The applicability of complex systems theory in economics is evaluated and compared with standard approaches to economic theorising based upon constrained optimisation. A complex system is defined in the economic context and differentiated from complex systems in physio-chemical and biological...

Agricultural price volatility is "bad". But where does it come from? Remedies are completely different for "endogenous" or "exogenous" fluctuations. The recent crisis seems to indicate that exogenous remedies have been applied to endogenous fluctuations.

The purpose of this thesis is to argue that the core of a monetary economy is a network of triangular contracts between banks, firms, workers and capital goods suppliers. Not only does this network give rise to the creation and valuation of money but it is the organising feature of modern...

Ever since its establishment in 1999, the European Central Bank worked on maintaining relative price stability mainly through inflation targeting. The ECB aims at a target inflation rate below but close to 2%. However, the diversity among the member states in the European Union and the Eurozone...

My dissertation examines the magnitude of switching costs for bank-dependent borrowers, their relationship to macro- nancial variables and their impacts on the effect of monetary policy. I also investigate the implication of bank entry and bank product differentiation on social welfare.The first...

Since commercial banks play important roles in the financial markets, it isimportant to evaluate whether banks operate efficiently. Moreover, given increasedcompetition from non-bank financial institutions, commercial banks should operatemore efficiently than they did previously. Commercial...

In makroökonomischen Theorien findet häufig eine separate Betrachtung von Wachstums- und Konjunkturphänomenen statt. Untersuchungen des Konjunkturverlaufs richten den Blick zumeist auf kurzfristige Anpassungsprozesse, wohingegen sich wachstumstheoretische Fragestellungen auf die langfristige...