ZEW Discussion Papers

Recent literature has emphasized several motivations behind mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Firm acquisitions have been shown to serve as a way to gain access to international markets, technological assets,…

Globalisation is radically reshaping the business environment for small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). In order to cope with increased competition and business opportunities in globalised markets, SMEs may…

The creation of academic spin-offs has received great attention in innovation policy for the last couple of years. Throughout Europe policy programmes have been introduced to stimulate entrepreneurial activities…

Valuable knowledge emerges increasingly outside of firm boundaries, in particular in public research institutions and universities. The question is how firms organize their interactions with universities…

Die demografische Entwicklung in Deutschland wird auf mittlere Sicht zu einer nennenswerten Absenkung der bisher für das Gründungsgeschehen bedeutsamen Alterskohorten führen. Diese Studie zeigt durch eine…

This paper addresses the welfare effects of conditional grants when there is government failure on the subordinate (hereafter regional) level. Government failure on the regional level may occur due to the…

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…