This article concentrates on the possible relationship between trade and pension systems. I consider trade between a capital-abundant home and a labor-abundant foreign country. The underlying model is a two-period overlapping generations-model augmented with factor-price changes resulting from...

The demographic problems in developed countries are getting more and more important. Very low fertility rates especially among skilled individuals will soon become relevant for a country's economy. Also of importance is education of children. Since there is an increasing demand for skilled...

The demographic development in Germany has severe consequences on the economic and social development of the country. The aging and decreasing of the population are certainly the most considered aspects of the demographic change. We consider additionally the competition between regions for...

Electronic coordination may drastically reduce transport costs, especially for digital or digitalizable products where local markets may actually shrink to a point in space. In the present paper we use a model with differentiated products to analyze the impact of declining transport costs on...

Do firms have proper incentives to invest in electronic coordination? We discuss this question in an oligopoly model with a local firm and a distant competitor that may reduce transport costs by investing in electronic coordination. In a two-stage game with investment in the first stage and...

What is the appropriate degree of centralization in the context of industrial policy? The basic advantage of centralization results from internalization of external effects. While most of the literature stresses the superior information of regional authorities as a countervailing force, the...

Die formal verwandten Phänomene Lernkurven- und Netzwerkeffekte sind in Oligopolmärkten häufig anzutreffen. Im vorliegenden Papier wird untersucht, ob in solchen Märkten ein Anreiz zur Kooperation zwischen einem Technologieführer und potentiellen Konkurrenten besteht. Die Vorteile einer...