Suchergebnisse

Staatsverschuldung, Inflationsrate, reale Einkommensentwicklung und Verteilungsgerechtigkeit: Viele wirtschaftspolitische Themen greifen wie Zahnräder ineinander. Deshalb ist es notwendig, sich mit allen Facetten der Wirtschaftspolitik zu befassen. Das bewährte Lehrbuch behandelt alle wichtigen wirtschaftspolitischen Themengebiete – von der Ordnungs- und Wettbewerbspolitik über die Finanz- und Geldpolitik bis zur Einkommens-, Arbeitsmarkt- und Beschäftigungspolitik sowie zur Außenwirtschafts- und Umweltpolitik. Nach einer Situationsanalyse werden die relevanten Theorien vorgestellt, die Probleme analysiert und mögliche Zielkonflikte aufgezeigt. Die 4., vollständig überarbeitete Auflage richtet sich an Studierende der Betriebs- und Volkswirtschaftslehre sowie an alle, die sich in der Praxis mit aktuellen Fragen der Wirtschaftspolitik auseinandersetzen müssen.

To give the exchange of goods and services between the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) new momentum the two parties are currently negotiating the transatlantic free trade agreement Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The aim is to create the largest free trade area in the world. The agreement, once entered into force, will oblige EU countries and the U.S. to further liberalize their markets. The negotiations on TTIP include a chapter on Electronic Communications/ Telecommunications. The challenge therein will be securing commitments for market access to Electronic Communications services. At the same time, these commitments must reflect the legitimate need for consumer protection issues. The need to reduce Electronic Communications-related non-tariff barriers to trade between the Parties is due to the fact that these markets are heavily regulated. Without transnational rules as to regulations national governments can abuse these regulations to deter the market entry by new (foreign) suppliers. Thus the free trade agreement TTIP affects in many respects regulatory provisions on and access to Electronic Communications markets. The objective of this paper is therefore to examine to what extend the regulatory principles for Electronic Communications markets envisaged under TTIP will result in trade facilitation and regulatory convergence between the EU and the U.S. As to this question the result of the analysis is that the chapter on Electronic Communications will be an important step towards facilitating trade in Electronic Communications services. At the same time some regulatory convergence will take place, but this convergence will not lead to a (full) harmonization of regulations. Rather the norm, also after TTIP negotiations will have been concluded successfully, will be mutual recognition of different regulatory regimes. Different regulations being the optimal policy response in different market settings will continue to exist. Moreover, it is very unlikely that such regulatory principles for the Electronic Communications sector are a vehicle for a race to the bottom in levels of consumer protection.

Seit Anfang der neunziger Jahre wurden auf EU-Ebene zahlreiche Regulierungsmaßnahmen beschlossen, die darauf abzielen, Wettbewerb auf dem europäischen Telekommunikationsmarkt zu gewährleisten. In allen EU-Staaten besteht gleichzeitig Einigkeit über die Umsetzung eines Universaldienstkonzeptes, das eine Grundversorgung für Einkommensschwache und für Personen in strukturschwachen Regionen beinhaltet. Ist dieses Konzept wettbewerbsneutral und ohne Marktzutrittsschranken für potentiell neue Anbieter verwirklicht worden?

The competitiveness of a country and entire regions today is strongly connected to its broadband adaptation. Broadband is not only playing a critical success role in the economy, it connects consumers, businesses, governments and facilitates social interaction. Many studies have been carried out over the last decade in the APEC region highlighting the status and the different developments of broadband in each economy. The e-APEC strategy and its goal to enable the people in urban, provincial and rural communities in every economy to have individual or community-based access to information and services via the internet by 2010 have been largely achieved. Embedded are the key principles for broadband development to maximize access and usage, to facilitate continued competition and liberalization, to foster enabling regulatory frameworks and to build confidence in the use of broadband networks and services. Future prospects and the recommendations of APEC ministers are to set an ambitious goal of access to next generation high-speed broadband by 2020 to expand and improve ICT infrastructure for knowledge-based economies in the APEC region. In a recent meeting in Okinawa the commitments towards achieving the goal of universal access to broadband in the APEC region by 2015 were reaffirmed.

To give the exchange of goods and services between the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) new momentum the two parties are currently negotiating the transatlantic free trade agreement Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The aim is to create the largest free trade area in the world. The agreement, once entered into force, will oblige EU countries and the U.S. to further liberalize their markets. The negotiations on TTIP include a chapter on Electronic Communications/ Telecommunications. The challenge therein will be securing commitments for market access to Electronic Communications services. At the same time, these commitments must reflect the legitimate need for consumer protection issues. The need to reduce Electronic Communications-related non-tariff barriers to trade between the Parties is due to the fact that these markets are heavily regulated. Without transnational rules as to regulations national governments can abuse these regulations to deter the market entry by new (foreign) suppliers. Thus the free trade agreement TTIP affects in many respects regulatory provisions on and access to Electronic Communications markets. The objective of this paper is therefore to examine to what extend the regulatory principles for Electronic Communications markets envisaged under TTIP will result in trade facilitation and regulatory convergence between the EU and the U.S. As to this question the result of the analysis is that the chapter on Electronic Communications will be an important step towards facilitating trade in Electronic Communications services. At the same time some regulatory convergence will take place, but this convergence will not lead to a (full) harmonization of regulations. Rather the norm, also after TTIP negotiations will have been concluded successfully, will be mutual recognition of different regulatory regimes. Different regulations being the optimal policy response in different market settings will continue to exist. Moreover, it is very unlikely that such regulatory principles for the Electronic Communications sector are a vehicle for a race to the bottom in levels of consumer protection.

Working paper distributed at 2nd Annual Next Generation Telecommunications Conference 2009, 13th – 14th October 2009, Brussels 14 pages Abstract Governments all over Europe are in the process of adopting new broadband strategies. The objective is to create modern telecommunications networks based on powerful broadband infrastructures". In doing so, they aim for innovative and investment-friendly concepts. For instance, in a recently published consultation paper on the subject the German regulator BNetzA declared that it will take "greater account of … reducing risks, securing the investment and innovation power, providing planning certainty and transparency – in order to support and advance broadband rollout in Germany". It further states that when regulating wholesale rates it has to be ensured that "… adequate incentives for network rollout are provided on the one hand, while sustainable and fair competition is ensured on the other". Also an EC draft recommendation on regulated network access is about to set new standards for the regulation of next generation access networks. According to the recommendation the prices of new assets shall be based on costs plus a projectspecific risk premium to be included in the costs of capital for the investment risk incurred by the operator. This approach has been criticised from various sides. In particular it has been questioned whether such an approach is adequate to meet the objectives of encouraging both competition and investment into next generation access networks. Against this background, the concept of "long term risk sharing contracts" has been proposed recently as an approach which does not only incorporate the various additional risks involved in the deployment of NGA infrastructure, but has several other advantages. This paper will demonstrate that the concept allows for competition to evolve at both the retail and wholesale level on fair, objective, non-discriminatory and transparent terms and conditions. Moreover, it ensures the highest possible investment incentive in line with socially desirable outcome. The paper is organised as follows: The next section will briefly outline the importance of encouraging competition and investment in an NGA-environment. The third section will specify the design of long term risk sharing contracts in view of achieving these objectives. The fourth section will examine potential problems associated with the concept. In doing so a way of how to deal with them will be elaborated. The last section will look at arguments against long term risk sharing contracts. It will be shown that these arguments are not strong enough to build a case against introducing such contracts.