Bøger af Daniel Detzer

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Economics - Monetary theory and policy, grade: 1,3, Berlin School of Economics and Law, course: International Trade and Monetary Economics, language: English, abstract: "Loose funds may sweep round the world disorganizing all steady business.Nothing is more certain than that the movement of capital funds must be regulated"Keynes, J.M. Already Keynes warned against a free movement of capital. Those warnings were taken seriously by the international community and the IMF allowed in its articles the use of capital controls. The attitude towards those controls changed remarkably during the 1980`s when a general trend towards deregulation occurred. This trend peaked in an attempt to include the purpose of liberalizing capital movements in the Articles of Agreements of the IMF. Coinciding with the Asian Crisis, parts of the academic profession heavily opposed this idea and eventually, some of the fund`s representatives revised their general opposition against capital controls. Nonetheless, in big parts of the academic profession, capital controls carry a negative smack and the ultimate goal of free capital flows is promoted. With the financial crisis, however, capital controls came into vogue again. Recently, Brazil introduced a tax on foreign portfolio investment. Also at the G20 level, ways on how to regulate international capital flows are discussed. Whether this should be seen as a desirable development or not, boils down to the question if capital controls are a useful instrument of economic policy? In general capital controls are any kind of policy that limits or redirects capital account transactions. So, the above mentioned question can be answered by looking at the situation of a fully liberalized capital account with its associated cost and benefits and see if state intervention in form of capital controls would be able to improve the situation. This discussion shall first rest on theoretical considerations and outline possible benefits of free capital flows. Thereafter, an important assumption, namely the Efficient Market Theorem, which allows for the prediction of those benefits, will be discussed. Subsequently, by dropping the EMT and introducing Keynesian uncertainty an alternative scenario is drawn and the effect of capital controls within this framework is examined. After this, some of the empirical research regarding the benefits of free capital flows will be examined and some of the areas where capital controls can play a beneficial role are introduced to the reader. Finally, the insights gained in the course of this paper will be summarized and an answer to the stated question will be given.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Economics - Foreign Trade Theory, Trade Policy, grade: 1, Berlin School of Economics and Law, course: International Trade and Monetary Economics, language: English, abstract: In the Washington Consensus trade liberalization is considered as an important policy to spur economic growth. Looking at different trade theories this recommendation is reasonable. However some economists argue that trade liberalization is not necessarily good for growth. They point to shortcomings of the underlying theories or to empirical studies that could not find these beneficial effects. Therefore this paper will try to answer the question "Is trade liberalization good for economic performance?". Mostly, economic performance is equalized with economic growth or output. The author is aware of the fact that an increase in GDP is not the only way economic performance could be measured, but due to the limited space the paper will solely focus on this measure, while other things such as sustainability or equality will be neglected. To answer the question the paper will first outline some of the well-known trade theories to give the reader an impression of how free trade could benefit economic performance. Thereafter, exemplarily it will be shown that dropping some of the underlying assumptions can change the predictions entirely. Also with some showcase examples it will be illustrated what happens if one looks at the long term development. Lastly, the paper will look at available empirical research, summarize the results and draw a short conclusion.

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, Berlin School of Economics (Global Governance), language: English, abstract: During the last decades, corruption became an important topic. About twenty years ago the issue started to gain increasing attention. Different Organization engage in the fight against corruption. This is a remarkable change compared to the situation before the 1990s. Back then, most people did not see it as a pressing problem. Actually, it was more seen as an integral part of doing business. Most European countries allowed for tax deductibility of bribes. Even the World Bank, not constricted by such national concerns, was avoiding the topic.The changed perception of corruption has manifold reasons. Foremost, the geopolitical situation changed remarkably. During the cold war, governments, despite their corruptness, were supported to make sure they were not joining the communist bloc. After the end of this ideological competition, the imperative to tolerate and not to address issues like corruption and abuse of political power ceased to exist. Last, but not less important, the USA, not constraint by geopolitical considerations, had economic interest to put the topic on the agenda. While for US-companies bribing abroad was forbidden, most other developed countries used graft to initiate business abroad. Therefore, the US had a special interest to push for anti-corruption laws to level the playing field for its companies. From a western normative and moral point of view this fight against corruption on the international level seems to be a desirable development. However, if those were the only reasons for this crusade, it could be misperceived as another example of the imposition of rules from the Global North on the Global South. Then again, if corruption has negative impacts, other than moral concerns, it would legitimize this movement. Prevailing corruption might influence the development and economic performance of a country. In today`s perception development and economic performance includes a variety of indicators, which improve people`s quality of life. Therefore, after having narrowed the definition of corruption as it is understood within this paper, the correlation between corruption and some of those indicators will be examined. After this basic assessment, the relationship between economic growth, as one of the indicators for development, and corruption shall be illuminated closer. The question, whether there is a causal relationship and what the channels of this connection are shall be explored.

This book provides an up-to-date overview of the development of the German financial system, with a particular focus on financialization and the financial crisis, topics that have increasingly gained attention since the crisis and the discussion on the secular stagnation started.