There have been several proposals to reduce the observed volatility of flexible exchange rates. The paper reviews two recent opposite views on the appropriateness of a common world currency for this purpose. Referring to an adequately formulated theory of world money, it is shown that there is...

Der Euro ist ein intensiv diskutiertes Thema, sowohl in der Wissenschaft als auch in der Politik. Während die einen mit ihm eine glorreiche Zukunft Europas prophezeien, betrachten ihn andere als Übel, das den alten Kontinent ins Verderben ziehen wird. Die vorliegende Arbeit geht der Frage...

Unser wichtigstes Anliegen in dem vorliegenden Beitrag ist nicht die Prognose der zukünftigen Entwicklung der Europäischen Union, sondern die Erhellung der Optionen und Handlungsalternativen, vor denen die Union steht. Dazu gehört auch eine Diskussion der Frage, wie sie in die gegenwärtige...

In seinem Kommentar zeigt Martin Seidel, Universität Bonn, dass einer Reform der Europäischen Währungsunion weder politische noch rechtliche oder ökonomische Gründe entgegenstehen und dass ein bestimmtes Modell einer neuen Parallelwährungsunion die Probleme der Maastrichter Währungsunion...

Vorträge von Prof. Henning Bohn Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Otmar Issing President Center for Financial Studies, Uni-versity of Frankfurt, und Prof. Dr. Frank Westermann Professor of Economics, University of Osnabrück

This paper analyzes reforms and adjustments in the context of the Euro and the global financial crises. Taking the perspective of the evolutionary approach to institutions, the formation of a new currency area is not unidirectional. The process leading to the euro is an example of a common...

Based on point-of-time comparisons of happiness in richer and poorer countries, it is commonly asserted that economic growth will have a significant positive impact on happiness in poorer countries, if not richer. The time trends of subjective well-being (SWB) in 13 developing countries,...

In this paper, I discuss the reasons for Costa Rica's economic performance over the last quarter of a century. Three complementary sets of policies (investments in human capital, careful stabilization, and an intelligent and aggressive integration into the world economy) explain the successful...

This paper investigates the empirical relationship between the two concepts of ethnicity and economic growth. Ethnicity is assumed to affect economic growth through a number of possible transmission channels that are generally included in cross-country growth regressions by proposing an extended...

This paper investigates the economic growth impact of cultural diversity, both domestically and in neighbouring countries, in a balanced panel of 94 countries covering the period 1970 to 2004. The measures of cultural diversity used in this article were derived from a recently developed computer...