Due to pressure from some lobbies, the government is unwilling to perform structural reforms. The probability of its reelection depends, however, on a positive business cycle. The central bank may create surprise deflation even though it maximizes the public’s utility function and even if it...

The paper develops a consumer price index and two real wages series for Germany c. 1500–1850. Consumer price indices (CPI) based on eleven goods can be developed for ten towns; one of the two real wage series includes another six towns. Since German bullion markets were little integrated far...

The aim of this paper is to show that an option on an appropriate future may solve some market failures caused by asymmetric information. Some models related to the adverse selection, moral hazard and verification costs are analyzed and the performance of these options on futures is evaluated....

Empirical studies on price transmissions between North American and European agricultural futures neglect the period of financialization in the US commodity market, the increase of futures trading in Europe and the recent price turmoils. We fill this gap by analyzing the price dynamics of...

This study investigates the empirical determinants of the treaty network of the 1860s and 1870s. It makes use of three central theories about the determinants of PTA formation, considering economic fundamentals from neoclassical and ‘new’ trade theory, political-economy variables, and...

Die Größenstruktur der deutschen Städte folgt so wie in vielen anderen Ländern einer strengen Gesetzmäßigkeit: dem Zipfschen Gesetz. Es gibt starke Hinweise, dass dieses Zipfsche Gesetz nicht nur auf nationaler Ebene gilt, sondern auch auf der Ebene von Bundesländern und teilweise sogar...

Die Größenstruktur der deutschen Städte folgt so wie in vielen anderen Ländern einer strengen Gesetzmäßigkeit: dem Zipfschen Gesetz. Es gibt starke Hinweise, dass dieses Zipfsche Gesetz nicht nur auf nationaler Ebene gilt, sondern auch auf der Ebene von Bundesländern und teilweise sogar...