ZEW Discussion Papers

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…

It is known that small firms rely mainly on the CEO's individual knowledge for developing innovations (Burton, 2001; Cook, 1999). Recent work suggests that this approach underutilizes other employees’ knowledge…

The study of the innovative output of firms often relies on a count of patents filed at one single patent office, although companies have the option to file patents at multiple offices such as their national…

How does social interaction influence an academic's decision to become entrepreneurial and to collaborate with industry? Does the academic's age attenuate or amplify its effects? Since links between science and…

Patenting is widely acknowledged as a major tool to reward innovative firms for their efforts in research and development (R&D). However, many firms decide to keep their inventions secret. Understanding a patent…

This paper focuses on the design of emissions trading schemes in practice. After a short introduction to the general idea of emissions trading, practical requirements for the introduction of an emissions trading…

There are different reasons, why countries trade. The most important one, economists typically refer to, is that trade is a source of wealth. There is, however, a further reason, which usually is not mentioned…

Many of today’s challenges require regulative interventions by policymakers. From an economic perspective, effectiveness, cost-efficiency and distribution issues are crucial for any form of future regulation.…