In this paper the Malmquist index of total factor productivity is applied to a sample of 87 countries observed over the period 1960-90. This index and the method needed to quantify it, the data envelopment analysis, has substantial advantages as compared to traditional growth accounting. Two of...

The paper extends the Nash equilibrium concept to account for arbitrary behavioral heuristics. Players are allowed not only to choose strategies, but also to select behavioral rules how to choose strategies. It is argued that behavioral profiles are in equilibrium if no player can benefit from...

Budgetary policy in the Federal Republic of Germany is viewed by many as being relatively inefficient as measured against the economic principle of Pareto-efficiency. It is shown that the "inefficiencies" in budgetary planning, execution and oversight can be related to the credible commitments...

Immer wieder wird diskutiert, ob öffentlich-rechtliche Sparkassen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zu privatisieren seien. In dem vorliegenden Papier wird unter Rückgriff auf Methoden der Neuen Politischen ökonomie gezeigt, daß die Durchsetzung eines derartigen Privatisierungsschrittes...

For a Cournot duopoly with a foreign firm exporting to the home firm's market hedging against unfavorable shifts in the stochastic spot exchange rate is analyzed. In a two-stage setting with product market and hedging decisions we show that hedging can be used as a strategic device. Under...

According to the latest OECD-publication on tax competition, harmfulness and fairness of international tax arrangements are an emerging global issue. This paper surveys the current suggestions of the OECD for a code of „fair and good“ taxation from perspective of international cooperation...

Based on an unbalanced panel of all Bavarian cooperative banks for the years of 1989-97 which includes information on 283 mergers, we analyze motives and cost effects of small-scale mergers in German banking. Estimating a frontier cost function with a time-variable stochastic efficiency term we...

This paper forges links between a dynamic theory of markets and the reality of long term market changes. Goods are seen as being linked to the range of actions which they make possible. Thus it can be shown that the evolution of markets is closely connected with changing knowledge and property...

In a static symmetric duopoly the set of behavioral rules is extended to different types of markup pricing. Using an equilibrium concept suggested in Pasche (2001), it is shown that dependend on the markup neither pure Cournot nor pure Bertrand behavior is a behavioral equilibrium profile....