ZEW Discussion Papers

Gaining access to technological assets and patents, in particular, has long been a major motive and objective for firm acquisitions. On the one hand, patents are used as a building instrument for the…

Germany has the highest unemployment rate of older people in comparison to the average unemployment rate of all developed economies. Obviously older people face stronger difficulties to re-enter the labour…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the behavioural background for an asymmetric pass-through of input prices at a power spot market. G. Zachmann and C. von Hirschhausen report empirical evidence for such an…

In an international comparison, German workers have a long seniority and face larger problems to find a new job when they are older – the relative unemployment rate of people older than 55 is clearly higher in…

Over the past few years, active labor market policies (ALMP) have placed a greater emphasis on job search assistance, monitoring and testing work availability, as well as limited training to activate the…

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…