ZEW Discussion Papers

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…

Religion is increasingly acknowledged to be a cultural dimension which affects economic outcomes in different regards. This contribution focuses on religion’s possible impact on the size of the shadow economy.…

We quantify the fiscal multipliers in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. We extend the benchmark Smets-Wouters (Smets and Wouters, 2007) New Keynesian model, allowing for…

Environmental regulation. What economists usually associate with these words are barriers to competitiveness. The association of Porter (1991) and Porter and van der Linde (1995) is a different one. By relying…