ZEW Discussion Papers

International knowledge spillovers, especially through multinational companies (MNCs), have recently been a major topic of discussion among academics and practitioners. Most research in this field focuses on…

Opponents of the voluntary labeling scheme for genetically modified (GM) food products often argue that consumers have the "right to know" and therefore advocate mandatory labeling. In this paper we argue…

While there is a large and growing number of studies on the determinants of corporate tax rates, the literature has so far ignored the fact that the behavior of governments in setting tax rates is often best…

The EU's revenue system is still typical for an organisation based on international cooperation and stands in contrast to the Union's far advanced legislative and political role. This contrast feeds the debate…

European climate policy is on its way to implement the policy instruments required to achieve the ambitious abatement goals announced earlier in 2007, which are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent…

For many central banks, overnight money markets are the key channel through which monetary policy is executed. Overnight rates, such as the US federal funds rate, are the operational targets of monetary policy…

Over the last 15 years, a rapidly-expanding body of literature has developed in which it is argued that ‘social capital’ positively affects institutional performance. Engagement in social life is argued not only…

This paper presents a political-economy analysis of allowance allocation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). A common-agency model suggests that a politicalsupport maximizing government considers the…

This paper investigates the wage convergence between East German workers and their West German counterparts after reunification. Our research is based on a comparison of three groups of workers defined as…