ZEW Discussion Papers

There is a growing concern about collective wage agreement and employment dynamics in Germany. In this paper, evidence is provided on the way collective wage agreements affect the adjustment of working hours,…

This paper seeks to empirically identify factors that influence the probability of being a fast growing firm in Eastern and Western Germany.Descriptive analyses have shown that most firms experience only small…

Many empirical studies in applied production analysis are based on functional forms that have to satisfy some curvature conditions in order to be compatible with microeconomic theory. Curvature conditions means…

Discontinuities in the employment profile are supposed to cause wage cuts since they imply an interruption in the accumulation of human capital as well as a depreciation of the human capital stock built up in…

This paper discusses the different incentives of managers versus firm owners to invest in innovative activities. Economic theory proposes different incentives in owner-led firms and manager-controlled firms. In…

For a sample of almost 1000 German companies through the years 1987-1994 this study shows that there is a significant market for large share blocks. The vast majo-rity of block transfers leads to changes in…

According to the prospect theory financial investors tend to sell winners too early and ride losers too long. Hence, financial investors are changing their positions more frequently in a bull market than in a…

While health receives increasing attention from the economic profession, one can argue that the empirical analysis of household budgets has been motivated at the outset by an important aspect of the study of…

Start-ups in innovative branches require a substantial amount of capital. Their founders may not have sufficient funds to finance the implementation of the ideas alone and might therefore look for outside…