Marco Lehmann-Waffenschmidt - Böcker

Das Lehrbuch bietet eine moderne, breitgefächerte Einführung in die Schwerpunkte der Volkswirtschaftslehre auf dem aktuellen Stand der Wissenschaft: Mikro- und Industrieökonomik, politische und Institutionenökonomie, Geld und Makroökonomik, Außenwirtschaft, Wachstum und Innovation. Durch die Zusammenarbeit der Autorengruppe ist ein konzeptionell einheitliches Buch entstanden, das Studierende des 1. Semesters bestens mit den Grundlagen des Fachgebiets VWL vertraut macht. Die modulare Struktur des Buches unterstützt den Lernprozess und erleichtert auch das Selbststudium.

theory,whichformalizesa dynamiceconomicsystemasa systemofdi?erence, or di?erential, equations. There equilibria mean ‘equilibrium trajectories’ of the whole evolution that, in a certain sense, are optimal. A particularly un- tisfactory feature of this conceptualization of an equilibrium, however, is the factthattheintertemporaloptimizingapproachcompletelypredeterminesthe whole future of the economic system. This “closed loop” approach gives rise to the common reproach that economic theory is predominantly concerned with the question of ‘how the economic system ought to behave’ rather than with the question of ‘how does it behave actually’. This is the point at which the new branch of evolutionary economics has made its entrance. In contrast to growth or business cycle theory, evolutionary economics perceives the evolution of the economic system as essentially “open” to true novelties that are unforeseeable by their very nature. This view clearly makes obsolete any conception of equilibrium that resorts to the idea of a ?nal state of rest, or to the idea of an intertemporally optimizing trajectory which is prespeci?ed ab initio by a system of di?erential equations and initial con- tions. To be sure, there have been attempts to reconceptualize the notion of equilibrium from the evolutionary viewpoint. However, these proposals also appear, in one way or another, to hinge on the ideas of rest. This parti- larly applies to the branch of nonlinear dynamics and deterministic chaotic motion.

Zur Analyse des wirtschaftlichen Wandels benötigt man wissenschaftlich fundierte Konzepte, Methoden und Instrumente, die der Verlaufs- und Ergebnisoffenheit von Prozessen in realer Zeit Rechnung tragen.

Experimental Economics has experienced a steadily growing interest by economists during the last decade. This may not surprise since laboratory and field experiments obviously provide a further valuable source of empirical evidence of economic behavior besides statistics, econometrics, polls, interviews and simulations. In an overview of the recent developments in Experimental Economics, the present book concentrates on three central themes standing in the actual research focus: bargaining, cooperation and election markets. For each one of these topics the volume presents several state-of-the-art survey articles by experts in the field, accompanied by detailed comments. While the experimental approach sheds new light on the microeconomic standard topics of bargaining and cooperation, the election market approach as a new field may provide better forecasts for political elections - and for soccer World Championships.

In 1999, the German federal ministry of education and research (BMBF) decided to include two new priorities in its environmental research policy portfolio. One was concerning socio-ecological research aiming at a better understandingofthe socialdimensionofthe sustainabilitytriadandthe other onewasoninnovationorientedresearchaiming atabetter understandinghow companies and public authorities can in?uence innovation activities towards the sustainability objectives. The latter priority led to two new programme lines, one targeting at the company level and the other one targeting at the publicpolicylevelundertheheadlineof"frameworkconditionsforinnovations towards sustainable development"(RIW). The projects funded under the RIW programme were analysing the - tential innovation impact of environmental policy measures on the one hand and the sustainability impact of other policies, such as innovation policy, on the other hand.The design of the RIW programme included in addition an international outreach dimension with the organisation of international c- ferences as well as the establishment of collaboration platforms among the funded projects in order to allow for more general conclusions. The RIW programme followed the BMBF tradition to foster multi- or interdisciplinary cooperation,notablyinvolvingacademicsfromeconomics,policysciences,and law.