Entrepreneurial Opportunity and the Formation of Photovoltaic Clusters in Eastern Germany
Matthias Brachert, Christoph Hornych
R. Wüstenhagen, R. Wuebker (Hrsg.), Handbook of Research on Energy Entrepreneurship,
2011
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to explain the evolution of the spatial structures of one particular type of renewable energy in Germany – the photovoltaic (PV) industry. We first demonstrate how environmental movements have contributed to institutional change and government action, leading to changes in the legal and regulative structure in Germany. We describe how these changes opened up a window of locational opportunity (WLO), thus combining the WLO concept with the entrepreneurial opportunity concept. As market entries occurred mainly in Eastern Germany, the paper also explores the factors leading to a concentration of economic activity related to the new PV industry in this part of the country. Based on the WLO concept, we combine this framework with the industrial dynamics literature by Klepper (2007) and illustrate the spatial evolution of the PV industry.
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Africa and the Global Financial Crisis - Impact on Economic Reform Processes
R. Adelou Alabi, J. Alemazung, Achim Gutowski, Robert Kappel, Tobias Knedlik, O. Osnachi Uzor, Karl Wohlmuth, Hans H. Bass
African Development Perspectives Yearbook, Vol. 15,
2011
Abstract
In volume XV of the African Development Perspectives Yearbook, the Research Group on African Development Perspectives investigates the impact of the GFC on economic reform processes in Africa. The analysis is structured in such a way so as to reflect the opportunities and dangers of policy reversals in the face of the GFC. The impact of the crisis on different types and forms of governance in the region is considered. The first question is therefore which macro-economic policy instruments have to be applied in order to overcome the crisis and to continue with sustainable development. The second question is how the GFC has affected Africa's external economic relations and if the path of opening up to the world markets is continued. The third question raised is how the crisis has affected social cohesion, impacted on poverty alleviation strategies and the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). All these questions are discussed in the various contributions which comprise general studies and country case studies. The authors also looked into the role of international financial institutions during and after the crisis. The volume XV of the African Development Perspectives Yearbook is structured into three Units. Unit 1 addresses general issues regarding the impact of the GFC on reform processes in Africa. Unit 2 presents case studies from countries and sub-regions. Unit 3 presents reviews and book notes of current literature focusing on issues of African development perspectives.
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Path Dependence and QWERTY's Lock-in: Toward a Veblenian Interpretation
John B. Hall, Iciar Dominguez Lacasa, Jutta Günther
Journal of Economic Issues,
No. 2,
2011
Abstract
In “Clio and the Economics of QWERTY,“ Paul David challenges an overarching, mainstream assumption that market forces should indeed lead toward efficient and optimal outcomes that include technology selection. David seeks to explain the endurance of technologies that his use of historiography judges inefficient and suboptimal. We challenge David's research, arguing that failure to consider the original institutional economics (OIE) tradition limits his grasp of complex processes to reduced notions of “path dependence“ based upon a “lock-in.“ This inquiry offers an alternative account of QWERTY and technology selection based upon Veblenian thinking, further supported by Paul Dale Bush's emphasis upon the ceremonial.
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What Drives FDI in Central-eastern Europe? Evidence from the IWH-FDI-Micro Database
Andrea Gauselmann, Mark Knell, Johannes Stephan
Post-Communist Economies,
No. 3,
2011
Abstract
The focus of this paper is on the match between strategic motives of foreign investments into Central-Eastern Europe and locational advantages offered by these countries. Our analysis makes use of the IWH-FDI-Micro Database, a unique dataset that contains information from 2009 about the determinants of locational factors, technological activity of the subsidiaries, and the potentials for knowledge spillovers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. The analysis suggests that investors in these countries are mainly interested in low (unit) labour costs coupled with a well-trained and educated workforce and an expanding market with the high growth rates in the purchasing power of potential buyers. It also suggests that the financial crisis reduced the attractiveness of the region as a source for localised knowledge and technology. There appears to be a match between investors’ expectations and the quantitative supply of unqualified labour, not however for the supply of medium qualified workers. But the analysis suggests that it is not technology-seeking investments that are particularly content with the capabilities of their host economies in terms of technological cooperation. Finally, technological cooperation within the local host economy is assessed more favourably with domestic firms than with local scientific institutions – an important message for domestic economic policy.
