Foreign exchange interventions in a small emerging market: the case of Croatia

This paper studies the impact of daily official foreign exchange interventions on the exchange rates in Croatia for the period from 1996 to 2004. Using the event study methodology and a variety of GARCH models reveals that the Croatian central bank was in a position to influence, to some extent, the level of the exchange rate during the period studied. This lends support to the view that foreign exchange intervention may be effective in emerging market economies.     

Comparative analysis of the effects of alcoholic drinks of different qualities (author's transl)

The authors compared the effects of alcoholic drinks rich in fusel oil with the effects of diluted pure alcohol of the same quantity on 19 clinically healthy university students. The investigations utilized EEG and physiopsychic testing methods. The clinical symptoms were observed both under the effect of drinks and in a crapulous state ("hang-over"). It was found that alcoholic drinks rich in fusel oil can produce a more deviating EEG curve, an increased worsening of physiopsychic performance and of clinical and subjective symptoms. The necessity of regular quality control of alcoholic beverages is pointed out.     

Europäische Integration,Modernisierung und Konvergenz

Modernisierung und Konvergenz ihrer Mitgliedsländer ist das sozio?konomische Zwillingsziel der Europäischen Union. Doch inwieweit kann die EU diese Prozesse überhaupt steuern? Dies wird in diesem Artikel für den Zeitraum 1970 bis 2000 empirisch untersucht und mit der Frage nach Mechanismen und Grenzen einer EU-induzierten Angleichung verbunden. Die EU-Gesellschaften sind durch einen Großtrend der Modernisierung aller Mitgliedsländer und einen Subtrend der nachholenden Modernisierung der leistungsschwächeren Länder gekennzeichnet. Es überwiegt die Konvergenz, bei vereinzelten Divergenzen und ?neuen Unterschieden“ im Zuge neuartiger Anpassungsprobleme. In weiten Teilen folgen Modernisierung und Konvergenz einer eigenen, integrationsunabhängigen Logik, doch werden beide durch die europäische Integration unterstützt. Die EU-Mitgliedschaft wirkt über die Mechanismen Ressourcendistribution, Konkurrenz, Regulation und Imitation vor allem für die Nachzügler modernisierungsfördernd und verstärkt dadurch die Konvergenz. Zugleich gibt es Grenzen einer EU-induzierten Angleichung.     

Umbau des Sozialstaates? Österreich und Deutschland im Vergleich

In comparative analysis of welfare states, there is a consensus that mature welfare state systems have been confronted, for some considerable time, with substantial pressure towards re-structuring and that, as a result, they actually have undertaken several and varied modifications. This articles aims at exploring and analysing these developments in Austria and Germany from a comparative point of view. The analysis concentrates on two vital fields of social policy: old-age insurance and unemployment insurance. Especially in respect of the development of social policy and regarding important characteristics of the two welfare state systems, both countries traditionally show a large degree of resemblance to each other. Many similarities remained to exist during the phase of growing pressures on the welfare state, whereas at the same time it is evident that differences between the two countries increased. The respective actual developments will be interpreted in the light of corresponding theories of comparative welfare state research and classified as gradual and structural changes.     

Policy and power: A conceptual framework between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ policy idioms

During the last few decades, both policy practices and policy idioms have drastically changed. Concepts such as interactive planning, network management, stakeholder dialogue, deliberative democracy, policy discourses, governance, etc. have replaced older ones such as public administration, policy programmes, interest groups, institutions, power, and the like. Although we recognise the relevance and importance of this shift in vocabulary, we also regret related ‘losses’. We particularly regret that the concept of power has – in our view – become an ‘endangered species’ in the field of public policy analysis. We therefore will develop a framework to analyse power – being a multi-layered concept – in policy practices in this article. We will do so on the basis of the so-called policy arrangement approach, which combines elements of the old and new policy vocabularies. In addition, we draw upon different power theories in developing our argument and model. As a result, we hope to combine the best of two worlds, of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ idioms in policy studies, and to achieve our two aims: to bring back in the concept of power in current policy analysis and to expand the policy arrangement approach from a power perspective.     

Finland

European Journal of Political Research -