The theme of academic anti-Semitism has been much discussed recently in histories of the interwar period of the University of Vienna, in particular its Faculty of Law and Policy Sciences. This paper complements these studies by focusing in this regard on the economics chairs at this faculty and, more generally, on the fate of the younger generation of the Austrian school of economics. After some introductory remarks the paper concentrates on three case studies: the neglect of Mises in all three appointments of economics chairs in the 1920s; the anti-Semitic overtones in the conflict between Hans Mayer and Othmar Spann, both professors for economics at the faculty; and on anti-Semitism as a determinant of success or failure in academia, and consequently of the emigration of Austrian economists. Finally, we have a short look at the development of economics at the University of Vienna during and after the Nazi regime. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The Nationalökonomische Gesellschaft (Austrian Economic Association, NOeG) provides a prominent example of the Viennese economic circles that more than academic economics dominated scientific discourse in the interwar years. For the first time this paper gives a thorough account of its history, from its foundation 1918 until the demise of its long-time president, Hans Mayer, 1955, based on official documents and archival material. The topics treated include its predecessor and rival, the Gesellschaft österreichischer Volkswirte, the foundation 1918 soon to be followed by years of inactivity, the relaunch by Mayer and Mises, the survival under the NS-regime and the expulsion of its Jewish members, and the slow restoration after 1945. In particular, an attempt is made to provide a list of the papers presented to the NOeG, as complete as possible, for the period 1918-1938. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

We test the performance of myopic and farsighted stability concepts in a network formation experiment with a stream of payoffs and relatively unstructured link formation process. A subtle treatment variation demonstrates clearly the power of myopic stability concepts in precisely identifying the set of the most stable networks. However, we also find support for the predictions of farsighted concepts of stability, especially those that assume players' pessimism about the eventual outcome of a deviation. This is the first study to demonstrate that there exist environments where farsighted stability concepts identify empirically stable networks that are not identified by myopic concepts. Thus, myopic stability concepts are not necessarily sufficient to predict all stable outcomes in empirical applications.

Using a sample of 21 OECD-countries we measure productivity in top-edge economic research by using data envelopment analysis (DEA). DEA is a tool for evaluating relative efficiency and is widely used when there are multiple inputs and outputs and one lacks a specific functional form of a production function. The publications in 10 economics journals with the highest average impact factor over the time period 1980-1998 are taken as research output. Inputs are measured by R&D expenditures, number of universities with economics departments and (as uncontrolled variable) total population. Under constant returns-to-scale the USA are in dominant position with remarkable distance to other countries. Under variable returns-to-scale the efficiency frontier is created by the USA with most productive scale size (MPSS), and by Ireland and New Zealand, which are technical efficient but scale inefficient. All countries - except the USA - display increasing returns-to-scale, which shows that they have a possibility to improve their efficiency by scaling up their research activities. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The notion of an "orthodox core-heterodox periphery" structure and the extent of interdisciplinary links have been widely discussed, and partially investigated bibliometrically, within economic discourse. We extend this research by applying tools from social network analysis to citation data of three economics departments located in Vienna, two mainstream and one non-mainstream, to assess their relative citation patterns. We show that both mainstream economics departments follow the asserted core-periphery pattern and have a mono-disciplinary research focus, while the citation network of the non-mainstream department has a polycentric structure and is both more heterodox and interdisciplinary. These findings suggest that discussions about the future of heterodox economics should pay more attention to the organizational level and seek allies from other disciplines.

ANTES, Jiří: Welding of galvanized sheets using hybrid Laser-TIG technology This master thesis deals with the welding of zinced deep drawing steel using Laser-TIG technology. The first section of the thesis describes the topic from the theoretical point of view, which includes analysis of welding technologies, influence of used material and application of diagnostic methods. The second part of the thesis is focused on monitoring of welding current impact for weld quality of two types of joints.

Thesis is focused on verification of suitability of Laser-TIG technology for penetrating welding of galvanized sheets, made of WSS M1A 365-A14 50G steel and DC01 steel. Electric arc functions here as a preheating for evaporation of zink layer. Electric current was chosen as a variable parameter of magnitudes 0, 20, 30 and 40 A. Test welds were made, which have been subjected to a tensile test and metallographic evaluation. The positive influence for electrolytically galvanized steel WSS M1A 365-A14 50G was registered and determination of optimal welding parameters was successful. The electric arc also had a positive effect on welding of hot-dip galvanized steel DC01, but at the selected test parameters not enough to achieve a reliable connection.

The diploma thesis focuses on laser welding of extra deep-drawn steel sheet according to the standard WSS-M1A365-A14 with a protective zinc surface layer. A 0,9 mm thick steel sheet with a zinc layer with coating weight 50 g · m^-2 is welded by a hybrid welding method Laser-TIG. The laser, as the primary energy source, is used for welding the material. The arc, provided by a non-melting tungsten electrode, is used for preheating the material for melting and evaporation of the zinc layer. Based on the initial experiments, the magnitude of the laser power with the welding speed was chosen as a constant parameter. The magnitude of the electric current, as the variable parameter, was set up to 0, 20, 30 and 40 ampers for welding the lap and the butt welds. Only one piece of the each weld type combination was made. The welds were afterwards tested to verify their quality and material properties. The first differences between laser welding with or without TIG preheating were visible during the experiment. The positive effects of the laser welding with preheating by TIG were confirmed. The material properties of the joints achieved better values and a influence of the welding defects on the quality of the joints was reduced. The Laser-TIG is a good choice for welding galvanized steel sheets in the mass production of automotive industry and it could be improved by more researches.