Can Korea Learn from German Unification?
Ulrich Blum
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 3,
2011
Abstract
We first analyze pre-unification similarities and differences between the two Germanys and the two Koreas in terms of demographic, social, political and economic status. An important issue is the degree of international openness. “Stone-age” type communism of North Korea and the seclusion of the population prevented inner-Korean contacts and contacts with rest of the world. This may create enormous adjustment costs if institutions, especially informal institutions, change. We go on by showing how transition and integration interact in a potential unification process based on the World Bank Revised Minimum Standard Model (RMSM) and on the Salter-Swan-Meade model. In doing so, we relate the macro and external impacts on an open economy to its macro-sectoral structural dynamics. The findings suggest that it is of utmost importance to relate microeconomic policies to the macroeconomic ties and side conditions for both parts of the country. Evidence from Germany suggests that the biggest general error in unification was neglecting these limits, especially limitations to policy instruments. Econometric analysis supports these findings. In the empirical part, we consider unification as an “investment” and track down the (by-and-large immediate to medium-term) costs and the (by-and-large long-term) benefits of retooling a retarded communist economy. We conclude that, from a South-Korean
perspective, the Korean unification will become relatively much more expensive than the German unification and, thus, not only economic, but to a much larger degree political considerations must include the tying of neighboring countries into the convergence process. We finally provide, 62 years after Germany’s division and 20 years after unification, an outlook on the strength of economic inertia in order to show that it may take much more than a generation to compensate the damage inflicted by the communist system.
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Kosten und Nutzen der Ausbildung an Tertiärbildungsinstitutionen im Vergleich
Martina Eschelbach, G. Heineck, Steffen Müller, Regina T. Riphahn
Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik,
No. 2,
2010
Abstract
We compare German institutions of tertiary education (universities and polytechnics) with respect to the cost of and the returns to their educational degrees. Based on cost data from two different sources we find that on average the expenditures of universities are lower than those of polytechnics when we consider expenditures per potential enrollee and per student enrolled during the regular education period. We apply data from the German Socio-economic Panel (2001–2007) to estimate the private returns to tertiary education and find higher returns to university than polytechnic training. These results are robust to a variety of alternative procedures.
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Consequences, opportunities and challenges for modern biotechnology for Europe (BIO4EU) - TASK 2. Report 3
S. Gaisser, Iciar Dominguez Lacasa, Thomas Reiss
Einzelveröffentlichungen,
No. 4,
2008
Abstract
Modern biotechnology is one of the key enabling technologies of the 21st century with a potentially wide range of applications in many sectors, including health, agriculture and industrial processes. Considering the potential of modern biotechnology to contribute to the achievement of major European Union policy goals, such as economic growth and job creation, public health, environmental protection and sustainable development, the European Parliament has requested the European Commission to carry out an assessment of modern biotechnology. The European Commission welcomed the initiative and announced to undertake a study “to conduct a cost benefit analysis of biotechnology and genetic engineering, including genetically modified organisms in the light of major European policy goals formulated in the Lisbon Strategy,
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