ZEW Discussion Papers

The acquisition of ownership rights by a firm in its suppliers is a common feature in various industries. Often, these acquisitions are reduced to a participation in the target's cash flow, and not associated…

In this paper, transaction costs of German firms, regulated under the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) are examined empirically. Introduced in 2005, the EU ETS currently regulates carbon dioxide emissions…

The career prospects of young academics in Germany are the subject of an intensive public debate. During the early 2000s, the academic career path was characterized by the availability of only few tenured…

Numerous studies have evaluated the effect of nutrition early in life on health much later in life by comparing individuals born during a famine to others. Nutritional intake is typically unobserved and…

There is a substantial body of literature on the extent to which firms that receive venture capital financing generate more innovation than non-venture-backed companies. Most studies find that, on average,…

In the European Union, transport is the largest consumer of oil products and second largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2); within the sector, road transport dominates in both regards. Consumer shift to…

Business start-ups and young enterprises introduce new products to the market and employ new processes for production. In order to create these new products and processes, firms often engage in R&D. Since…

Patents are frequently viewed as major policy tool in order to stimulate R&D. In recent years however, doubts emerged whether this is the case for all technology areas. Theoretical research has shown that when…

A major incentive for human capital investments is the possibility to signal individual productivity gained by training not only to the present employer but also to the external labour market. There are only…