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  Newsletter April 2014
Featured Paper From the Editor Economic Indicators
The Original 
Publications of Interest
The Chart Forthcoming Events People Ifo News Bulletin Board
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  Featured Paper

Now if we were all Dobermans...

 Rents and Revolution

It is often assumed that resource rents serve to prop up governments of whatever stripe. New research by two CESifo scholars, however, shows that this depends on the strength of the government in question. For weak governments, resource rents might be the last thing they should wish for.

Other CESifo Working Papers
Working Paper Submission Form

  The Original Sinn

Just breathe normally–everything's alright...

 Flickering Power

As things currently stand, the viability of Germany's Energiewende, the country's ambitious endeavour to wean itself from fossil fuels, does not hang on the availability or size of the subsidies for wind and solar energy. For good or ill, it depends on the continued availability of Putin gas. Well, on Russian natural gas, which is the same thing.

Read Hans-Werner Sinn's opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal on giving Putin a Chance
   Economic Indicators

Haven't been reading the news lately

 Ifo Business Climate Index Rises

Despite the flaring up of tensions in eastern Ukraine and the unresolved standoff between Russia and the EU, German industry seems surprisingly perky, pushing the Ifo Business Climate Index in April to 111.2 points from 110.7 points last month, when it had dipped for the first time in many months. The economic indicator for the Eurozone is also looking perkier.

Other Economic Indicators:
German Companies Continue to Recruit
Export Climate Overshadowed by Deterioration in Competitiveness

   From the Editor

Now dig for your wallet

 Land of the Free

Germany is too cheap, according to a complaint commonly heard around Europe regarding the country's infuriatingly high competitiveness. But, when it comes to car driving, the fact that Germany is cheaper than about everywhere else raises no complaints at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. Here, you can drive clear across the country without paying one cent in tolls or having to paste pricey vignettes on your windshield. That might, just might, be about to change.

  The Chart

 Renewable Energy

Guess which country leads the world in the proportion of energy derived from renewable sources: Germany, with its huge subsidies for renewables? Spain, with its reliably powerful sunshine and the many solar power facilities? Not really. The leaders are those with lots of water on uneven terrain, such as Norway and New Zealand, and those with large geothermal sources, such as Iceland. Germany is but a middling power. Check out this interesting DICE interactive chart on the issue, which compares countries and shows the evolution of renewables over time.

  Forthcoming Events

 

 13th Munich Economic Summit

With free trade big in the international agenda, what with TPP and TTIP being negotiated and with free trade being touted as a possible cure to the Russia-EU rift (see Mr Sinn's op-ed piece in the WSJ), it is surprising that free trade is still a difficult sell in many quarters of the world. This year's Munich Economic Summit will tackle the free trade issue from a European perspective, focusing in particular on the BRICS, the prospects opening up after the unexpected mini-breakthrough at Bali, and transatlantic trade.

Other Forthcoming Events:
12 May, Munich Seminar with Carsten Linnemann
26 May, Munich Seminar with Clemens Fuest

   People
CESifo Guests and Locals

Faces of the Month

 Guests and Locals

The CESifo Group is hosting a number of scholars during May. See what they are working on and get to know their research focus and other aspects of interest.

Other People-Related News:
CESifo Founding Member Gary Becker Passes Away
   Ifo News

Greek statistics are back

 Eurostat Caught Fiddling

The purported primary surplus posted by Greece in 2013 is actually a mirage. It resulted from a bit of creative accounting by Eurostat, according to Hans-Werner Sinn.

Other Ifo News:
Inheritance Tax’s Impact on the Business Activities of Family Companies
Wage Risks and Old Age Poverty in the Welfare State
Evaluation of Economic Policy – A Closer Look at Current Methods

   Publications of Interest

 

 The Economics of Conflict

Economics needs a theory of conflict to understand both outright conflict and transactions in the shadow of conflict. The newest volume of the CESifo Seminar Series with MIT Press takes the first steps in this direction, its contributors offering a rational-choice perspective on conflict. 

Other Publications of Interest:
CESifo Forum
CESifo Economic Studies
CESifo DICE Report
CESifo World Economic Survey
CESifo Working Papers

  Bulletin Board

 

 News and things of interest to CESifo Network members

Don't forget: This is the outlet for CESifo Network members to post conferences, job openings, professional announcements and other things of interest to fellow Network members and other interested parties. Apparently, this month no one is calling for submissions, offering jobs or the like, so this bit of the newsletter is to serve just as a reminder to potential announcers to take advantage of this outlet. Just contact Ines Gross.

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