Developing countries' terms of trade in manufactures, 1967–87: A note

Terms of trade, relating only to manufactured exports and imports, are calculated for a sample of 37 industrialised and developing countries over the 1967 to 1987 period. It is found that the terms of trade movements were significantly more favourable for higher‐income countries. This result highlights the importance of export diversification as part of a development strategy.     

Die Empfehlungen zur Änderung des Parteiengesetzes

Zusammenfassung Die Kommission unabh?ngiger Sachverst?ndiger (Kommission) hat am 18.7. 2001 ihren Bericht mit Empfehlungen für ?nderungen des Parteiengesetzes dem Bundespr?sidenten übergeben (Kommission 2001). Aus diesem aktuellen Anlass werden nachfolgend zun?chst die Arbeitsweise der Kommission betrachtet und anschlie?end einige ihrer Empfehlungen einer kritischen Würdigung unterzogen.     

The numerical Hatze-model: also qualified for calculations on children?

The aim of this study was to find out whether the Hatze-model, which is specifically designed for adults, is suitable for calculations on children as well. By means of that program it is possible to calculate various parameters of the human body. After the collection of data and analysis of the results according to Hatze it becomes evident that this model provides good results only for the calculation of the total body mass. As regards the body segments, there are significant under- and overestimations. The same applies to the calculation of mean body density. Indeed there is a significant gender dimorphism indicating that girls have a higher fraction of body fat than boys. However, the values are far below those described in the literature. Due to the formula, the values of the centres of gravity are linear and congruent in both sides of the body. Interpretation of the results is difficult, as there are no valid reference values. Furthermore the program is not able to take characteristic shapes and proportions of children into account. For this reason 88% of the children are defined as either pregnant or obese. In summary, the study shows that the present model should not be used to calculate children and the human models have to be designed specifically for children.     

Possible applications of Y chromosome STRs in examination of abortion tissue

By application of Y-chromosomal STRs, DNA analysis of abortion material can be considerably facilitated since great excess of maternal DNA is tolerated without disturbing the Y-STR amplification. If paternity can't be excluded on the basis of the Y-STR haplotype, further examinations must follow, e.g. autosomal STR analysis. For this purpose, histological preparation of the abortion tissue might still be necessary. Different Y-chromosomal haplotypes of embryo and putative father usually lead to an exclusion from paternity. Based on four case examples, the feasibility of this method is discussed.     

The Political Economy of Fiscal Policy: An Experimental Study on the Strategic Use of Deficits

Field data on the strategic use of deficits to limit thebudgetary scope of future governments are inconclusive aboutthe effects of political polarization or a government'sre-election probability on fiscal policy. Therefore, wedesigned a controlled experiment to examine the strategic useof deficits. Using a within-subjects design, we find thatdeficits rise with a higher degree of polarization and a lowerreelection probability. However, in a between-subjects designneither polarization nor reelection probabilities have asystematic effect. We discuss the implications of ourexperimental results for empirical tests of the strategic useof deficits with field data.     

Flexible Integration,EMU and Relative Voting Power in the EU

This paper studies the implications offlexible integration in the European Union. Itanalyses the voting power of member states in theCouncil of Ministers when differently sized subgroupsof the EU are set up. European Monetary Union isreferred to as the most important example of flexibleintegration. The Banzhaf-Index is calculated to studythe distribution of voting power in the decisionmaking process according to the stability and growthpact. The results show considerable fluctuations,especially for smaller countries, in relative votingpower, the latter being defined as the relationbetween voting power and relative voting weight.     

Gender trouble on the German soccer field: can the growth of women’s soccer challenge hegemonic masculinity?

Soccer in Germany represents a social sphere for the expression of masculinity and features significant ideological battles over gender roles. This paper discusses whether the growth of women’s soccer can challenge the prevailing hegemonic masculinity in an area that represents an important economic aspect of consumer culture and social identity. Does women’s soccer have the potential to subvert existing gender norms and challenge dominant understandings of gender? While women’s soccer has seen some important areas of growth in Germany, there are reasons to remain sceptical about the subversive potential of women’s soccer. This article argues that the unholy trinity of the sports-media-business alliance is the root cause for the limitations women’s soccer faces in challenging hegemonic masculinity. This sports-media-business alliance has served as the structural framework that has shaped societal discourses about women’s soccer in Germany. This paper discusses three of those discourses: the evolution of the macro-historical discourse over the societal role of women’s soccer in post-World War II Germany; the discourse comparing men’s and women’s soccer and asserting the superiority of men’s soccer; and the discourse on the role of femininity in women’s soccer and the sexualization of the players.     

Taming the real estate boom in the EU: Pathways to macroprudential (in)action

In the fallout of the 2008 crisis, macroprudential policy has been installed as the policy remedy against future financial instability, a primary focus being developments in the real estate sector. With house prices consistently rising in the EU since 2014, causing alarm among macroprudential supervisory bodies, a core question of EU regulatory governance is how far macroprudential bodies have been capable of bringing about countercyclical actions against the build-up of such vulnerabilities. This paper investigates this question using a novel dataset of macroprudential intensity coded for the 17 EU countries that experienced real estate vulnerabilities post-euro crisis. Specifically, it asks which configuration of conditions account for the (in)capacity of countries to impose stringent countercyclical regulations against housing booms? Using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis technics coupled with qualitative analysis of country cases using expert interviews, we find that the absence of political salience of homeownership and the political independence of macroprudential authorities to be crucial conditions that jointly explain countercyclical macroprudential activity. These findings, which show two pathways to action have implications for the capacity of the EU to prevent future crises and future reform of the EU prudential framework.     

Gelungene Integration in den Arbeitsmarkt?

This article discusses the social-structural dynamics of the biographies of transnationally mobile Europeans on the basis of 27 interviews, conducted in 2002–2003, with people of Italian, French, British, Danish, and Polish origin living in Berlin. In comparing different forms of mobility and taking into particular consideration the vocational aspects of the Europeans interviewed, this study reveals several characteristic types of transnational mobility within Europe. It does not only reveal the biographies of the elite or lower class Europeans, as these types have already been derived from the new transnational or classical migration research; it also unravels the biographies of a variety of transnational middle class Europeans. Furthermore, our study shows, that the availability of cultural and social capital is the determining factor for integration. These findings are an interesting extension to the sociological understanding of migration in the 21st century.