Economic Frontier Issues

Author: Richard C. Ziemelis
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: In 1998, the Federal Ministry of Finance of Germany commissioned the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW, Berlin) to conduct the research presented in this book. The purpose of the research was to review major frontiers in economics. Following the instructions, we focused particularly on issues related to economic relevance and the perspectives that lead to organizational conclusions in economic policy recommendations. Given the current international implementation standards, we were also required to discuss the potential consequences for restructuring Germany's research landscape and university education and training. In a recent evaluation of economic research institutions, the German Research Council has established standards for restructuring the current state of empirical economic research in Germany. University and non-university researchers are tasked with proposing new ideas to improve collaboration between university and non-university research centers to enhance quality and efficiency. Similarly, the goal of improving cooperation has significant implications for our research organization: establishing a project team composed of representatives from non-university research institutions (DIW, Berlin, and the Institute for World Economics at the University of Kiel) and university scientists to jointly study this topic. This forms a research network, which, in terms of its organizational structure, aligns with the requirements of the Research Council and facilitates deeper exchanges of views and data between university and non-university institutions. This has made many working meetings and seminars productive, with representatives from federal departments and scientists from other universities also participating in these discussions. Based on the recommendations submitted by various economic research institutions as requested by the Ministry of Finance, we decided to divide each research topic into independent project modules. We emphasized some particularly successful research areas that have also been proven to be highly relevant to economic policy. The selection of these areas was very careful. However, it is worth noting that we only considered research topics for which the Ministry of Finance requested recommendations. To comprehensively introduce the frontiers of economics, the contracting parties agreed on the following themes:
- Monetary Principles, Monetary Policy, and Financial Markets
- Public Finance
- Labor Economics
- Institutions and Transition: The Potential Policy Significance of New Institutional Economics
- Competition Policy and Regulation: Perspectives from New Institutional Economics
- Network Economics
- Growth Theory, Structural Change, and Employment
- Personal Income Distribution
- Game Theory and Experimental Economics
Each module succinctly and comprehensively describes the current state of international research work and gives special consideration to policy-relevant research questions. As required by the contract, each module includes an analysis of the results of new empirical methodologies. Since empirical research is data-based, each module also describes the different data requirements of new empirical methodologies. Additionally, each module discusses the potential role of policy in providing a more effective information base, focusing on the specific information needs of certain topics, which arise from the successes or shortcomings of economic research. Regarding the allocation of the project modules, the German Institute for Economic Research (Berlin) was authorized to coordinate the overall research project without being responsible for the specific content of each module. The authors of each chapter are responsible for their work, except for the final chapter 'Conclusion and Recommendations,' which was completed through constructive in-depth discussions among all team members.