An important question in the process of European integration concerns the best institutional level for stabilization policies. The theory of fiscal federalism gives criteria for evaluating if fiscal stabilization policies should take place on a centralized or on a decentralized level. This paper...

Real Wage Rigidities, Fiscal Policy, and the Stability of EMU in the Transition Phase. - EMU will start 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...

The decisions taken at Maastricht seem to have finally removed the obstacles to European monetary union. So have the monetary questions really been settled? Is the process of monetary convergence irreversible?

We study the effect of entrepreneurship on economic growth. First, we illustrate that entrepreneurship affects the investment decision in horizontal and vertical innovations within endogenous growth models. As a direct consequence, the level of entrepreneurship exerts significant growth stimuli....

Germany has experienced tremendous growth rates in the aftermath of World War II. Since the early 1970s, growth rates declined and settled down at a more or less constant rate of 2 percent per year, only to experience a renewed negative trend around the early 2000s. We investigate the evolution...

This paper discusses the reasons for the dismal labor market performance of Germany over the last three decades along with potential remedies. It argues that labor market rigidities along with a generous welfare state in conjunction with certain changes in the economic environment are important...