This is the first issue of CESifo's new quarterly, CESifo DICE Report - Journal for Institutional Comparisons. The word "DICE" refers to our free access "Database for Institutional Comparisons in Europe".
In a world of free factor migration and free exchange of goods and services, not only firms but also countries face growing international competition. Every country is eager to learn how others solve their regulatory problems, how they tax their citizens, where they spend government resources, how they help the poor and how they organise their labour markets so as to become successful competitors and offer an attractive economic environment for their citizens and the mobile factors of production. DICE provides an overview of the institutional differences and offers yardsticks for international comparisons. The focus is on EU countries, the US and Japan, but even a wider scope is often presented.
DICE is the Ifo Institute's second empirical pillar next to its famous business surveys that monitor the state of the trade cycle. It reflects the growing importance of allocative problems in a rapidly changing world and their challenge to national policymakers. Founding a new journal around DICE signals the importance the Ifo Institute assigns to this new type of database.
The CESifo DICE Report comments on new entries to the database and offers a forum for the discussion of institutional topics among researchers from the Ifo Institute, from the CESifo research network and from other economic research institutions. The journal will provide information relevant for economic debate without seeking to be an academic journal. The presentations are aimed at journalists, policymakers and members of the business community as well as academic economists.
The journal has different sections. In the rubric "Forum" a specific institutional question is considered from different points of view. Under "Research Reports" the reader finds various topics treated by scholars interested in the design and the effects of institutions. Institutional reform projects are presented under "Reform Models". The rubric "Benchmarking" comments on new entries to the DICE database and puts them into a larger perspective. Under "News" we inform the reader about conferences, new information on regulations, ongoing research projects, new studies etc.
The contributions to the new journal will frequently be based on data from the CESifo database DICE. Some articles may also provide us with additional information that will be included in the database. The final aim of CESifo DICE Report is to improve the understanding of the effects of institutional design as well as economic policymaking, thus stimulating well-founded institutional reforms in Europe and the rest of the world.
Hans-Werner Sinn Professor of Economics and Public Finance, University of Munich President, Ifo Institute
more:
CESifo DICE ReportJournal Introduction
CESifo DICE ReportNo. 1/2003(Content with download option)
DICE DatabaseIntroduction
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