The dynamics of the digital economy in the US, Europe and Japan are rather different. Some EU countries come close to the USA as the leading OECD country in the new economy, but Japan faces particular problems in catching-up digitally. Information and communication technology will affect productivity growth, production, the financial system and trade. Setting adequate rules for the digital economy - at the national and international level - is a key challenge for industrialized countries. Moreover, cultural and organizational challenges will also have to be met.

Professor Paul Welfens offers a unique and timely approach to the major task of stabilizing and integrating the Balkans. His book is one of the first to assess in depth the progress of reconstruction and to evaluate the success of coordination on the part of various Western governments and international organizations. Professor Welfens sees an intimate connection, in the sense of equal responsibility, between internal reform, restructuring, and revitalization in the region and Western financing, ideas, and programs. Professor Welfens has coined the term "networked approach" to capture the...

The strong productivity growth of the US and Scandinavian countries in Europe in the 1990s has raised the question whether the ICT sector - information and com munication technology (that is computers plus telecommunications plus digital services)-is the new driving engine of high growth in leading OECD countries. Judging by the empirical evidence for the US, including a new study by McKinsey which gives mixed evidence, it is still too early to clearly dismiss Robert G. Gordon's hypothesis that the acceleration of US output growth is (dis regarding quality problems of price measurement)...

Deregulation, privatization and internationalization of the telecommunications industry has brought about enormous changes within both the European and world economy. The dynamics of the Internet and the recent wave of innovations in the telecommunications and computer industry have given rise to new opportunities for entrepreneurship, employment and growth. No doubt, the dynamics and imperfections of todays information markets raise crucial challenges for Western Europe. The changing patterns of innovation in the digital economy have forced governments to consider new strategies to promote...

Socialist economies in Eastern Europe have collapsed and em-barked upon market-oriented reforms. The causes of thedemise of centrally planned economies are analyzed and thebasic challenges of systemic tranformation discussed.Negative income and wealth effects as well as distributionissues make adjustment extremely difficult. The fundamentalroles of privatization and foreign investment are adressed.Foreign economic liberalization is considered to be ofcentralimportance for a growth-oriented adjustment path ina stage of conflict-prone policy and options.Politico-economic aspects of the new...

Die Telekommunikationswirtschaft ist das Nervensystem der modernen Wirtschafts- und Freizeitgesellschaft in Europa. Dieses Buch behandelt die strategische Rolle der Telekommunikation in der Informationsgesellschaft, prasentiert aktuelle internationale Entwicklungen und diskutiert die zentralen Aspekte einer zukunftsweisenden Deregulierungspolitik sowie Liberalisierungsoptionen in Deutschland und den EU-Partnerlandern. Privatisierungsaspekte, das Phanomen internationaler Allianzen und langfristige Internationalisierungstendenzen werden in ihren wirtschaftlichen Bedeutungen analysiert."

Springers Handbuch der VWL stellt in insgesamt 20 Beitragen die wichtigsten Gebiete der Volkswirtschaftslehre vor. Die Beitrage enthalten umfassendes, prufungs- und praxisrelevantes Wissen fur Studenten, Praktiker und Wissenschaftler. Es ist ihr Ziel, dem Leser volkswirtschaftliche Fragen, Methoden und Ergebnisse und die Moglichkeiten und Grenzen okonomischer Analyse zu erlautern und zugleich einen Eindruck davon nahezubringen, warum Volkswirtschaftslehre als Fach interessant ist. Band 2 behandelt die Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik, die Geldpolitik, die Sozialpolitik sowie die...

Springers Handbuch der VWL stellt in insgesamt 20 Beitragen die wichtigsten Gebiete der Volkswirtschaftslehre vor. Die Beitrage enthalten umfassendes, prufungs- und praxisrelevantes Wissen fur Studenten, Praktiker und Wissenschaftler. Es ist ihr Ziel, dem Leser volkswirtschaftliche Fragen, Methoden und Ergebnisse und die Moglichkeiten und Grenzen okonomischer Analyse zu erlautern und zugleich einen Eindruck davon nahezubringen, warum Volkswirtschaftslehre als Fach interessant ist. Band 1 behandelt die mikro- und makrookonomische Theorie, die neuesten Entwicklungen der...

While international capital flows are rising, the role of banks in the economy is changing and stock markets in OECD and eastern European countries play an increasing role for financing investment and innovation. Economic catching up of eastern Europe, European Monetary Union and problems of economic convergence are some of the issues discussed in this volume. Theoretical as well as empirical analyses of savings, private and public investment, and portfolio shifts are presented from a comparative perspective, covering Europe, Asia, Latin America and the US. Prudential supervision, banking...

Economic globalization has intensified since the 1980s and created faster channels of international interdependence and an accelerating technology race. In this new asymmetric world economy the EU is facing a dynamic and flexible US system which takes advantage of the global quest for foreign direct investment. Innovation policies in the EU - in particular in Germany - are found to be rather inadequate. There are also new theoretical challenges where a "structural macro model" and a Schumpetrian model of innovation and full employment are presented as new approaches. Besides theoretical...