Why the downvote? Care to explain yourself?

The downvote is probably because this site has a crowd of people disliking to state one thing or another is “better,” instead of taking a postmodern view of things. This is describing the situation of your field well, except that there are and were definitely cases of Germans going out of a German “Doktor” to top U.S. programs (a friend almost 30 years back to Princeton, but his alma mater had long adopted a more U.S. style doctoral program; and another one a few years later also to Princeton). You are also downvoted if you answer in spirit, but not in letter, by a crowd devoted to this.

@gnometorule - Many thanks for providing an explanation of how this site tends to work at times. Post-modernism has -- in my view happily -- never found much traction in economics. Maybe that's why I didn't give that possibility much thought...

@gnometorule - I can also well guess which German university your friend who went to Princeton hailed from. In 1990, that department's faculty featured one of the world's leading game theorists, who also happened to have very good ties to Princeton -- and to many other US universities as well... That probably helps explain why they were among the early adopters in Europe of the "US" approach to graduate economics education.

Yeah, that’s the one, and that’s the field he works in. I don’t remember though if he was his advisee.

So far, two downvotes to go with two upvotes. Definitely an open-minded crowd...

I suppose really we need an answer stating how habilitations are seen in the US by those recruiting for academic positions in the field of postmodern literary criticism.

Perhaps someone is dissatisfied with the fact that this answer is limited to a specific field. On the other hand, it seems difficult to provide any sensible answer that applies across all fields, but I may be mistaken.

@SteveJessop -- If people aren't interested in what US-based academic economists think about the European "habilitation" degree, they're entirely welcome to post answers to explain views prevalent in other academic disciplines, aren't they? Who knows, maybe academic proponents of postmodern literary criticism actually values "habilitation" degrees...

@Mico: Agreed. I just mean that, since gnometorule described your answer as being the opposite of "a postmodern view of things", then it would be useful to hear a genuine postmodernist's side of the story as well ;-)

The comparison of a US four-year program to a potential 18 month PhD in Germany mixes apples with oranges. In Germany, you will only be accepted for Ph.D. studies if you already hold a M.Sc. degree, so you already have five years of studies under your belt - and these were focused on Economics, with far less of the "general education" components a US undergrad would spend a lot of time on (because you have covered all this in a German Abitur). ...

... In addition, 18 month PhDs are universally understood as the kind of CV improvement you do in preparation to a career in industry. If you do plan on staying in academia, your advisor will make sure you do deeper work, and then you will indeed not have your Ph.D. in 18 months. Three years is more realistic.

@StephanKolassa - I beg to disagree with some of the points you make. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in Dec. 1984; back then, I could have gone straight on to get a doctorate in economics from Zurich or a similar-quality institution, and I probably would have spent only 18 months or so on getting the degree. This was fairly common even for those who were were eying long term academic carers. (We knew full well, of course, that we'd later have to spend significant time in Habilitation purgatory.) But I chose a different route. ...

@StephanKolassa -- ... and applied for admission to several graduate programs in the US. Happily for me, I was accepted right away. Separately, the notion that European students have a head-start, because their previous studies lasted longer and were more focused on economics, is probably illusory. I graduated summa cum laude from Zurich, and I thought i really knew my stuff. Well, just 4 weeks into my graduate studies in the US, I realized I had learned more economics in just that short period than in my entire undergraduate career. Any headstart I may have had was gone within weeks.

And still another anonymous downvote. To all you anonymous downvoters out there: The condescension and superciliousness you display doesn't impress me one little bit.

I downvoted because this answer does not address the question very well. It meanders over the value of North American vs European economics degrees and barely touches on habilitation. Furthermore, it only discusses economics (which seems to be very different). That of course doesn't earn a downvote, but nor should such a restricted answer earn the green checkmark. To most people who come with the question written at the top, this is simply not a useful answer.

@Szabolcs - If downvoting answers really serves the purpose you claim it does, my answer must be creating a serious conflict for quite a few people around here: No matter how many downvotes they cast, it just refuses to sink. You are obviously entitled to your opinion about the value of my answer; by the way, I very much appreciate that you chose not to remain anonymous. The fact, however, that the OP decided to un-accept one of the previously posted answers and accepted mine instead just might indicate that your opinion isn't shared universally.

Note, the answer "refuses to sink" because it has been accepted; the accepted answer is always shown first. Since this answer is more visible, it tends to get more chain-reaction votes; this is a known bug/feature. FWIW, I thought this was a pretty good answer despite being limited to one field, so +1 from me.

@Szabolcs - You also note that my answer "barely touches on habilitation." Well, the OP's query was not about habilitation per se, was it? Instead, it was about how it's viewed in the US -- and, presumably, in Canada as well.

@Szabolcs - I started my answer by pointing out that any such views are likely strongly dependent on the field of interest, and I made a conscious effort to provide some all-important context for my answer. It's pointless to discuss how habilitations are viewed in the U.S. without reference to how doctoral degrees from the US and continental European universities are valued.

@cag51 - Thanks! :-)