Reports 2008
The Foundation’s publications present the findings from its research and events on significant contemporary economic, political and social issues in a concise and accessible format. You can download all recent publications free of charge from this site (see link for each publication below).
The Politics of Emissions Trading in Britain and Germany
Rüdiger K.W.Wurzel
The threat of climate change is one of the most serious contemporary political problems.
The European Union’s (EU) emissions trading scheme (ETS) has emerged as one of the
most important policy instruments with which European policy makers intend to tackle
the threat of climate change. However, while some analysts have advocated emissions
trading as the most cost-efficient policy instrument for this purpose, others have warned that it will lead to the neoliberalisation of European environmental policies while doing little to prevent climate change .
This report explains when, how and by whom emissions trading was pushed onto the political agenda in Europe, it analyses who advocated and who opposed the adoption of emissions trading as a possible policy tool for complying with the targets of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and assesses Britain’s successful and Germany’s unsuccessful attempts to set up domestic ETSs. Furthermore it analyses the role that Britain and Germany have played in the adoption of the EU ETS and its implementation and finally offers a comparative analysis of the politics of emissions trading in Britain and Germany.
October 2008, ISBN 978-1-900834-51-3
The Effect of Expansions in Maternity Leave Coverage on Children’s Long-Term Outcomes
Research paper
Christian Dustmann and Uta Schönberg
Many countries currently discuss a possible expansion of maternity leave coverage. Those who support such reforms claim that longer maternity leave has positive effects on children. New research by IZA fellows Dustmann and Schönberg ( University College London), published by IZA and the Anglo-German Foundation, analyses the long-term impact of several expansions in leave coverage in Germany. The study shows that the reforms had only a very small impact on children’s educational and labour market success.
'creating sustainable growth in europe'
Midpoint policy debates
Summary report
Anglo-German Foundation
This report summarises the speeches, presentations and discussions at the two policy debates held in November and December 2007 in Berlin and London to mark the halfway point of the Foundation’s research initiative on ‘creating sustainable growth in europe’ (see the initiative here). It includes a Foreword by Professor Sir Tony Atkinson, the chairman of the Academic Advisory Board, and provides both an overview of the aims of the initiative and insights into the programme findings so far and their possible implications for policy in the two countries and beyond.
Rob Burton, Carmen Kuczera and Herman Boland
This study looks at the issue of farmers’ cultural resistance to agri-environmental policy through a cross-country comparison between Aberdeenshire (Scotland) and Hessen (Germany). The authors contend that conventional everyday farming activities serve not only economic purposes, but also allow farmers to obtain cultural and social capital through displays of skill in good management such as straight ploughing, tidy farmyards, healthy-looking animals, well-grassed fields. By constructing a framework to explore why conventional activities become culturally important, the authors were able to examine why, despite over a decade of agri-environmental policy, conventional farming cultures have yet to fully embrace environmental objectives.
March 2008
Laura Wilson-Edwardes and Andreas Hoecht
A new research study published by the Anglo-German Foundation claims that Germans display a more classic entrepreneurial mindset than the British, if we accept that a realistic assessment of business risks and the development of adequate risk mitigation strategies are essential components of successful entrepreneurship. While there appears to be many thousands of would-be entrepreneurs in the UK with no hesitation in releasing the considerable equity in their properties to establish businesses in that most risky of settings – a foreign country – many British entrepreneurs do not take the careful, informed and well-planned approach that can provide the basis for the future success and longevity of their enterprises.
January 2008