infonet-economy

Little is known on the existence of negative relative demand shocks against low-skilled workers on a ‘US-style' deregulated labour market with a ‘German-style' vocational (apprenticeship) education system. Switzerland provides an appealing testing ground to investigate this question. Traditionally a ‘zero unemployment' economy, Switzerland has seen an unprecedented…

Die im Mai 2003 abgelaufene Frist für den Abschluss der Verhandlungen über Verbesserungen und Klarstellungen zum WTO-Übereinkommen über dei Streitschlichtung (Dispute Settlement Understanding; DSU) unter dem Doha-Mandat wurde verfehlt. Die WTO-Mitglieder einigten sich jedoch im Juli 2003 auf eine Verlängerung des Verhandlungsmandates bis Ende Mai 2004. Der vorliegende Beitrag fasst…

In September 2003 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) must decide the terms of upon which any negotiations on a multilateral framework on competition policy are to be conducted. This decision will involve determining which, if any, provisions should be included in such a framework, and of particular interest here is the desirability of including of possible provisions on so…

The basic idea behind this paper is that voters have to be able to distinguish the positions of the parties. Following Weber's Law this depends on the relative distance with respect to their own optimal position. Using such a measure a model of voter participation is developed which allows for abstention because of indifference as well as alienation. Two variants of this model…

During the 1990s the European Commission and the United States Department of Justice between them prosecuted over 40 cartels that involved private firms and whose effects went beyond national borders. These private international cartels were found in a wide range of products - from citric acid, vitamins, newsprint, and fax paper to shipping and chemicals such as aluminium phosphide…

It is important to appreciate how large the world's government procurement markets are. Although precise estimates are hard to come by, a recent analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicates that total central government expenditures of its members, excluding military spending and the compensation of state employees, was just under $2…