This paper explores the international economic effects of forced labour, namely the linkages of forced labour with comparative advantage (trade) and foreign direct investment flows. It discusses several forms and the prevalence of forced labour and presents the results of empirical tests of...

This paper uses a large plant level panel data set from Germany and a matching approach to look for causal effects of starting to export on plant performance. We find positive effects on growth of employment, labor productivity, and wages. Dieses Diskussionspapier untersucht, welche Effekte der...

Regional unemployment rates in the European Union (EU-15) reveal a core-periphery structure. Large "core" regions in the middle of the continent have low unemployment rates, whereas excessive mass unemployment is predominantly found in the peripheral regions at the outside borders of EU-15. This...

We study an overlapping generations model of human capital accumulation with threshold effects using regional data for West Germany. Our basic goal is to shed light on the growth of West German regions. The paper finds that the relative income distribution appears to be stratifying into a...

This paper uses a dataset on the foreign activities by Swedish manufacturing firms to examine the performance of German affiliates compared with affiliates in other locations. It is found that German affiliates, on average, have higher labour productivity, R&D expenditure per employee and...

How can long-term unemployment be reduced by policy measures of the government? In this paper a growth-matching-model is developed, in which the unemployment pool consists of heterogeneous unemployed workers, short-term and long-term unemployed, and with an endogenous skill-depreciation of the...

This study investigates the influence of the demographic ageing process in Germany on the long-term economic growth path. For this purpose a macroeconomic simulation model which combines demographic forecasts with a modified Ramsey growth model is applied. Special focus is put on the consumption...

This paper explores the relationship between foreign direct investment, or the activities of transnational corporations, and core labour standards. It discusses the channels through which labour standards may influence foreign direct investment and presents the results of an empirical test of...

Population ageing and decline are inescapable facts for Germany which are expected to have - especially due to the labour force decrease - negative impacts on the economy. In this context it is often referred to the possibility of countering potentially negative economic effects of population...

The standard literature on working time has modelled the decisions of firms in a deterministic framework in which firms can choose between employment and overtime (given mandated standard hours). Contrary to this approach, we follow the real options approach, which allows us to investigate the...