This book provides a lucid account of economic policy in West Germany from the late 1940s up to the present, including the new challenges presented by the unification of the two German states in 1990. The authors describe and evaluate the major policy controversies and decisions, and place particular emphasis on the characteristically German institutions of policy counseling and their role in policy formation.

The 1997 Symposium of the Egon-Sohmen-Foundation, which gave rise to this book, took place in the United States, on the East Coast between New Y C)rk and New Haven, more precisely in Stamford (Conn.). The original choice had been a place close to Yale University, where Egon Sohmen taught economics from 1958 to 1960, subsequent to his period at MIT. But the hotel in New Haven was closed down by a new owner-to pass through a process of creative destruction. Change of ownership-on a large scale and as a transition from public to private hands-had been the topic of the preceding Egon...

In 1990, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe began or accelerated their transition to a market economy. This book addresses among others the following questions: (I) What are the fundamental causes of the collapse of the Soviet-type economic systems? (II) What major steps could be taken to make the transition process to a market economy irreversible and less painful? (III) What can be learned from West Germany's outstandingly successful postwar economic reforms? (IV) Is the issue of gradualism versus shock therapy still relevant? (V) If macroeconomic stability is a precondition, what...

On June 1, 1990, Egon Sohmen would have reached the age of 60 had he not suffered from a fatal illness. It demanded his death at the early age of 46. If he were still with us, he would playa prominent role in the current debate on monetary arrangements and on allocation theory, perhaps in cluding environmental issues and urban economics. His contributions are well remembered by his colleagues and friends, by his former students, and by many in the economics profession on both sides of the Atlantic. In extrapolating his great achievements as a scholar and teacher beyond the time of his death,...

Urban Agglomeration and Economic Growth is the fifth volume in the series of books emanating from the activities of the Egon-Sohmen-Foundation. It contains 10 papers (plus a supplementary note) which were presented at an international conference in Zurich, Switzerland, in summer 1993. These papers cover historical and theoretical aspects as well as policy implications.
The volume contains contributions by M. Beckmann, H.-J. Ewers, R.H. Funck, M. van Geenhuizen and P. Nijkamp, G. Giuliano and K.A. Small, P. Hall, H. Klodt, J. Mokyr, H.W. Richardson and J.G. Williamson.

Der AniaB zu dieser Festschrift fiir Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Herbert Giersch ist iiber den Wunsch hinaus, zu ehren, ein besonderer: Fiir Herbert Giersch beginnt mit seiner Emeritierung durch die Wirtschafts-und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultat der Universitat Kiel und seinem Ausscheiden aus der Leitung des Instituts fiir Weltwirtschaft ein neuer Le bensabschnitt. DaB dies ihn nicht zum Ausruhen veranlassen wird, diirfte nicht nur sicher, sondern auch wiinschenswert sein. Herbert Gierschs bisherige wissenschaftliche Arbeit in Forschung und Lehre einzuordnen und zu bewerten, kann nicht die...

This book is the sequel to Fighting Europe's Unemployment in the 1990s, the collection of papers presented at the Salzburg Symposium of the Egon-Sohmen-Foundation in 1994. Though the problem of un employment was urgent already then, it has not found a practical solution in the meantime, and even intellectually it remains somewhat of a mystery. A clue is offered by the contrast with the United States: they have the working poor; we, on the old continent, have the welfare recipients. This brings the relationship between unemployment and the welfare state to the fore. On closer inspection,...

Following the five books listed above on an earlier page, the Egon Sohmen-Foundation herewith submits its sixth volume. Once again, it is a collection of academic papers that were discussed at a symposium sponsored by the Foundation and subsequently revised. Readers not familiar with the Foundation may be interested to know that it was established in 1987 by Helmut Sohmen of Hong Kong in memory of his late brother, Egon Sohmen (1930-1977). Egon Soh men was an international economist highly respected in North America and in Europe, notably for his work on flexible exchange rates and on the...

At the end of the century, privatization has become a worldwide phenomenon. It is taking place in what was once called the first, the second, and the third world. The volume mirrors this expansion of privatization. In Part I on the economics of privatization, historical, theoretical, and politico-economic issues are covered. In Part II country studies are presented for China, the Czech Republic, Eastern Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Russia and the United Kingdom. In Part III a broader view on privatization is taken by including deregulation and the private provision of public goods and...