TV Journalism, Infotainment, and Reality TV

This article analyzes the role of tv formats in the 2014 Burger King scandal in Germany as part of the popular representation of work, work-related conflicts, and the dynamic of power relations in both contemporary German companies and the German economy in general. It shows that investigative journalistic techniques in popular tv formats like Team Wallraff are essentially undermined by the existence of reality tv shows like Undercover Boss that use comparable techniques to present fundamentally different messages about companies, work conditions, and the relationship between employees and employers. I argue that to understand the effect of these representations of politics on the “real political arena,” in Germany and elsewhere, we should consider not only individual films, tv series, genres, and media formats, but also the crosseffects of multiple, often widely differing representations of politics in similar tv formats that can be viewed via identical media outlets.

Economic Implications for Stationary Trade Under the Influence of SARS-CoV-2

An impact analysis against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic on brick-and-mortar retail and consequences for stationary trade, with a focus on Germany. The Covid-19 pandemic has put tremendous pressure on the retail sector. Across the entire breadth of the market, significant declines in sales have already been observed, particularly in the assortments relevant to city centers, as a result of the 1st lockdown in March and April 2020 and the subsequent restrictions (accessibility of stores, masking requirements, spacing, etc.). However, delayed effects as well as the effects of the 2nd lockdown imposed from mid-December 2020 in conjunction with the Christmas and spring business in 2021, which will be cancelled to a large extent for the stationary trade, will further exacerbate the situation in the german economy (stock market). This article sheds light on the current economic starting point, carries out a scientific, but also in particular practice-oriented, literature research of renowned business enterprises, and is intended to offer future trends and action implications from the crisis.

A Wavelet Evaluation of Some Leading Business Cycle Indicators for the German Economy

Leading indicators are important variables in business cycle forecasting. We use wavelet analysis to investigate the lead-lag stability of German leading indicators in time-frequency space. This method permits a time-varying relation of the leading indicators to the reference cycle allowing simultaneously to focus on lead-lag stability at the specific business cycle frequencies. In this way we analyze an index of new orders, a survey-based index of business expectations, an index of stock market returns and the interest rate term spread. We confirm that most of these indicators are indeed leading the reference cycle most of the time, but the number of months leading varies considerably over time and is associated with a great deal of estimation uncertainty.

Are firms withdrawing from basic research? An analysis of firm-level publication behaviour in Germany

Previous research has expressed concerns about firms engaging less in basic research. We contribute to this debate by studying trends in the scientific publishing activities of firms located in Germany. Our results indicate that the firms’ aggregate volume of scientific publications stayed constant between 2008 and 2016. However, the number and share of publishing firms declined, and publication activities became more concentrated among publishing firms. Beyond that, we observe positive trends in publishing in basic research journals compared to journals focused on applied research, and publishing in collaboration with academic partners compared to publishing alone. Thus, our results paint an ambiguous picture. While they do not confirm a decrease in firms’ basic research engagement in the aggregate, the figures document a concentration of publishing activities on fewer firms. We argue that this concentration of basic research activities in firms may pose a threat to the longer-term innovativeness of the German economy.

Germany’s Economic Growth In 1950–60 and the Problem of the Country’s Balance of Payments Sustainability

The 1950s in Germany, especially the period 1953–1958, were later recognised as the ‘golden years of the post-war period’. By the end of this period, most of the war damage had been removed and the economy was in a state of dynamic growth. In the period 1949–59, the average real GDP growth rate was about 7.4% with an average investment rate of 24.2% (in current prices). In the years (1950–53), a massive housing construction programme was carried out that was financed almost in half from public funds. Germany’s economic growth in 1950–60 mainly influenced by investment activities and the growth of exports. During this period, state expenditure did not play a major role in the growth of the West German economy (its share in national income steadily declined during the period in question). A the same time, the share of exports in national income was very high and showed a continuously increasing trend. A long-term growth of exports — affecting constantly the expansion of demand — became an important factor stimulating investment activity, which is the main lever of economic growth. At the same time, unusually strong export activity improved the balance of payments, which showed systematic surpluses. It should also be stressed that private consumption was not a factor driving economic prosperity in West Germany in this period. The share of consumption in Germany’s national income showed a declining trend in favour of investment.

Arab-German Trade and Institutions: The Effect of Good Governance on Arab Exports to Germany

Does good governance matter for exporting to the highly competitive markets of developed countries, especially those committed to a developmental mission centered on promoting good governance? This paper is investigating this research question. The focus of the analysis is the case study of Arab exports to the German economy, where a comparatively poor performance in comparison to that of other regions of the world is witnessed, despite geographical proximity and preferential trade agreements. Using statistical data and the literature on the subject, the paper engages in a discussion on German trade flows from Arab countries and whether governance indicators provide a good explanatory framework. The research question is then investigated empirically by running several regressions using the two-stage least-squares and Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood models. Different indicators of German exports are used as dependent variables while the independent variables are various governance indicators together with the control variables suggested by the gravity model. The obtained empirical results suggest that good governance generally boosts Arab exports to Germany and relatively more than it does for non-Arab exporters to Germany. This is especially true for governance indicators that directly affect exporting activities, such as regulatory quality and government effectiveness. For some indicators that indirectly affect exporting, however, the results are mixed for both Arab and non-Arab countries, especially for the textile industry. This sheds doubts on Germany’s developmental commitment to fostering good governance principles.

