Suchergebnisse

The Netherlands has a history of land reclamation from the sea. They deploy a large amount of infrastructure for water management, e.g., dike rings, pumping stations, drainage canals, and almost every water body in the country is under engineered control. The Dutch consider land as a precious good that shouldn't be spoiled and as a result, infrastructure is never abandoned, but preferably refurbished, renovated, reinforced or replaced. Over the past 30 years, the Dutch learned that water cannot only be turned and controlled with infrastructure but should also be accommodated and accepted as a guiding principle in spatial policy making. In this commentary we compare lessons from the Netherlands with Florida where engineered water control has also reached its limits. The Dutch developed a Room for the River Program to accommodate more water, a Freshwater Strategy to better utilize the underground sponge capacity, and a Spatial Adaptation Program to better adapt to weather extremes in urban areas.

Switzerland has experienced a substantial influx of immigrants over the last 50 years after World War II, which has led Switzerland to have among the highest share of foreigners in population among all OECD countries. This paper analyses the migration experience of Switzerland. The analysis centres around two main issues: the economic effects of migration and the labour market performance of immigrants. Two main results emerge from our study. First, as a result of the shortcomings of the Swiss migration policy, immigrants tend to have a negative impact on the Swiss economy. Second, the analysis of the labour market performance shows that there are substantial discrepancies in the performance between immigrants from different countries of origin. Immigrants from Northern European countries largely outperform immigrants from Southern European and Non-European countries. On the basis of the empirical analysis, this study finally outlines some reform options for the Swiss migration policy.

The German banking market is notorious for its low degree of market penetration by foreign financial institutions, suggesting that markets serviced by domestic and foreign banks are segmented. This paper employs a number of tests to determine whether activities of domestic and foreign banks are related. Using data for the years 1986-1999, we fail to find evidence for similarities in the activities of domestic and foreign banks. This holds across the two types of domestic banks (large and savings banks) and across four different activities (loans and deposits of banks and non-banks) considered.

The German financial system is characterized by lower degrees of penetration by foreign commercial banks and of (bank) disintermedation than, for instance, that of the United States. These differences between the two countries could be attributed to the fact that universal banking in Germany creates implicit barriers to entry. Yet, regulatory and informational differences which are unrelated to universal banking could be responsible for the observed difference as well. This paper provides a stylized theoretical model of the banking industry, which suggests that market segmentation and limited market entry can be due to a number of factors, including information costs. Preliminary empirical evidence does not provide clear evidence for the hypothesis that universal banking is the reason for the observed differences in financial systems.

"Wer künstlerisch-therapeutisch tätig ist, muss sich mit zahlreichen rechtlichen Fragen auseinandersetzen. Und das ist nicht so einfach: künstlerische Therapien haben sich zwar als eigenständige Verfahren bewährt, sind jedoch berufs- und leistungsrechtlich weitgehend (noch) nicht abgesichert. Dieses Buch führt Leserinnen und Leser sicher durch den Paragraphendschungel. Anhand zahlreicher Praxisbeispiele geht der Autor Fragen des Berufsrechts nach, interpretiert sie für künstlerische Therapieverfahren und zeigt, wie sich sozialrechtliche Normen für stationäre und ambulante Krankenhilfe, Rehabilitations- und Fördermaßnahmen anwenden lassen. Anschauliche Erläuterungen zum Umgang mit Rechtsnormen für Nicht-Juristen, beispielhafte Falldarstellungen und Musterlösungen schaffen so die Grundlage zum Transfer ins eigene Praxisfeld." (Klappentext)