Uwe Westphal (economist)

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Uwe Westphal (* before 1946; † December 16, 1996 ) was a German economist . He taught economics, in particular growth and the economy, at the University of Hamburg . He achieved international renown through the SYSIFO model.

Life

Westphal studied economics . He was born in 1967 with Erich Schneider at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel with the dissertation The imported inflation at a fixed and flexible exchange rate for Dr. sc. pol. PhD.

After completing his habilitation in 1969 with the theoretical and empirical studies of money demand and supply and a private lectureship supervised by Schneider, he was appointed professor of economics in 1971 at the Socio-Economic Seminar (later: Institute for Growth and Business ) at the University of Hamburg . At the institute, the employees carried out various model analyzes, including a. on monetary policy and overall economic demand , and presented economic forecasts . After his death in 1996 the chair was vacant until it was filled in 1998 by Bernd Lucke .

In addition, he was active during his lifetime as the author of a textbook and workbook on macroeconomics and as a reviewer for the German Research Foundation (DFG).

plant

Westphal was life empiricists and completed the following introductory words to the orientation of economics: "Macroeconomics must be oriented to a specific economy, and this compels them as empirical science to understand, can not survive the empirical without economic statistics and without application methods."

SYSIFO model

He conducted research in the 1970s and in 1983, together with Gerd Hansen, published a disaggregated econometric business cycle model for the quarterly perspective for the Federal Republic of Germany. H. a model for economic and labor market development up to the year 2000, which is known under the name SYstem for Simulating and FOrecasting ( SYSIFO ). This consists of approx. 120 stochastic equations and, in contrast to other forecasting methods of this type, also of monetary components. It was based on neoclassical theory and was realistic and relevant to practice. Westphal and Hansen based the model on the following assumptions: working time , financial , monetary, wage , social and currency policy as well as state financial transfers and West German deliveries to the GDR . The development of sector productivity was subject to an exogenous estimate. As a result, they forecast u. a. economic growth of 3.1% in the 1990s, around 29.1 million people in employment for 1995, an increase in the employment threshold and, taking into account a gain in migration, an increase in the labor force of almost 1.4 million people, which at the same time leads to a decrease in the officially registered unemployment and silent reserve . In addition, the balanced growth path - without further conflicting goals of economic policy - is feasible.

The SYSIFO model became a robust forecasting tool in the 1980s, also used in international policy analysis and advice . It was used until the 1990s in the analysis and combating of unemployment at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the research facility of the Federal Employment Agency . Therefore, further distribution mechanisms of social policy were integrated into the model over time. It was also used in the context of the United Nations' Project LINK and the Eurolink Project of the European Commission .

After Westphal's death in 1996, the further development and use of the model was abandoned.

Franco-German stability policy

The French METRIC economic model from 1977 by economists Georges de Ménil and Philippe Nasse was based on the findings of the German SYSIFO model. In 1985, Uwe Westphal and Georges de Ménil compared the development of macroeconomic stability policy in the Federal Republic of Germany and France in a joint book from 1964 to 1980. They showed that although France was able to present better economic growth, Germany u. a. was significantly better positioned in terms of unemployment and inflation over the same period.

Text / workbook on macroeconomics

In a review of his works from 1988 and 1989, Gebhard Kirchgässner stated in the Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics that the author takes a “theoretical ( Keynesian ) basic position” and works with many “empirical examples”. Although in his eyes the workbook is equal to a “real innovation”, he could not discover any “real progress” in the textbook compared to conventional works on macroeconomics.

Fonts (selection)

  • The imported inflation with a fixed and flexible exchange rate (= Kiel Studies , Volume 87). Mohr (Siebeck), Tübingen 1968.
  • Theoretical and empirical studies on the demand and supply of money (= Kiel studies , volume 110). Mohr (Siebeck), Tübingen 1970.
  • Edited with Gerd Hansen: SYSIFO. An econometric business cycle model for the Federal Republic of Germany (= writings on applied econometrics , volume 7). Haag + Herchen, Frankfurt am Main 1983.
  • Edited with Georges de Ménil: Stabilization Policy in France and the Federal Republic of Germany (= Contributions to Economic Analysis , No. 153). Elsevier Science, Amsterdam a. a. 1985, ISBN 0-444-87529-8 .
  • Macroeconomics. Theory, empiricism and policy analysis . 2nd, revised and expanded edition, Springer, Berlin a. a. 1994, ISBN 3-540-57934-6 . (first edition, 1988)
  • with Claudia Stachel, Gerd Stark-Veltel, Jörg Wiswe: Workbook for Applied Macroeconomics . Papyrus Software, Hamburg 1989.

