Univ., Diss.--Fribourg, 2001.

This paper presents new empirical evidence on the determinants of corruption, focussing on the role of globalization and inequality. The estimates for a panel of 102 countries over the period 1995-2005 point to three main results: i) Detection technologies, reflected in a high level of development, human capital, and political rights reduce corruption, whereas natural resource rents increase corruption. ii) Globalization (in terms of both trade and financial openness) has a negative effect on corruption, which is more pronounced in developing countries. iii) Inequality increases corruption, and once the role of inequality is accounted for, the impact of globalization on corruption is halved. In line with recent theory, this suggests that globalization - besides reducing corruption through enhanced competition - affects corruption also by reducing inequality. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

We examine the effect of joint custody on marriage, divorce, fertility and female employment in Austria using individual-level administrative data, covering the entire population. We also use unique data obtained from court records to analyze the effect on post-divorce outcomes. Our estimates show that joint custody significantly reduces divorce and female employment rates, significantly increases marriage and marital birth rates, and leads to a substantial increase in the total money transfer received by mothers after divorce. We interpret these results as evidence against Becker-Coase bargains and in support of a mechanism driven by a resource redistribution that favors men giving them greater incentives to invest in marriage specific capital. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

This paper examines the history of nuclear energy, safety developments of reactors and nuclear energy policy from the 1950s on. I investigate the effects of nuclear accidents on energy policy with the help of a panel dataset of 31 countries from 1965-2009, using annual data about the capacity of reactors under construction, primary energy consumption, as well as three nuclear accidents scaled INES five or higher by the International Atomic Energy Agency. After determining the extent of the accident impact in the different countries, I find that neither Three Mile Island nor Lucens had a worldwide negative effect on construction starts, while Chernobyl did. The effect of Chernobyl is however shown to wear-off in certain geographical clusters, after ten to thirty years. I find that nuclear capacity enlargement shows a significant persistence, but it was also driven by primary energy consumption in the past five decades. The effects of real interest rates, inflation, or gross domestic product on reactor construction were not found significant. Thus, an accident is likely to have a negative and long lasting impact in the country where it happened, and possibly in countries affected by the direct consequences, or where governments are subject to severe public pressure.It is difficult to estimate the consequences Fukushima is going to have on worldwide power plant constructions, but areas closer to the accident might be affected more negatively and for a longer time. Growing concerns of energy supply security and greenhouse gas emissions may counteract this impact at the legislative level. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

A recent highly disputed subject of regulating energy markets in Europe is the unbundling of vertically integrated down- and upstream firms. While legal unbundling is already implemented in most countries and indisputable in its necessity for approaching regulatory aims, continuative models as ownership unbundling or the alternative of an independent system operator are still ambiguous. Hence, this article contributes to the economic analyses of identifying the differences of separate types of unbundling. Via simulation, we find that legal unbundling brings about the lowest prices in a market under Cournot competition. Moreover, under Bertrand competition, no differences between legal unbundling and ownership unbundling can be identified. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers / Research Institute for Regulatory Economics

Zugl.: Kiel, Univ., Diss., 2008

Die Schriftenreihe informiert über die Ergebnisse des Forschungsprojektes, zum Schutz seismischer Registrierungen vor den Emissionen von Windkraftanlagen. Als Ergebnis konnte festgestellt, werden, dass Windkraftanlagen deutlich messbare Schallemissionen in den Untergrund abstrahlen. Es wurde ein Verfahren entwickelt, um diese Emissionen standortindividuell mit einfachen Mitteln modellieren zu können. Dieses bemerkenswerte Verfahren wurde erstmalig in Deutschland umgesetzt. Die Ergebnisse sollen zukünftig der Regionalplanung helfen die Windkraftflächen zu maximieren, bei gleichzeitigem Schutz der seismischen Stationen. Redaktionsschluss: 12.08.2020

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Die Begriffe der künstlichen Intelligenz und ihrer zentralen Komponente, der Wissensverarbeitung, werden aus der Sicht eines Informatikers der 1980er Jahre konzeptionell beschrieben. Nach dem Aufzeigen prinzipieller Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Technologie erfolgt die Diskussion zu Fragestellungen im weltanschaulichen und gesellschaftlichen Kontext.:1. Einleitung 2. Was ist künstliche Intelligenz? 3. Wissensverarbeitung als Grundlage der künstlichen Intelligenz 4. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Wissensverarbeitung 5. Philosophische Probleme und soziale Auswirkungen der künstlichen Intelligenz 6. Schlussbemerkungen

This article investigates the interrelations between the initial members of the Euro area and five important Central and Eastern European economies. We set up a theoretical open economy model to derive the Purchasing Power Parity, the Interest Rate Parity, the Fisher Inflation Parity, and an output gap relation. After taking convergence into account, they are used as restrictions on the cointegration space of a structural vector error correction model. We then employ generalized impulse response analysis to assess the dynamic effects of shocks in output and interest rates on the respective other area as well as the implications of shocks in the exchange rate and in relative prices on both areas. The results show a high degree of interconnectedness between the two economies. There are strong positive spillovers in output to the respective other region with the magnitude of the impact being similarly strong in both areas. Furthermore, we find a multiplier effect being present in Eastern Europe and some evidence for the European Central Banks' desire towards price stability. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series