Most Popular Books by Peter Behrens

Die Leser dieses Buches können erwarten, mit den wesentlichen Problemen des Globalisierungsprozesses für Entwicklungsländer vertraut gemacht zu werden. Der Prozeß der Globalisierung von Produktion, Dienstleistungen und Finanzkapital bringt nicht nur Chancen, sondern auch erhebliche Risiken für Entwicklungsländer mit sich. Er kann Aufholprozesse begünstigen, aber auch ein weiteres Zurückfallen verursachen. Für einen Erfolg sind viele Faktoren entscheidend. Die heimische Wirtschaftspolitik muß durch Herstellung stabiler Rahmenbedingungen sowie finanz- und währungspolitische Solidität günstige Voraussetzungen für eine erfolgreiche Teilnahme am Globalisierungsprozeß schaffen. Aber auch die Rahmendaten der internationalen Handelsordnung müssen den Kriterien der Stabilität und Fairneß gegenüber den zumeist machtlosen Entwicklungsländern genügen. Die Instabilität des äußeren Ordnungsrahmens kann sich in unbeeinflußbaren Schocks auf die heimische Volkswirtschaft niederschlagen. So wird am Beispiel der jüngsten Mexiko-Krise deutlich, daß einerseits viele Entwicklungsländer heute einen erheblich verbesserten Zugang zu den internationalen Finanzmärkten haben, andererseits aber die Verletzlichkeit ihrer Wirtschaft dadurch zugenommen hat. Die Liberalisierung der Kapital- und Gütermärkte sollte in Entwicklungsländern nicht losgelöst voneinander vollzogen werden. Geschieht dies dennoch und eilt die Liberalisierung des finanzwirtschaftlichen Sektors zu stark voraus, wirken sich internationale finanzwirtschaftliche Krisenerscheinungen ungleich stärker auf den realwirtschaftlichen Sektor aus. Insgesamt stehen die Chancen für erfolgreiche Aufholprozesse aber nicht schlecht. Auch wenn die Entwicklungsländer zeitweise nur als »verlängerte Werkbänke« mit wenig Humankapital am Weltmarkt teilnehmen, muß dies kein Dauerschicksal sein, wenn die Wirtschaftspolitik entwicklungsfreundlich bleibt und das Bildungssystem zügig ausgebaut wird. Die Globalisierung umfaßt auch völlig neuartige Märkte,

Irland, 1846: äThe great Famineä - die grosse Hungernot - kostet Hundertausende von Menschen das Leben. Der 15-jährige Fergus entflieht den unvorstellbar grausigen Zuständen und erreicht dank seines Überlebenswillens nach einer beschwerlichen Reise Amerika.

Light from an atmospheric pressure, double-discharge CO2 laser was focused in Ar, He, N2, H2, and air at pressures from 0.01 atm to 10 atm in order to produce optical breakdown. Measurements of the transmitted laser intensity were obtained and the properties of the resulting spark were studied by means of an open face camera and spectroscopic techniques. The threshold power density was discussed. The importance of loss terms other than electron diffusion loss was discussed. Emission spectra consisted of a strong continuum superimposed with strong lines due to neutral and ionized atoms. (Modified author abstract).

Under the regime of Regulation 1/2003 on the implementation of the rules of competition laid down in Articles 101 and 102 TFEU undertakings are obliged to take care by themselves of their compliance with the competition rules. For practical purposes this is also true when it comes to the rules applicable to the the control of concentrations under Regulation 139/2004. In order to facilitate the task of undertakings, which has become even more difficult according to the "more economic approach" to competition law, the Commission has published a number of guidelines which are setting out the relevant criteria applied by the Commission itself. A closer look reveals, however, that the criteria defined in the various guidelines are far from reflecting a coherent, precise and consistent approach of the Commission. At least four distinct legal tests may be identified, such as a "consumer harm"-test, a "negative market effects"-test, a "market power"-test and a "competitive process"-test. This paper analyses the various guidelines in order to demonstrate how these different approaches are embedded in their wording. The unavoidable conclusion is that undertakings get much less guidance from the guidelines than they would be justified to expect. This is all the more deplorable, because the European cours'' jurisdprudence continues to follow an approach which is considerably different from the Commission''s.

This paper explores the origin and development of the "consumer choice" paradigm as the core concept of German ordoliberal thought which has had a strong impact on EU competition policy and law. Outside Germany, ordoliberal thought is often identified exclusively with the learning of the original "Freiburg School" which represents the formative period of German ordoliberalism after the Second World War. Major developments since then have remained largely unrecognized. This paper sets out the important insights that have markedly changed some of the basic concepts of the "Freiburg School" so as to bring ordoliberalism into line with modern economic learning. The core tenets, however, remain: the crucial role attributed to consumers'' choice as the driving force behind producers'' rivalry, the dependence of consumers'' freedom of choice upon an open market structure, efficiency (consumer welfare) as the result of competition rather than of an individual entrepreneurial market strategy. The core elements of this approach are traced back to classical liberalism and it is shown how they have been enriched and developed beyond the "Freiburg School" toward the contemporary version of ordoliberalism. This approach is still reflected and should continue to be reflected by the jurisprudence of the ECJ, because it avoids the kind of consumer welfare (or consumer harm) fallacy by which the more economic approach risks to be caught.

This paper explores the impact of ordoliberal thinking on the drafting of the prohibition of "abuse" of a dominant position in the market that was included in the competition rules of the Rome Treaty establishing the European Economic Community as well as on its interpretation by the Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Firstly, it is shown that the ordoliberal school must not be regarded as a set of ideas frozen in its formative period of 1933 to 1950 or 1957 when the "Freiburg School" was established but rather as an approach that has been dynamically developed and refined over the last 75 years (i.e. over four generations of ordoliberals) up to the present day by integrating important new insights without, however, giving up its core tenets and convictions. Secondly, it is shown on the basis of the preparatory work which lead in the 1950ies to the Rome Treaty that the adoption of the concept of "abuse" for the control of dominant undertakings was due to the strong influence of the German negotiating team that consisted of (in the meantime second generation) ordoliberals. Thirdly, it is explained how ordoliberal thinking about the "system of undistorted competition" and the protection of "residual competition against exclusionary practices" has influenced the application of the "abuse" concept in the jurisprudence of the Commission and the CJEU from the Continental Can case to the recent Intel case. This approach has come under attack from welfare-economic approaches which emphasize efficiency instead of competition and which have accused the ordoliberal approach of formalism, lack of sufficient economic analysis, preoccupation with fairness, protection of competitors instead of competition, obsession with interventionist regulation etc. This paper demonstrates that all of these characterizations are based on fundamental misunderstandings of what ordoliberal thinking originally meant and what it stands for today.