ZEW Discussion Papers

We analyze the effectiveness of public works programs (PWP, Arbeitsbeschaffungs-maßnahmen) in east Germany as measured by their effects on individual future re-employment probabilities in regular jobs. These are…

Are the characteristics of the exchange rate regime relevant for the degree of fiscal discipline? What are the conclusions for fiscal behavior in Europe after the transition to EMU? These are the central…

Since the crisis of the Metallgesellschaft AG in 1993, their roll over hedging strategy with short-term oil futures has been a subject of controversal debate. Main issues of this controversy are whether a woll…

Finance theory does not provide a comprehensive framework for explaining risk management within the imperfect financial environment in which firms operate. Corporate managers, however, rank risk management as…

This paper investigates empirically the interrelationships between the daily stock market returns of the Nikkei 225, DAX and Dow Jones Industrial index. Contrary to former work this paper uses the succession of…

In this paper, a short survey is given on the contents and some problems of the theory of optimal currency areas. In addition, a new criterion for the assessment of the optimality of a currency area is proposed:…

In this paper, four commonly provided explanations for the shift in labour demand for different skill groups are investigated: the substitutability of inputs; the own-price sensitivity for different types of…

National economic concerns still hinder the implementation of effective policy measures that would enable a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Considering other economic problems like…