series panel relationships for each group of...

This paper presents evidence supporting the theory that informational and incentive problems in the capital markets affect firm investment. This hypothesis is tested by estimating investment equations for two groups of German firms.

We review Germany's experience with inflation targeting since the mid-1970s. Inflation targeting is the basis for monetary targeting, but the inflation target has priority over the monetary target. We develop a model of the equilibrium price level in Germany and show that, on several occasions,...

The Maastricht Treaty assumes that a small "credible" group of countries will be able to adopt a single currency by the 1st of January, 1999, while the remainder retain their national monetary instruments. In this paper we accept the core/periphery distinction and examine the correlation and...

This paper analyses the credit channel of monetary policy in Germany. It finds little evidence for the existence fo a credit channel, while confirming the standard channel of monetary transmission which is working through bank liabilities.