In this paper, a new approach to disclose the impact of politics on economic growth is presented: we use data derived from content analysis of party manifestos as measures of party preferences. In a panel of 23 OECD countries, we detect a positive impact of party support for various...

Oft wird befürchtet, dass die Globalisierung zu einer erhöhten Schwankungsanfälligkeit besonders kleiner offener Volkswirtschaften führen könnte. Auch wird vermutet, dass die nationalen Konjunkturzyklen im Zeitalter der Globalisierung synchroner verlaufen als zuvor. Sind diese Vermutungen...

Politik und Wissenschaft erhoffen sich von internationalen Vergleichen Erkenntnisgewinne zur Lösung von Problemen auf verschiedenen Politikfeldern. Welche Erfahrungen wurden dabei in Hinblick auf die Beschäftigungspolitik gemacht? Was können Vergleiche leisten? Inwieweit können sie zu...

Competitive pressure on some capital income tax rates reinforces a generic quadrilemma or a four-way tradeoff in domestic income taxation. To maintain competitiveness, governments have to cut some tax rates on capital income down to international standards. If these cuts lead to a de-alignment...

The process of wage determination is mediated by the institutional framework of the labor market. Bargaining systems differ not only in their mode of governance, but also in the way that wages are related to unemployment, inflation, and productivity growth. Based on annual data for the period...

Among policy-makers and academics there is a controversial discussion whether the tax mix influences labor market performance in advanced industrialized countries. Many economists argue that the total tax burden rather than the tax-mix matters for aggregate employment, whereas neither the burden...

Panel data analysis has become very popular in comparative political economy. However, in order to draw meaningful inferences from such data, one has to address specification and estimation issues carefully. This paper aims to demonstrate various pitfalls that typically occur in applied...

This working paper examines the question whether the privatization of network based utilities results from policy diffusion across the OECD world, and if so which diffusion mechanisms have been relevant. Therefore, a completely new panel data set on privatization in the telecommunication sector...

This essay argues that experience from more than three decades of labour market forecasting shows that forecasting helps greasing the wheels of labour markets. Applied correctly - not in the sense of old fashioned manpower planning models - sufficiently disaggregated employment outlooks support...

The flexibilisation of labour markets is called for by most political and economic and firms as the sesame towards economic competitiveness. But do employment systems and social protection regimes provide the workforce with the adequate social incentives - in the form of secured, qualifying and...