Julia Kropeit – författare

Academic Paper from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,3, Hertie School of Governance, course: Limits of Rationality, language: English, abstract: This essay will argue that the "e;values of statistical lives"e; (VSL) should be seen as a tool that serves to make the implicit trade-offs inherent in any public investment decisions visible and explicit, and thereby allows, given a set of conditions, for a reasonable comparison between competing policy choices. For policymakers in the U.S., Canada, and the UK, it has long been engraved in their operating instructions to provide and consider an estimation of the "e;value of lives"e; affected by new policy measures. Outside of public offices and particularly in continental Europe, attributing monetary values to human lives and trading them off with the necessary costs to save them is an idea likely to awakes moral inhibitions. Can we put a price-tag on human life? Can the value of an individual be expressed in monetary terms? And, should we even attempt to do so? Many will fiercely reject these questions, based on the firm belief that human life is worth more than money can buy. But, surprisingly to some, it is a rejection that American, Canadian, and British policymakers might be opposed to in just the same way, yet without refuting the justification of the estimates of "e;values of statistical lives"e; (VSL). Governments, inevitably, make life-or-death decisions. Their policies and regulations change the fatality risk exposure of their citizens, ranging from the prescription of safety standards in automobiles to restrictions on hazardous waste disposal. Thereby, policy decisions for or against certain regulations either save or sacrifice statistical lives the lives of previously unidentified people.

Academic Paper from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,4, Hertie School of Governance, course: EU Economic Governance, language: English, abstract: With the right of free movement across borders being granted to all EU citizens, why do European workers remain locally bound even in times of crises? This question has given rise to a large number of studies and discussions on existing barriers to labor mobility which have persisted despite the legal freedoms. The goal if this essay is threefold: it will identify the most critical barriers, show via which mechanisms these barriers can be lowered, and assess for which barriers the EU, considering its capacities and those of Member States and conforming to the subsidiarity principle, can have the greatest direct impact on lowering them. While the essay will not directly evaluate the effectiveness of previous EU policies targeted towards increasing labor mobility, it will show in which areas increased efforts by the EU can transform into tangible results in the most efficient way. The essay proceeds in the following way: In the first section, it recaps the economic rationale underlying the importance of labor mobility in a monetary union. In the second section, it shows which patterns of labor mobility can currently be observed in the EU. Section three introduces the four key barriers that constrain labor mobility in the EU, and section four outlines through which mechanisms these barriers can be addressed and provides the assessment of the EU s impact on lowering them.