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Upswing Continues - European Debt Crisis still Unresolved: Joint Economic Forecast Spring 2011
Dienstleistungsauftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie,
2011
Abstract
Im Frühjahr 2011 befindet sich die Weltwirtschaft im Aufschwung, vor allem aufgrund der Dynamik in den Schwellenländern. Auch Deutschland erlebt einen kräftigen Aufschwung. Die Institute erwarten, dass das Bruttoinlandsprodukt in diesem Jahr um 2,8 % und im kommenden um 2,0 % zunimmt. Für die Jahre 2011 und 2012 wird eine Arbeitslosenquote von 6,9 % bzw. 6,5 % erwartet. Die Auftriebskräfte werden sich allmählich zur Binnennachfrage verschieben. Die Löhne werden im Zuge des Aufschwungs steigen.
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On the Institutional Safeguarding of Monetary Policy – a Post-Keynesian Perspective
A. Heise, Toralf Pusch
International Journal of Public Policy,
No. 1,
2011
Abstract
The paper takes a fresh look at the governance of the most important macroeconomic objectives: price stability and full employment. On the basis of a post-Keynesian market constellations approach, the necessity and institutional requirements of the coordination of macroeconomic policy areas in general and an optimal central bank setting in particular are analysed, and an amelioration of monetary policy of the neo-Keynesian ‘new macroeconomic consensus’ is provided.
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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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Governmental Learning as a Determinant of Economic Growth
Marina Grusevaja
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 23,
2010
Abstract
Systemic economic transition is a process of determined radical institutional change, a process of building new institutions required by a market economy. Nowadays, the experience of transition countries with the implementation of new institutions could be reviewed as a method of economic development that despite similar singular steps has different effects on the domestic economic performance. The process of institutional change towards a market economy is determined by political will, thus the government plays an important role in carrying out the economic reforms. Among the variety of outcomes and effects the attention is drawn especially to economic growth that diverges significantly in different post-transition countries. The paper attempts to shed light upon the problem on the basis of institutional economics, of economics of innovation and partially of political economy of growth using an evolutionary, process-oriented perspective. In this context the issue central to the promotion of economic growth is the successful implementation of new institutions through governmental activities. The paper shows that under the conditions of bounded rationality and radical uncertainty economic growth is determined, inter alia, by the capacity for governmental learning.
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20 Jahre Deutsche Einheit: Von der Transformation zur europäischen Integration - Tagungsband
IWH-Sonderhefte,
No. 3,
2010
Abstract
Der Band dokumentiert die zweitägige internationale Konferenz zum zwanzigsten Jahr der Deutschen Einheit, die am 11. und 12. März 2010 unter Mitwirkung namhafter Vertreter aus Wissenschaft und Politik mit rund 250 Besuchern in Halle stattfand. Veranstalter waren das Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH), die Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) und der Sonderforschungsbereich „Gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen nach dem Systemumbruch. Diskontinuität, Tradition, Strukturbildung“ (SFB 580) an den Universitäten in Halle und Jena. Ziel der Tagung war es, den wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Wandel in den Post-Transformationsländern zu beschreiben, zu analysieren und einer kritischen Würdigung zu unterziehen. Aus dem bisherigen Verlauf dieses Prozesses sollen Lehren gezogen, zukünftige Entwicklungsperspektiven und auch Übertragungsmöglichkeiten auf die weltweit weitergehenden Transformationen aufgezeigt werden.
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Deutschland im Aufschwung - Wirtschaftspolitik vor wichtigen Entscheidungen: Gemeinschaftsdiagnose Herbst 2010
Dienstleistungsauftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie,
2010
Abstract
Die deutsche Wirtschaft befindet sich im Aufschwung. Die Institute prognostizieren eine Zunahme des realen Bruttoinlandsprodukts um 3,5 % für das Jahr 2010 und um 2,0 % für das Jahr 2011. Die Lage am Arbeitsmarkt wird sich dabei weiter verbessern. Die Zahl der Arbeitslosen dürfte im Jahresdurchschnitt 2011 erstmals seit 1992 unter 3 Millionen liegen. Die Defizitquote des Staates dürfte auf 2,7 % sinken. Die Wirtschaftspolitik in Deutschland muss den angekündigten Konsolidierungspfad weitergehen. Auf europäischer Ebene sind Insolvenzordnungen für Staaten und Banken erforderlich. Ein strengerer Stabilitäts- und Wachstumspakt könnte als ergänzende Maßnahme sinnvoll sein. Eine Verlängerung des Rettungsschirms für Euroländer oder die Einführung von gepoolten Staatsanleihen sind dagegen genauso abzulehnen wie der von der EU-Kommission vorgeschlagene Mechanismus zur Vermeidung und Korrektur makroökonomischer Ungleichgewichte.
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