Rapidly rising local government debt in Japan presents a nontrivial addition to the central government debt. The planned replacement of the approval system for local government bor- rowing by a `consultation system´ in FY 2006 does not remove the implicit central govern- ment guarantee for...

The paper presents a review of theoretical concepts and empirical findings on the issue of FDI-induced spillover and crowding-effects in the Chinese economy. Against the background of the peculiar characteristics of China's FDI-inflows the paper discusses various research agendas and results. It...

In the last years China has recognized the environment as an economically valuable good, thus promoting sustainable economic development. Among the young people, this principle is spread by creating awareness through Environmental Education (EE) in schools. Although high on the agenda, the...

Seit dem PISA-Schock und dem Erscheinen der Expertise Zur Entwicklung nationaler Bildungsstandards wird die Standardisierungsdiskussion in allen Fachdidaktiken gefuehrt. Schulische Bildung soll demzufolge nicht mehr allein ueber den Input, sondern vor allem ueber den Output gesteuert werden. Die...

After a period of hibernation, the development of pumpedâ€hydro storage plants in Germany regains momentum. Motivated by an ever increasing share of intermittent renewable generation, a variety of energy players considers new projects, which could increase the available capacity by up to 60%...

With the introduction of incentive regulation in many network industries, different approaches how to remunerate invested capital have been used. Under incentive regulation, many regula-tors remunerate the regulated asset base with a weighted average cost of capital (WACC) based on a pre-defined...

In principle, portfolio optimization in electricity markets can make use of the standard mean-variance model going back to Markowitz. Yet a key restriction in most electricity markets is the limited liquidity. Therefore the standard model has to be adapted to cope with limited liquidity. An...

Natural gas storages may be valuated by applying real options theory. However it is crucial, not to ignore that most evolving gas spot markets, like the German spot market, lack of liquidity. In this context, considering storage operators as price takers does not account for interdependencies of...

Optimal capacity allocation for investments in electricity generation assets can be deterministically derived by comparing technology specific long-term and short-term marginal costs. In an uncertain market environment, Mean-Variance Portfolio (MVP) theory provides a consistent framework to...