literature

  • Gerd Hansen : Prof. Dr. Uwe Westphal in memoriam . In: Ullrich Heilemann, Jürgen Wolters (Hrsg.): Macroeconomic models in the Federal Republic of Germany. Experiences and perspectives (= series of publications by the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung , NF, issue 61). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-428-09572-3 , pp. 7-9.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uwe Westphal: The imported inflation with a fixed and flexible exchange rate , 1967, p. 2.
  2. ↑ Uwe Westphal: Theoretical and empirical studies on money demand and money supply , 1969, p. 2.
  3. ↑ Oliver Dieckmann, Uwe Westphal: German Unity and European Integration in the Mirror of a Macroeconometric Model. A report on the SYSIFO model . In: Ullrich Heilemann, Jürgen Wolters (Hrsg.): Macroeconomic models in the Federal Republic of Germany. Experiences and perspectives (= series of publications by the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung , NF, issue 61). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-428-09572-3 , p. 98.
  4. ↑ University of Hamburg (ed.): Research report 1997–1999 (= University Communications , No. 49). Hamburg 2002, p. 93.
  5. ↑ a b c Gerd Hansen: Prof. Dr. Uwe Westphal in memoriam . In: Ullrich Heilemann, Jürgen Wolters (Hrsg.): Macroeconomic models in the Federal Republic of Germany. Experiences and perspectives (= series of publications by the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung , NF, issue 61). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-428-09572-3 , pp. 7-9.
  6. ↑ Gerd Hansen: Prof. Dr. Uwe Westphal in memoriam . In: Ullrich Heilemann, Jürgen Wolters (Hrsg.): Macroeconomic models in the Federal Republic of Germany. Experiences and perspectives (= series of publications by the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung , NF, issue 61). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-428-09572-3 , p. 7.
  7. ↑ a b Władysław Welfe: Macroeconometric Models (= Advanced studies in theoretical and applied econometrics , Vol. 47). Springer, Berlin a. a. 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-34467-1 , p. 105.
  8. ↑ Bernd Meyer : Dollar rate and employment in the Federal Republic of Germany . In: Jürgen Siebke (ed.): Monetary conflict areas in the world economy. In Würzburg 1990 (= writings of the Verein für Socialpolitik , NF, Volume 210). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-428-07220-0 , p. 532.
  9. ^ Wolfgang Klauder: Effects of the political and economic development since 1989 on the labor market prospects . In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung 23 (1990) 1, pp. 22–32.
  10. ↑ Josef Gruber: Hansen, Gerd & Westphal, Uwe: SYSIFO (review). In: Journal for the entire political science 140 (1984) 4, SS 756–759.
  11. ^ Georges de Ménil, Philippe Nasse: Presentation générale . In: Annales de l'INSEE , No. 26/27, 1977, pp. 11-28.
  12. ↑ Georges de Ménil, Uwe Westphal: Le deficit pétrolier et la balance commerciale. France-Allemagne . In: Revue Économique 31 (1980) 2, pp. 287-312.
  13. ↑ Jose Viñals: de Ménil, Georges & Westphal, Uwe: Stabilization Policy in France and the Federal Republic of Germany (review). In: Journal of Economic Literature 24 (1986) 4, pp. 1807-1809.
  14. ^ Ullrich Heilemann: de Ménil, Georges & Westphal, Uwe: Stabilization Policy in France and the Federal Republic of Germany (review). In: Schmollers Jahrbuch 107 (1987) 1, pp. 111-115.
  15. ^ Gebhard Kirchgässner : Westphal, Uwe: Macroeconomics (review). In: Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 146 (1990) 2, pp. 383-385.
personal data
SURNAME Westphal, Uwe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1996