Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik

Open Access Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Volume 215 Issue 2

Issue of Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik

Contents
Journal Overview

April 27, 2016

Inhalt

Page range: I-II

Abhandlungen

April 27, 2016

Die Bedeutung der Kreislauftheorie der Verteilung für Wirtschaftstheorie und Wirtschaftspolitik / The Consequences of the Kaldorian Macroeconomic Theory of Distribution for Economic Theory and Economic Policy

Alois Oberhäuser

Page range: 129-142

Abstract

The Kaldorian macroeconomic theory of distribution is more or less ignored in our science, despite it has, in the view of the author, substantial explanatory power for real economics. It is not only able to explain (for equilibrium and disequilibrium situations) the distribution of macroeconomic income on wage and profit earners through the structure of the goods usage of the national product. Even more important, it explains the adjustment of private savings to the demand for investible funds (private net investments, public deficit and current account balances) through changes in the distribution and the level of national income. The empirical facts support this statement. If this adjustment-mechanism of savings (distributional mechanism) is of major importance for real economic correlations, the traditional theory needs substantial modifications: Each level of national product has numerous of equilibria. The theory of interest and the crowding-out-theory are inadequate. Furthermore the nominal wage policy of the unions and the consolidation policy of the government runs a risk to harm employees and the whole society.

April 27, 2016

Kreditrationierung und Treuhandpolitik / Credit Rationing and the Privatisation of the East German Economy

Ronnie Schöb

Page range: 143-156

Abstract

Credit rationing was considered a severe problem for the quick privatisation of East German firms and for restructuring investments. It was argued that the higher the price for a firm the lower were the possible restructuring investments. However, this paper shows that this argument is not correct. Reducing the sales price attracts new buyers with riskier projects. For any given credit contract, this would lead to bank losses. To break even the banks therefore increase the equity-asset ratio. This reduces the funds available for restructuring investments. It turns out that the size of privatisation and the restructuring investments are entirely determined by the initial equity funds owned by potential buyers. However, a pure participation model, in combination with the taking over of the old debt of the East German firms by the Treuhandanstalt, would have been able to solve the problem of credit rationing for the privatisation of East German firms.

April 27, 2016

Konsumstruktur und Auslagerung von Haushaltsproduktion in ausgewählten Ländern der OECD / Consumption Structure and Monetization of Homeproduction in Selected OECD-Countries

Walter Assenmacher, Martin Wenke

Page range: 157-170

Abstract

Based on a previous analysis for Western Germany the present paper examines the effects of increasing female labor supply on variations of the consumption structure in an international context. Using a microeconomic time allocation approach of private households, a standardized macroeconomic model is developed which explains aggregate demand components (services, durables, nondurables) for all analysed countries. This model allows for separating the traditional income effect from the removal effect (“monetization”), which is a result of an increasing female labor participation rate in that way that home production of goods and services has been changed into market demand. The empirical results for ten selected OECD-countries show significant differences of households propensity to remove home production.

April 27, 2016

Stabilization Policy in a Currency Area and the Impact of Wage Rigidities / Stabilisierungspolitik in einer Wechselkursunion und die Bedeutung von Lohnrigiditäten

Christina Daseking

Page range: 171-187

Abstract

The effects of stabilization policy and the impact of wage rigidities are analyzed for a small two-country currency area under the assumption of completely symmetrical demand sides and perfect capital mobility. It is shown that a different degree of wage rigidity within the area has a strong impact on the domestic income response to monetary and fiscal policy measures. While a country whose real wages are comparatively rigid benefits from a nominal appreciation of the joint exchange rate, accompanying a fiscal expansion, a country with a lower degree of real wage rigidity has an incentive to stimulate the domestic economy through a policy of nominal depreciation, such as a monetary expansion. Since both policy actions imply beggar-my-neighbor effects, different wage rigidities express an important reason for conflicts within a currency area and may eventually lead to its break-up. Zusammenfassung Die Auswirkungen stabilisierungspolitischer Maßnahmen und der Einfluß von Lohnrigiditäten in einer kleinen, aus zwei Ländern bestehenden Wechselkursunion werden unter der Annahme perfekter Kapitalmobilität und vollständig symmetrischer Nachfrageseiten untersucht. Es zeigt sich, daß ein unterschiedlicher Grad der Lohnrigidität innerhalb der Union die Reaktion des Inlandseinkommens auf geld- und fiskalpolitische Maßnahmen erheblich beeinflußt. Während ein Land mit vergleichsweise hoher Reallohnrigidität von einer nominalen Aufwertung des gemeinamen Wechselkurses, die eine expansive Fiskalpolitik begleitet, profitiert, besteht in einem Land mit geringerer Reallohnrigidität ein Anreiz, eine Politik der nominalen Abwertung in Form einer expansiven Geldpolitik zu betreiben. Da beide Maßnahmen beggar-my-neighbor-Effekte implizieren, stellen Unterschiede im Grad der Reallohnrigidität einen wesentlichen Grund für Konflikte innerhalb einer Wechselkursunion dar und können schließlich sogar zu ihrer Auflösung führen.

