EMU started with eleven member countries as scheduled on January 1, 1999. The paper shows that the primacy of politics over economics in this decision could have serious consequences concerning the stability of EMU in the transition phase. Speculative attacks against currencies which are in...

The literature on unemployment has mostly focused on labor market issues while the impact of capital formation is largely neglected. Job-creation is often thought to be a matter of encouraging more employment on a given capital stock. In contrast, this paper explicitly deals with the long-run...

The paper shows that a more flexible labor market is unequivocally necessary for a lasting and substantial reduction of unemployment. It furthermore points out that a more flexible labor market is even beneficial from a long-run distributional point of view. Hence, the key to liberalizing the...

Seit Anfang der 90er Jahre nimmt in der Bundesrepublik die Arbeitslosigkeit trotz fallender Lohnquote kontinuierlich zu. Haben wir die keynesianische Situation einer mangelnden Nachfrage auf den Gütermärkten? Kann die Arbeitslosigkeit durch eine expansivere Lohnpolitik abgebaut werden?

Mit der Arbeitslosen- und Sozialhilfe bestehen nebeneinander zwei unterschiedliche, bedürftigkeitsabhängige Sozialtransfersysteme. Wo liegen die Probleme bei den einzelnen Instrumenten? Wie sind die Vorschläge zur Reform und Integration beider Systeme zu beurteilen? Wie sollte ein politisch...

Abstract The paper shows that a more flexible labor market is unequivocally necessary for a lasting and substantial reduction of unemployment. It furthermore points out that a more flexible labor market is even beneficial from a long-run distributional point of view. Hence, the key to...