German’s Maritime Economy Sector: Before and In Time the Pandemic

As an industrially developed economy with a large export share, Germany is inconceivable without reliable and comprehensively developed maritime and inland shipping. Shipbuilding, waterway infrastructure, ports and logistics, marine technology, research and development, energy production and consumption, high-tech services form the framework of the «maritime economy» are interconnected and ensure uninterrupted transportation of goods, goods and people. The paper analyzes the national economic significance of the maritime industry in the modern German economy. It is emphasized that in addition to performing the transport function itself, this industry provides the launch of important multiplier effects on the economy as a whole. All those issues are considered with the challenges of climate policy. In this regard, we consider that the innovative role of German shipbuilding will increase, despite the decline in economic activity during the pandemic. We hypothesize that industry is facing an uncertain future, simultaneously, it should be emphasized that after the pandemic, the federal government is sending a clear signal to the industry community – the shipbuilding industry and the merchant marine are the drivers of the industry and part of environmental change, where a lot depends on new investments in training, expanding digitalization, application new types of fuels. This may be the result of more flexibility when placing orders for various types of vessels, reducing bureaucracy in the implementation of infrastructure water projects.

Transnational planning

This chapter is dedicated to non-liberal varieties of technocratic internationalism. The focus is on two largely forgotten authors who represent technocratic internationalism in the fascist and socialist context. I first consider the international theory of Giuseppe De Michelis, a Geneva-based Italian diplomat who developed a fascist approach to international cooperation. What he proposed in the early 1930s was a system of global economic governance coordinated by a powerful international organization. Projecting Italian corporativism to the international level, De Michelis envisaged a global scheme to allocate capital, labour, and raw materials, with a united ‘Eurafrica’ as avant-garde. The second part of the chapter considers the work of Francis Delaisi, a French political economist and journalist of the same generation. Delaisi was a syndicalist who late in his life came to sympathize with the way the Nazis re-organized the German economy. He was the author of the so-called ‘Delaisi plan’, a scheme of transnational public works intended to unite the European continent. The idea behind this plan, presented in 1931, was to bring together the ‘two Europes’ that he found to co-exist on the same continent: the industrial core in the North-West on the one hand and the far less developed areas in Eastern and Southern Europe on the other.

‘Another brick in the wall’. On the origins of nationalism in the ‘new’ federal states of Germany

A relatively broad support enjoyed by the populist and nationalist parties and movements (AfD, National Democratic Party of Germany, PEGIDA), as well as a higher rate of hate crimes in the eastern part of the Federal Republic of Germany raise a question on the nature of nationalism in this region. The present paper examines the causes of widespread xenophobic and nationalist sentiments in the ‘new’ federal states. To this end, the authors address a wide range of social-political and psychological factors, focusing on the historical roots and causes of the recent rise of nationalism in East Germany. Particularly, the authors show that the right-wing parties took advantage of popular frustration caused by the collapse of the East German economy after the country’s reunification and massive unemployment by putting all the blame on migrants. Nevertheless, the causes of growing xenophobia in East Germany were far from being solely economic. For example, the authors underline the role of the politics of memory in the GDR and primarily the approaches of its leaders to the issues of the Nazi past and their attempts to draw on the country’s history to shape a new national identity. However, the failure of the state to provide an unbiased view on the national history, rigid official ideology and its alienation from the popular demands have led to the growing nationalism in the GDR. Besides, a number of other aspects is pointed out which have also fostered xenophobic sentiments in this part of the country. Unlike West Germany which started to accept labour migrants from Italy, Turkey and Yugoslavia back in 1950s, the GDR saw few foreigners and contacts between them and local population were limited. As a result, the paper not only helps to create a more detailed image of the East German nationalism but also to identify the underlying causes of the growing popularity of right-wing populist parties and movements in the FRG, most notably, the unfinished process of the country’s reunification and structural imbalances between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ federal states.

Digitalization, Industry Concentration, and Productivity in Germany

This paper investigates the links of digitalization and industry concentration with labor productivity at the sectoral level in Germany. Combining data for digitalization and labor productivity from the EU KLEMS database with firm-level data from the CompNet and Orbis Bureau Van Dijk databases to construct industry concentration measures between 2000 and 2015, we show that (1) the German economy appears to have digitized since 2000, and (2) there is no clear-cut relationship between digitalization and market concentration at the industry level. Using a time and sector fixed effects model and controlling for capital intensity, however, we find evidence for (3) a positive effect of both lagged industry concentration and lagged digitalization on productivity at the sectoral level in Germany. This finding is robust to alternative measures of digitalization and industry concentration as well as to their interaction but sensitive to the sector sample and to scale effects from the capital intensity. We, therefore, cautiously conclude that recent technological change appears to have been labor-saving and that productivity-enhancing aspect of a partial “superstar firm” effect may be identified in the German economy, in particular in its manufacturing sector.