April 27, 2016

The Size of an Exchange Rate Union and the Need for Fiscal Policy Coordination / Die Größe einer Währungsunion und die Notwendigkeit zur fiskalpolitischen Harmonisierung

Valeria De Bonis

Page range: 188-200

Abstract

The negative transmission of fiscal policy among the members of an exchange rate union is a reason against the conduct of fiscal policy at the national level. Independent fiscal policies would act as asymmetric shocks for the union and cause a spiral of strategic reactions. This result must be qualified with respect to the economic dimension of the exchange rate union vis-à-vis the rest of the world. If the member countries are big, there exists a positive transmission of fiscal policy to the rest of the world in the case of flexible exchange rates and the external (positive) and internal (negative) spillover effects tend to offset each other. Zusammenfassung Die negative Übertragung von nationaler Fiskalpolitik auf die Mitgliedstaaten in einer Wechselkursunion ist ein Argument, das oft gegen die unkoordinierte Ausführung nationaler Fiskalpolitik angeführt wird. Unabgestimmte nationale Fiskalpolitiken wirken wie asymmetrische Schocks innerhalb der Wechselkursunion und können eine Spirale strategischer Reaktionen auslösen. Dieses Ergebnis muß jedoch modifiziert werden im Hinblick auf die relative Größe der Wechselkursunion in bezug auf den Rest der Welt. Im Fall einer großen Union und flexiblen Wechselkursen mit dem Rest der Welt besteht dorthin eine positive Übertragung der expansiven Fiskalpolitik. Dieser positive, externe Spillover-Effekt kann den internen, negativen Effekt aufwiegen.

April 27, 2016

Währungsdumping / Currency Dumping

Thusnelda Tivig

Page range: 201-215

Abstract

This paper contains a microeconomic analysis of currency dumping which is traditionally considered a macroeconomic phenomenon. It is shown that due to the pass-through behaviour of producers in oligopolistic markets monetary exchange rate shocks may have real effects in form of currency dumping or predatory pricing. However, under current law only dumping is penalized in international markets. Producers’ symmetric behaviour is thus treated asymmetrically by law.

April 27, 2016

Zur Fehlermessung bei nach Größenklassen aufgegliederten Erhebungsergebnissen Der Inkonsistenz-Index / Error Measurement with Survey Results Classified according to Size Classes – The Index of Inconsistency

Heinrich Strecker

Page range: 216-227

Abstract

The study suggests the concept of the index of inconsistency as an appropriate index to judge the reliability of classification in classified surveys. The values of the index vary between 0 and 1; if the results of one main survey and one repetition show no variability of the individual answers regarding the assignment to specified size classes the index takes on the value of 0, if there is total unreliability of the answers the result is value 1. By an example of Belgian agricultural statistics a short report is given on the index of inconsistency calculated for a classified survey.

April 27, 2016

Empirische Performance „multivariater“ Tests des Capital-Asset-Pricing-Models / Empirical Performance of “Multivariate” CAPM-Tests

Alfred Hamerle

Page range: 228-244

Abstract

The present paper deals with the empirical performance of multivariate tests of the CAPM. These tests were developed to avoid the severe problems arising in the traditional two-pass regression approach. The results indicate that not all of the problems can be eliminated. In particular, the index problem that arises if an index portfolio is used instead of the unobservable market portfolio causes severe difficulties. Conclusions based on the tests can be misleading. In the last section an artificial capital market is generated. This financial market is in equilibrium and the CAPM is valid. The performance and problems are illustrated in several simulation studies.

Diskussionsbeitrag

April 27, 2016

Integration von Geld- und Wertpapiermarkt im Keynesschen Makromodell. Eine Replik

Matthias Ernst, Dirk Walpuski

Page range: 245-251

April 27, 2016

Buchbesprechungen

Heinz G. Preuße, Alois Oberhauser, Peter Gottfried

Page range: 252-258

About this journal

The Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik) is a scientific journal published in Germany since 1863. The journal publishes papers in all fields of economics and applied statistics. A specific focus is on papers combining theory with empirical analyses. Papers providing conclusions for economic policy in Europe are particularly welcome. Nevertheless, distinguished papers dealing exlusively with economic theory, empirical models, or economic history, will not be excluded from consideration.

The editors invite replication studies focusing on the robustness of empirical findings. The section Data Observer presents articles on data sets available for empirical research and institutions providing research data. The journal also publishes special issues, short comments, and book reviews. All freely accessible contributions, including the Data Observer articles, can be found via the website's article search functionality.

Journal of Economics and Statistics now also at Twitter.

Subscribe to Open

Starting 2023, the Journal of Economics and Statistics will be transferred to Diamond Open Access on a year-by-year basis. All articles will thus immediately appear under the Creative Commons license CC-BY. There will be no publication costs for the authors.
The Open Access transformation is based on Subscribe-to-Open, an alternative model that enables the full Open Access transformation of journals through the continuation of existing subscriptions. The prerequisite for successful transformation is that subscriptions are continued to the same extent as before. The editors of the Journal of Economics and Statistics and the publisher De Gruyter would therefore like to thank all subscribers for their support, which has made the transformation to Open Access possible.

******************************************************

Call for Papers

Special Issue on "Sports Economics"

Guest Editors: Bernd Frick, Paderborn University; Thomas Peeters, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Rob Simmons, Lancaster University

Timeline: Submission of full papers November 30, 2023

Further details

******************************************************

Special Issue on "Advancing Agent-Based Economics"

Guest Editors: Michael Neugart, Technical University of Darmstadt) and Frank Westerhoff, University of Bamberg

Timeline: Submission of full papers December 31, 2023

Further details

******************************************************

Special Issue on "Central Bank Digital Currency"

Guest Editors: Katrin Assenmacher, European Central Bank and Michael Frenkel, WHU

Timeline: Submission of full papers January 08, 2024

Further details

******************************************************