This Festschrift is dedicated to ROLF FUNCK on occasion of his 60th birthday on February 7, 1990. It was a wholehearted desire of the authors who all are obliged to ROLF FUNCK in their research work to please and to honour him and to express their deep gratitude. I gladly took the initiative of preparing this Festschrift since I have been closely associated with ROLF FUNCK for many years of his academic life. We first met in 1958 when he was Assistant Professor (Wissenschaftlicher Assistent) and I was student at the University of Munster. A few years later, when ROLF FUNCK, still very young, moved to the University of Karlsruhe as Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute of Economic Policy and Research, he offered me the opportunity of working with him and this started a long period of successful scientific collaboration. Nowadays we meet only occasionally at conferences, in committees etc. , but I always recall with pleasure the warm-hearted and stimulating atmosphere he created at his In stitute in Karlsruhe. I express my thanks to the authors and to the publisher, the Springer Verlag, for their cooperation as well as to the sponsors who provided the necessary funds for the publication of this Festschrift. For her enthusiasm in compiling and processing the articles on the PC and producing the final draft I am indebted to Mrs. Ilona Lohr.