ZEW policy briefs

Innovation is essential for economic growth, and governments must encourage firms to increase their investments in innovation. Europe is losing ground to its main Asian competitors when it comes to R&D…

The digital transformation is one of the greatest challenges of our time. High-speed internet, mobile devices, intelligent software algorithms as well as data storage and processing are changing economic and…

Germany, in common with other industrial nations, has in recent years witnessed a decline in productivity growth despite sustained economic growth, falling unemployment and strong technological dynamics. A…

Diesel technology and the harm that its use causes in the form of local and global pollutant emissions have long been in the focus of environmental policy debates. Even the option of imposing driving bans on…

Germany’s stable economic growth of the past years has led to a budget surplus, which the newly-formed Grand Coalition now plans to use, for instance, to reduce the burden on broad levels of the population.…

With the exception of Greece, Italy is the Eurozone country with the highest debt-to-GDP ratio (132 per cent). In absolute terms, the country accounts for almost one quarter of all government debt in the…

Europe faces a conundrum. Despite high levels of research investment and leading the market in many industries, disruptive and radical innovation typically does not come from European startups. One of the…