Global finance and the German model: German corporations, market incentives, and the management of employer-sponsored pension institutions

Where there was a settled political geography of state power and responsibilities, the remarkable growth of global finance has put enormous pressure on national economic, political and social institutions. Furthermore, the looming crisis facing many continental European social security systems has raised many doubts about the long-term viability of the German model compared to its Anglo-American rivals. In this context, large German corporations have sought ways of sustaining their global competitiveness by, in part, restructuring their national and regional commitments. To illustrate, in this paper we concentrate on the nature and organization of German employer-sponsored pension institutions in relation to Anglo-American management practice. Two issues drive the analysis. One has to do with an emerging coalition between corporate management and shareholders with respect to the market value of the firm. The second issue has to do with the allocation of risk and uncertainty between the social partners when negotiating the financing and final value of promised retirement income. The institutional framework of collective decision-making common to many of Germany's largest firms is under pressure; three models of investment decision making relevant to pension assets and liabilities are used to illustrate this point. In doing so, we suggest that the German model is more fragile than commonly realized. We also suggest that Anglo-American management practices have penetrated and affected German corporate (national and regional) institutions and regulations. The social market lauded by advocates of stakeholder capitalism is changing rapidly, at least in the sphere of large firms and global finance.     

Environmental Compliance Costs and the Distribution of Emissions in the U.S.

Using the properties of the Gini coefficient, a structural model is developed to assess the impact of uniform changes in environmental compliance costs on the distribution of per capita emissions across U.S. counties and states, a distribution that places a larger burden on minorities. Using data from the U.S. EPA's Toxic Release Inventory and three state-specific measures of environmental compliance costs, we find that uniform increases in federal environmental standards have little impact on the distribution of environmental hazards, and may actually exacerbate spatial inequality. As a result, Federal standards that target specific high pollution locations are necessary to redress current inequities.     

The Roman Amphorae Average Capacity (AC)

This paper presents a methodological tool of statistical correction to assess the capacities of different Roman amphorae, whereby ceramic values are transformed into amounts of transported product. Based on scaled drawings of 1281 Roman amphorae, individual vessels’ capacities have been calculated by applying a CAD software to the inner profiles. Each vessel has been classified according to amphora types and the mean for each type has been calculated to produce a coefficient called Average Capacity (AC). The estimated capacities are highly reliable and show narrow confidence intervals. Therefore, they can be applied immediately as a correction factor in studies of quantification of amphorae aimed at characterizing trading dynamics. As such, we expect that future statistical studies of amphorae will include this statistical coefficient to produce more precise and reliable analysis of assemblages and, consequently, more accurate research on the Roman economy.