ZEW Discussion Papers

The lack of skilled labour is a major threat to the innovative capacity of highly developed economies. Particularly in emerging technological fields, companies hunt for qualified workers. On the one hand, in…

The ageing of the workforce increases the importance of life-long learning for competitiveness. Most contributions on continuing training focus on lower participation of older employees. This paper in contrast…

Reforms, such as a higher pension age, are highly unpopular although they are a demographic necessity. Hence, a sound understanding of reform resistance is desirable. Preceding studies have explored numerous…

The empirical literature on the economics of patents employs a large array of patentbased measures to proxy economic characteristics of patents such as the "sciencebase", "importance" or "value" of patented…

In recent years, the parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) failed to negotiate a follow‐up agreement of the Kyoto Protocol. The commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol…

The comparison between growth‐maximizing and welfare‐maximizing fiscal policy over the long run is a central issue in models of public finance and endogenous growth. It is also important from a policymaking…

Most psychological studies report a positive relationship between violent video game play and aggression. In line with that researchers and policy makers alike understand playing violent video games as…

The Kyoto Protocol mandates a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to countervail climate change. As a consequence, the EU has introduced the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) to achieve a reduction of…

Music can be characterized as an information good and is therefore amenable to digitalization and copying through online sharing networks. Chances and risks arise from digitalization for the producers and right…