ZEW Discussion Papers

In a framework of a unionised oligopoly, this paper reconsiders the impact of the bargaining structure on union wages. In particular, two dimensions along which centralisation may occur, namely the professional…

Using different regional data sources for East Germany the three largest active labour market policy (ALMP) programmes – job creation schemes (JCS), structural adjustment schemes (SAS) and public training (PT) –…

Recent studies have documented extensive heterogeneity in firm performance within countries, and innovation has been found as an important determinant. This paper addresses the issue of innovation firm…

Since the German re–unification in 1990, Eastern Germany is a transition economy. After a phase of catching up of productivity with respect to Western Germany from 1991 to 1996, the growth rates in the producing…

The stimulation of co-operations has become very popular in R&D policies in recent years. This paper describes the history of R&D funding in Germany with a focus on the development of measures encouraging…

This paper explores whether investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) and firm–sponsored training programmes are complementary. Three approaches are applied to panel data from German…

This paper analyzes whether Taylor-type policy rules can be used to describe the behavior of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank from the beginning of 1999 until mid 2002. Since there was no common…

Rising wage inequality in the U.S. and Britain (especially in the 1980s) and rising continental European unemployment (with rather stable wage inequality) have led to a popular view in the economics profession…

In this paper, the relationship between the degree of centralisation and the distributive outcomes in European schemes of social assistance is investigated. For this purpose, a scheme of classification suitable…