Disability insurance - the insurance against the loss of the ability to work - is a substantial part of social security expenditures in many countries. The benefit recipiency rates in disability insurance vary strikingly across European countries and the US. This paper investigates the extent...

We show in a public goods experiment on three continents that conditional cooperation is a universal behavioral regularity. Yet, the number of conditional cooperators and the extent of conditional cooperation are much higher in the U.S.A. than anywhere else.

In this paper we challenge the traditional labour market view, which argues that unemployment is determined in the long-term by its equilibrium rate, which in turn is affected by permanent shocks of some exogenous variables. In our empirical approach we decompose the dynamics of employment and...

I examine whether or not returns on stock markets are a leading indicator for real macroeconomic developments in Austria, Japan and the USA. Further I deal with the concept of stock market efficiency, the question whether or not information from real and financial sectors of the economy is...

Density forecasts have become quite important in economics and finance. For example, such forecasts play a central role in modern financial risk management techniques like Value at Risk. This paper suggests a regression based density forecast evaluation framework as a simple alternative to other...

This paper uses the findings of a very recent major international research collaboration on the impact of federal arrangements on the development of the welfare state to explore the possibilities of progress beyond Europe's present diversity of nation-state welfare standards. These findings -...

Um die fiskalische Nachhaltigkeit der Politik bzw. einzelner Reformmaßnahmen zu messen, hat die Wirtschaftswissenschaft in den letzten Jahren mehrere Instrumente eingeführt. Hierzu zählt auch die Generationenbilanz, die Anfang der 1990er-Jahre in den USA entwickelt wurde. Der vorliegende...

Ein fiskalischer Vergleich entwickelter Staaten geschieht häufig über jährliche Indikatoren wie etwa den Maastricht-Kriterien Defizit-und Schuldenquote. Um jedoch die Tragfähigkeit einer jeweiligen Fiskalpolitik einschätzen zu können, bedarf es der Erweiterung der Perspektive um...

In der Diskussion über notwendige Reformen der Volkswirtschaften werden in der Bundesrepublik und anderen europäischen Ländern die institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen der Vereinigten Staaten zur Nachahmung empfohlen. Gibt es ein marktwirtschaftlich orientiertes Wirtschaftssystem, dessen...

Engaging discussions on civic integration for immigrants, this comparison systematically analysis citizenship tests in the US, Austria, the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. A central question discussed is whether these tests can be interpreted as assimilation, repressive liberalism or as a...