Die weit auseinanderklaffenden Mehrwertsteuersätze der europäischen Länder erweisen sich für die Vollendung des Binnenmarktes als Problem. Während z. B. in der Bundesrepublik und im Vereinigten Königreich die normalen Sätze 14 bzw. 15 vH betragen, liegen sie in den meisten anderen...

It is now four years after the White Paper launched the project on the completion of the internal market [Commission, 1985]. 300 steps were packaged and sold in a manner by Delors and Lord Cockfield that "caught on". The basic strategy is simple: abolish or reduce market segmentations that still...

In continental Europe, the unemployment rate has risen continuously from a low level of below 3 percent in the early 1970s to more than 10 percent in the late 1990s. If those who are in governmental employment schemes and in early retirement are included, the unemployment rate runs as high as 20...

• Eine Währungsunion von politisch souveränen Staaten benötigt eine gemeinsame Philosophie über die Ent-Politisierung des Geldwesens. • Eine Währungsunion braucht ein einigermaßen einheitliches ökonomisches Erklärungsparadigma für monetäre Phänomene. • Die nationale...

The euro is a new currency, and the ECB as a new institution still has to establish its reputation. The best way to do this is for the ECB to deliver a stable money. The two-pillar strategy pursued by the ECB seems to confuse the markets because market participants are unclear about which of the...

In the current slowdown in Europe, the United States and Japan, policy makers are vexed by the question when a recovery will come. This is the wrong question. The issue should be how a higher growth path can be reached in the long run, i.e., how the potential growth rate of our economies can be...

1. Make the national labor markets more flexible in order to avoid additional unemployment. 2. Do not Europeanize wage formation. 3. Leave employment a national responsibility. 4. Do not push for a social union. 5. Resist the political demand for transfers. 6. Accept the 'one-size-fits-all'...

This paper tests a geography and growth model using regional data for Europe, the US, and Japan. We set up a standard geography and growth model with a poverty trap and derive a log-linearized growth equation that corresponds directly to a threshold regression technique in econometrics. In...

Wie viele Menschen aus den mittel- und osteuropäischen Ländern (MOEL) werden von dem mit dem EU-Beitritt verbundenen Recht auf Freizügigkeit Gebrauch machen und nach Westen in die "alten" EU-Länder wandern? Die vorgestellten Simulationen ergeben eine Bandbreite für das...

In almost all European countries there is a wide and growing gap between the goals of national immigration policy and its actual outcomes. The main reason for the failure of national migration policies is the loss of effective competence to control today's migration flows on a national level....